Coming off just its second loss of the season, the 18th ranked Barton men’s soccer didn’t let a losing streak start.
The Cougars held off Allen County to take a step closer to securing at least the No. 3 spot Jayhawk Conference and upcoming Region VI playoffs.
Barton built a first half lead then held on as Allen’s second half comeback come up short. The Cougars improved to 6-2 in the Jayhawk, currently in third with 18 points. Barton is 11-2 overall. Pratt and Cloud are tied for first with 21 points. Pratt is 7-1 and Cloud is 7-2. Each team will play 10 conference games.
Barton defeated Allen Saturday at the Cougar Soccer Complex, 3-2.
“We had to bounce back after a tough loss on Thursday against Cloud and play on very little rest,” Barton Coach Aaron Avila said. “We were able to do enough to get the result needed against Allen.”
Barton built its lead playing into the wind in the opening half.
The Cougars went up 1-0 just 51 seconds into the game when Renan Sousa scored off a pass from Lucas Alves.
Allen would tie it 12 minutes later on a free kick that Troy Henry took in the box and scored.
Alves gave Barton the lead back with 30 minutes left in the opening half on his 12th goal of the season. Alves scored the goal on an assist from Sergio Ribeiro.
Ribeiro picked up his second assist at the midway point of the half as Sousa scored for the 12th time this year to tie Alves for the team lead.
The Cougars rode that 3-1 lead to half.
It appeared all but over at that point with Cougars up by two, playing with the wind in the second half and Allen down a man after back-to-back yellow cards by Allen’s Jordan Velasco with five minutes left in the opening half.
But the Red Devils would not go easily.
Midway through the final 45 minutes Henry scored again off a rebound on a free kick and Allen made the Cougars nervous, cutting the margin to 3-2 with 26 minutes to play.
Despite outshooting Allen 14-2 in the final half Barton was not able to score a second half goal. But the Cougars defense did more than enough in limiting the Red Devils to preserve the win.
Allen fell to 2-6 in the conference and 5-11 overall.
Barton will step out of conference for a matchup with Maple Wood (Mo) Tuesday at Barton. The Cougars will wrap up conference play with a home game Saturday against Coffeyville then at KCK Monday.