The Barton Community College soccer teams met the Cowley Tigers Thursday afternoon at Cougar Fields.
Both the BCC men’s and women’s teams came away with victories in their Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference openers. The women won 6-0, and the men won 4-1.
 In the men’s game, Cowley got the scoring started in the first half when Walisson Gomes beat the defense assisted by Mike Muller. Even though the Cougars had several opportunities, they were kept from scoring by the Tigers’ offside trap.
 “We were just a bit sloppy at the back,” Panthers head coach Oliver Twelvetrees said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do on defense. You know, the first defender didn’t pressure and the second didn’t pressure.
“Basically, we didn’t have a second defender and they came in and they beat the goalie one-on-one.”
 Finally, in the 56th minute, Ricardo Yeverino broke past the Tigers’ defense and beat the keeper in a one-on-one situation for his first goal, tying the game at one.
 “Well, I guess they saw me open, the defense didn’t know what they were doing, and I just got a ball and just took it and scored,” Yeverino said. “I knew the ball went in when I was in the air cause the keeper flipped me over and I just went crazy after that.”
Just two minutes after their first goal, the Cougars struck again. This time, Sam McCrillis, who got the assist for Yeverino’s first goal, got a pass from Yeverino in the box. McCrillis had an open net and he scored, putting the Cougars up 2-1.
 Barton wasn’t done yet. Two minutes after the second goal, the Cougars found the net again. This time, Yeverino had another one-on-one with the keeper. The Tigers’ defense looked for an offside call that never came because one of their own on the other side of the field had pulled back.
 “I told them not to force the long ball,” Twelvetrees said. “If you move the ball around, you suck the defense out and then you can hit it over, like we did in the second half.
“Move the ball from side to side and the openings will come. All the goals came from outside.”
Yeverino beat the keeper again and put the Cougars up 3-1.
Barton’s final goal came in the final minutes of the game, when Lippi Sousa, got his head on the ball and buried it into the back of the net.
Even with the Cougars’ success on offense late in the game, Twelvetrees said there were things he saw that needed to be fixed.
 “I wasn’t happy with the game, I think we can play better than that,” Twelvetrees said. “It was a solid conference game. We made it hard for ourselves but we’ll keep getting better.”
 The women’s team played against Cowley first, but had less trouble defeating the Tigers. The Lady Cougars easily came away with a 6-0 shutout.
 Danielle Saucedo led the Lady Cougars with four goals. Lucero Viveros got Barton started with her goal in the 18th minute and Amanda Neuschafer scored the Lady Cougars’ first goal of the second half.
“Our front was just faster than they were,” BCC head coach Bryan Sailer said. “It took us 10 to 15 minutes to get started, but once we did, we kept scoring.”