The start to the Jayhawk West schedule featured the two teams picked 1-2 in the conference. That was the task given first-year Coach Ousmane Camara and the Barton women’s soccer team.
So coming out of that start with a 1-1 mark gives the Cougars a good idea where they mix into the top of the conference.
That is just what the Cougars did with a come-from-behind win at the Barton Sports Complex Wednesday. Barton rallied for a 3-2 win over Dodge City in West action to even its conference record.
The Cougars are 1-1 in the West and 2-2-1 overall. Dodge City fell to 1-2 in the West and 2-3 overall.
“I knew we had a good chance to win the game by possessing the ball,” Coach Camara said. “We are pretty good at possessing the ball. We had a lot of chances but just didn’t finish like we should have.”
Barton won the match with two goals in the game’s final 15:25 of action.
The Cougars had fallen behind 2-1 with 21:50 to play in the game.
The deficit didn’t last long as Megan Martinez took a cross pass in the box from Rachel Craft and buried the ball into the back of the net to even the contest at 2-all.
The Cougars caught a break with 12:53 remaining when a Dodge City player drew a red card, forcing the Conquistadors to play a man down the rest of the way.
Maddison Schofield took advantage of the opportunity, scoring her first goal of the season from outside the box with less than 10 minutes to play in the contest. The goal for the freshman from Australia deflected off Dodge City keeper’s Emily Goldman at the near post.
For the most part, Barton dominated the pace of the game, getting off 20 shots, putting 12 of them on goal. Schofield led the attack with nine of those shots and five on goal including the game-winner.
“Sometimes we don’t make the best decisions,” Coach Camara said. “When we should be shooting the ball we dribble and when we should dribble we shoot the ball.
“It is getting better. We have come a long way and are definitely improving as a team.”
The Cougars will look to make it back-to-back West wins when Pratt visits Sunday in a 1 pm kickoff.
Barton 3, Dodge City 2
Barton 1 2 – 3
Dodge City 1 1 – 2
Barton – Amber Miller (Analia Torres), 8:53
Dodge City – Dominique Arzaga (unassisted), 10:57
Dodge City – Cynthia Rodela (unassisted), 63:10
Barton – Megan Martinez (Rachel Craft), 74:25
Barton – Maddison Schofield (unassisted) 80:49