The Barton women’s soccer team has picked up some nice wins this season. But the Cougars had not picked up that win that made people say ‘wow’.
Until Thursday.
Barton earned that ‘wow’ win when the Cougars became just the second team in the region to hand Hesston a loss this season. The Cougars knocked off the Larks by a 4-2 score at the Barton Sports Complex.
Barton played its best half of the season and Maddison Schofield picked up her second hat trick to lead the Cougars to the big win.
With the win Barton took a huge step toward laying claim to the third seed in the upcoming Region VI Championships.
Barton is now 6-4 in the region with two games left. The Cougars are 7-5-1 overall. Hesston is 7-3 in the region and 11-4 overall. The only other region losses for the Larks have been to top seeded Hutchinson.
Barton can all but lock up the third seed with a win over Dodge City Wednesday in its next outing.
Thursday afternoon the Cougars fell behind in the opening minutes of play. Mika Matsuda put Hesston up 1-0 just 2:43 into the contest. The Larks, however, would not score again for another 85 minutes.
Hesston did take that 1-0 lead to half and even well into the second half. But with just more than 25 minutes to play in the game, Barton’s offense came to life.
The Cougars tied with 26:36 to play when Schofield scored the first of her three goals. The freshman from Australia put the ball between a pair of defenders, gathered herself and drove a 35-yard shot over the Hesston keeper and into the net to even the score.
Barton would take the lead 12 minutes later when Schofield scored again. This time she headed a 12-yard shot into the net off a corner kick from Kirsty Ashworth to give Barton a 2-1 lead with just more than 14 minutes to play.
Schofield gave the Cougars some breathing room a mere two minutes later. She completed her hat trick off a free kick by Analia Barreto-Torres. Schofield beat Hesston keeper Cassidy Bontrager to the ball and delivered from 18 yards out to make it 3-1.
Megan Martinez added yet another goal with 7:45 to play on an assist from Amber Miller. That all but the game out of reach.
Hesston did add a goal with just 2:18 to play but it was too little too late for the Larks.
Barton dominated play most of the day, getting off eight more shots than Hesston (21-13) and putting nine more on goal (13-4).
Now the Cougars turn focus to the trip to Dodge City Wednesday to play the Conquistadors. Dodge is 4-5 in the region and 6-6 overall and in a battle for a home playoff game as well.

Barton 4, Hesston 2
Hesston 1 1 – 2
Barton 0 4 – 4
Hesston – Mika Matsuda (unassisted), 2:43
Barton – Maddison Schofield (Adriana Reyes), 62:34
Barton – Schofield (Kirsty Ashworth), 75:11
Barton – Schofield (Analia Torres), 77:30
Barton – Megan Martinez (Amber Miller, Schofield), 82:14
Hesston – Matsuda (unassisted), 87:46