OVERLAND PARK — The game was to determine second place in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference, as well as the No. 2 seed in the NJCAA Region VI tournament.
But it didn’t.
The day ended as the day started, with both Barton and Johnson County tied thanks to a 2-2 double overtime tie in the women’s soccer contest.
In a battle of Top 20 teams, the 20th-ranked Lady Cougars had the game in their grasp after taking a 2-0 lead in the first half and holding a 2-1 lead into the final seconds of regulation.
However, it didn’t happen as No. 14 Johnson scored with just seven seconds left in the contest to send the game into overtime.
Neither team could score in the pair of 10-minute overtime periods and nothing was settled to determine the second spot in the conference and upcoming region tournament.
Both Barton and Johnson are now 9-1-1 in the Jayhawk and Region VI while the Lady Cougars are 9-3-1 overall and Johnson is 12-2-1. Butler, which has beaten both teams, leads the Jayhawk with an 8-0 mark.
“It was a great game,” Barton head coach Aaron Avila said. “Johnson had a lot of speed and athleticism which gave us some problems, but overall we did a good job against a very good team. We gave up their first goal off a free kick then that game-tying goal with 7 seconds left. It was tough on our girls.”
Barton took a 1-0 lead when Catlin Simon scored in the 17th minute and Mariana Poveda made it 2-0 in the 34th minute.
Simon scored on a corner kick from Olimpia Bonilla, heading the ball into the net for the game’s initial goal. Barton’s second goal of the day also came on a corner kick, this one all off the foot of Poveda. Her corner kick got up in the wind, which took the ball past the Johnson goalkeeper and into the net for the 2-0 lead.
Barton, however, could not keep that lead as Johnson rallied with wind at its back in the final half of play.
Johnson scored just 16 minutes into the half as Jen Howell cut the lead to 2-1 with a goal for the Cavaliers.
The Lady Cougars fought off numerous Johnson opportunities over the next 30 minutes, but couldn’t stop the final shot.
Barton had a shot to make it 3-1 in the final minute but a save by Johnson keeper Maddie Warner set up the final Cavalier goal. Warner snagged the attempted goal by Barton’s Aliya Marshall and got the break going for Johnson. Barton kicked the ball out of play and Johnson set up for its final attempt.
That attempt came from Christy Tran, who received a pass from Brooklyn Meinke and put the ball into the net with 7.1 showing on the clock for the tie.
“The girls bounced back from giving up a very disappointing goal in the last seconds of the game and played well during the two overtime period,” Avila said. “We had some chances to put the game away but weren’t able to capitalize on them.”
The Lady Cougars will be at home on Wednesday in a non-conference tilt as Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa visits Great Bend for a 2 p.m. kick off. Barton will finish its home regular season schedule with a 2 p.m. contest with Pratt on Saturday, then travel to Garden City a week from Wednesday to wrap up the regular season.