The formula seems simple enough.
If your opponent can’t score they can’t win. For the seventh time this season, the Barton Community College women’s soccer team followed that formula, and the Lady Cougars wrapped up their regular season with a 5-0 shutout of Garden City in Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference action on Wednesday night at Garden City.
Not only was it the seventh shutout, but it was the 12th time in the last 14 games the Lady Cougars have allowed one or fewer goals. Not surprisingly, Barton is 12-0 in those contests.
Ironically, despite the fact the Lady Cougars have scored three goals or more in over half their matches, they are 0-3-1 when they give up more than one goal.
“For the most part we have been a very solid defensively all season,” Barton head coach Aaron Avila said. “We did not allow more than one goal in each of our 12 victories and managed to keep a shutout seven times.”
Barton, 12-3-1 overall, 11-1-1 in the Jayhawk and ranked No. 19 in the NJCAA, now awaits the rest of the conference to finish up regular season games before knowing its fate for the post season.
Barton will more than likely be the No. 3 seed in the upcoming NJCAA Region VI tournament.
Butler, 10-0 in the Jayhawk and ranked No. 6 nationally, still has three Jayhawk games remaining. Johnson, 10-1-1 in the Jayhawk and ranked No. 9 nationally, has a contest at Dodge City left on Saturday.
If the Lady Cougars do end up the No. 3 seed, they will most likely play Allen County in an opening-round contest on Nov. 2 or 3 at the Cougar Sports Complex.
Wednesday at Garden City, it didn’t take Barton long to gain control of the contest.
Mariana Poveda put Barton on top 1-0 in the ninth minute as she scored in her fourth straight game.
Catllin Simon made it 2-0 in the 17th minute, and Bianca Barron all but put the game away in the 25th minute.
Barron’s 20th goal of the season made it 3-0 and with just more than 12 minutes left in the opening half she recorded her second assist on a Ronnie Johnson goal as Barton pushed its lead to 4-0. Molly Hausmann added a late goal to make it 5-0 at the break. That proved to be the final margin.
Defensively, Great Bend High School product Stephanie Lomas combined with Kacee Walsh in goal and a solid defense for the Cougars 7th shutout of the season.
“We finished 12-3-1 overall with a conference record of 11-1-1 which was good enough to finish tied for second place out of 14 teams,” Avila said. “Our three losses came to teams which are currently nationally ranked in the top 6 by the NJCAA.”