It was a chance to throw the Jayhawk West race into a free-for-all. The Barton women’s soccer team was going toe-to-toe with No. 14 and league-leading Hutchinson.
For a half, anyway.
But things changed quickly in the second half. Very quickly.
Hutchinson used that quick start to the second half to defeat the Cougars 2-1 at the Barton Sports Complex to remain alone on top of the West standings.
The Blue Dragons remained unbeaten in the West with a 5-0 record while Barton dropped to 2-2 with both losses coming to Hutch. Hutch is 9-1 overall while Barton is 3-4-1. Between the two in the standings is Garden City at 4-1 and 5-4-1.
The two teams went to half in a scoreless tie. The first 45 minutes was played with Barton going into the wind. During that half, Barton dodge some bullets as the Blue Dragons got off 11 shots and put five on goal.
It took just 45 seconds into the second half for Hutchinson to get on the board. Jazmin Hartshorn took a chip pass from Emilee Krehbeil and put it by the Barton keeper for the 1-0 lead.
The lead grew to 2-0 just eight minutes later when Jordan Downing took a similar pass from Victoria Padilla and again got the ball by Alexandra Capalbo.
The game stayed 2-0 for the next 20 minutes. Barton made things interesting when Shanai Jackson-Brown put the Cougars on the board. Analia Torres fired a free kick at the Hutch goal, which bounced off the crossbar. Brown took the rebound and buried in the net to keep the Cougars’ hopes alive.
That goal came with more than 14 minutes still to play. Barton had one good opportunity to tie the game with four minutes left but Brown’s shot was deflected by a Hutch defender to secure the win for the Blue Dragons.
Barton will travel to Pratt (0-5, 0-9) Saturday then go to Garden City for a big West battle on Wednesday.
Hutchinson 2, Barton 1
Hutchinson 0 2 – 2
Barton 0 1 – 1
Hutch – Jazmin Hartshorn (Emilee Krehbeil), 45:25
Hutch – Jordan Downing (Victoria Padilla), 53:22
Barton – Shanai Jackson-Brown (unassisted), 75:38