Barton men thwart upset bid with 2-1 victory over Pratt #GoBarton

The Barton Community College men's soccer team had to come from behind Saturday, scoring an early second half goal to fight off Pratt Community College's upset bid 2-1 in the final regular season game at the Cougar Soccer Complex. The victory solidifies the Cougars' second place region standing at 7-3-1 and improving to 11-5-1 overall while Pratt concludes the season 1-9-1 in region play and 1-11-3 on the season.

Barton will wrap-up the regular season on Monday with a trip to Goodland, Kansas, for its second match-up in five days versus 7-6-1 Northwest Kansas Technical College. The Mavericks will not only be looking for revenge after last week's 2-1 loss at the Cougars' home field, but at 5-5 in region play will be fighting for the fourth and final Western Division spot in the upcoming Region VI playoffs.

Pratt grabbed the first half lead 25:47 into the game as Carlos Reyna deflected and quickly controlled a Cougar defensive clear blasting near post in a quick strike past a charging Luciano Trasolini.

Headed into the sustained 25mph north wind with wind gusts up to 40mph, the Cougars outshot the Beaver 7-3 with the equalizer coming just 6:47 before half as Angel Lopez sent a rocket to goal deflecting off Pratt goalkeeper Louis Sharp and a defender for the Wichita native's first net shaker of the season.

Fellow sophomore Benjamin Zamora set up the Cougars' game winning goal on a free kick with his team lead tying sixth assist of the season as Sora Wakabayashi's mid-air header to the back post for his fifth of the season stood the final forty-three minutes of play.