A late penalty kick conversion provided the game winner Saturday in Kansas City, Kansas, as the Barton Community College women's soccer team had their season come to an end in the first round of the Region VI playoffs 3-1 to nationally receiving votes Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Tacking on a 98th minute insurance goal, the fourth seeded Blue Devils improve to 13-3 on the season while the fifth seeded Cougars end the 2019 campaign at 9-8.
KCK, under the guidance of former Barton women's coach Shawn Uhlenhake, will host semifinal action against cross-town rival Johnson County Community College (12-6-1) as the eighth seeded Cavaliers knocked off top seeded and No. 18 ranked Cloud County Community College 2-1 in Concordia.
The Blue Devils took the early lead in near perfect soccer conditions, converting on a corner kick as Corrine Hughes headed in the pass just inside the back post off Barton goalkeeper Itzel Diaz' gloves just 2:53 into the contest.
Barton settled in and controlled the action for the next ten minutes, including a near miss off the crossbar from Domenica Pena in the 11th minute. Less than sixty seconds later Pena wouldn't miss on her next 20-yard strike, grazing the crossbar to bounce straight down in breaking the end line for the sophomore's team tying sixth goal of the season.
The teams battled the remaining 33:26 of the half and another twenty-six minutes into the second frame scoreless until a misfortunate foul just inside the eighteen set up KCK for a penalty kick.
With 18:58 on the clock, Melissa Siegel delivered the game winner from the twelve yard out stripe as Diaz moved to cover the near post with the net shaker going opposite to the far post.
KCK tacked on a late insurance goal with 1:58 remaining as a defensive miscue put Diaz in one of many 1v1 situations and coming a step shy in a foot race at the top of the eighteen as Madison Broeker iced the game center net.
Unofficially, Diaz faced twelve KCK shots on frame, surrendering the two goals and the penalty kick but snuffed out multiple Blue Devil attacks while deflecting other potential score tallies.
Pena's goal tied freshman Kurumi Arakawa for team high honors with six as the duo each completed the season with a club high sixteen points while first-year Cougar Gabriela Freitas leading with six assists and accumulating fourteen points.