Two days after dropping a short-handed one goal defeat, the No. 18 ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team scored three first half goals to defeat Allen County Community College 3-2 Saturday afternoon at the Cougar Soccer Complex. The victory kept Barton's slim hopes of a shared Jayhawk title at 6-2 and 11-2 on the season while Allen County drops to 2-6 and 5-11 overall. The Cougars have three games remaining in the season with the first of two home contests coming Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. in a non-conference contest versus MCC-Maple Woods.
It took the Cougars only fifty-one seconds to find the back of the net as Lucas Alves found Renan Sousa on the back post for the early lead.
Allen County got the equalizer later in the half following a free kick sent into the box leaving Troy Henry to rattle the net off the rebound with 32:13 left first half.
Four minutes later Alves would score his team leading twelfth goal of the season putting away Sergio Ribeiro's long pass. Ribeiro would then give Barton the game winner distributing his second assist and fourth of the season as Sousa moved into a tie with Alves on his twelfth goal of the year with 21:30 to play.
Barton gained a couple of advantages for second half play with a south wind at their back and with the Red Devils playing a man down going back to the final 4:27 of first half play. However despite the advantage and outshooting Allen County 14-2 in the half, the victory didn't come easy. Accounting for both shots in the half, Henry made good on one of those drawing the Red Devils to within one scoring his second of the game with 26:36 left. With the defense stiffening up, the Cougars kept attacking spreading the Red Devils across the field and away from the net the rest of the way.
Barton currently sits in third place in the standings with two remaining conference games. Following Tuesday's game versus MCC-Maple Woods, the Cougars will host Coffeyville Community College in their final regular season home game before traveling to Kansas City Kansas Community College on Monday, October 26, to wrap up regular season play.