Sunday afternoon's battle of nationally ranked men's soccer teams didn't disappoint in La Junta, Colorado, as Maxence Voinier's 89th minute goal provided the difference maker in 5th ranked Barton Community College prevailing 3-2 at 13th ranked Otero Junior College.
Barton's winning play was set up by defenseman Kimito Fritz, thwarting a 2v1 situation against the Rattlers attack by stealing a pass then immediately sending a 65-yard ball deep downfield to Voinier. Settling the pass then juking the Otero defenseman, Voinier sent a rocket game winner near post to the upper-90 as the clock stopped with just two seconds remaining.
The Cougars' bounce-back from Tuesday's disappointing loss improves to 11-1-3 on the year while Otero takes its first loss of the season to also stand at 11-1-3 on the season.
Barton now prepares for another big nationally ranked matchup on Wednesday, traveling to 8th ranked Cowley College with conference title implications in play for the 7:00 p.m. kick-off.
Scoreless for nearly 65 minutes, Otero drew first tally with approximately twenty-five minutes left on a perfectly planned and executed corner kick resulting in a second-ball header to the net.
Lucas Constante accounted for Barton's response of a pair of goals to take the lead, setting up Loic Kanku's 4th goal of the year striking far post with 17:14 left to play then five minutes later netting Diego Sano's first collegiate assist by depositing the through-ball to far post for his team leading 9th of the year.
A Rattler corner kick set piece would again haunt the Cougars with six minutes remaining, this time a back post header split the pipes tying the contest back up.
Constante nearly became the hero with ninety seconds remaining but his shot sailed just wide of the post. Both teams had a pair of possessions in the back and forth remaining time until Fritz closed the door on the last Rattler attack to then set up the spectacular game winner.
Barton Scoring:
67:46: Loic Kanku (4); Assist: Lucas Constante (3)
72:15: Lucas Constante (9); Assist: Diego Sano (1)
89:58: Maxence Voinier (4); Assist: Kimito Fritz (2)