Freshmen hat tricks lead Lady Cougar soccer in 8-0 win over Neosho

Behind a pair of hat tricks from freshman Jennifer Mendez and Natalie Espino-Kennedy, the Barton Community College women's soccer team cruised to an 8-0 victory over Neosho County Community College Saturday at the Cougar Soccer Complex.   Playing only a 70-minute match due to a limited Neosho roster, Barton was never threatened in scoring four goals in each half to break a three game losing streak.   The Lady Cougars improve to 3-3 in conference play and 3-5 overall while Neosho remains winless at 0-5 in the Jayhawk 0-10 on the season.   Barton will next travel to national Hutchinson on Wednesday to take on the national receiving votes Blue Dragons in a key conference matchup at 4:00 p.m. at the Salthawk Sports Complex. 

Barton wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as Denise Cuenca netted the first goal sending in the Espino-Kennedy pass just 3:36 in to the contest.  Six minutes later Espino-Kennedy dished out her second assist dishing to fellow freshman Dominique Milsap perfectly squeezing a shot between the near post and Panther goalkeeper Daniela Perez for her first collegiate goal.

Edith Scarlett Real, picked up her second goal of the season as the Lady Cougars' leading scorer in the 2014 season weaved skillfully through the Neosho defense blasting a shot near post giving Barton a three goal lead with 27:18 left in the half.

Having scored three goals so far into her freshman campaign, Mendez would double her total getting the first of her hat trick putting away Real's through ball with 18:25 left before half.  Mendez would get her second goal and complete the Espino-Kennedy hat trick just 5:14 into the second frame.  

Brooke Russell made the most of only her second time on the turf as the freshman from Hays rattled the net off of Cuenca's corner kick for her first collegiate goal with 36:15 remaining. 

Six minutes later Mendez completed her hat trick putting away Nineth Fuentes' pass pushing the Barton lead out to 7-0.  The Lady Cougars completed the scoring with 1:12 remaining in the shortened game as Rachel Craft joined the first collegiate goal party hammering in Evelyn Rodriguez-Lerma's blast deflecting off the keeper.

The dual hat trick performance by Mendez and Espino-Kennedy was the twelfth such performance in Barton women's soccer history and the first since the 2012 season when Bianca Barron scored five goals and Mariana Poveda dished our four assists in the Lady Cougars' 7-0 win at Independence Community College on September 23.