The Barton Community College women’s soccer team were simply dominated Friday in their season opener, falling 6-2 to No. 17 Iowa Central Community College. The Tritons unleashed twenty-six shots at the Cougar Soccer Complex on the young Lady Cougar defense facing a tough season opener. The victory improves Iowa Central to 3-0 on the season as Barton will have to wait until a Wednesday trip to Salina for hopes of its first victory of the season against the junior varsity squad from Kansas Wesleyan University.
Denise Cuenca help set up Barton’s first goal as the Utah freshman was taken down in the box with 24:15 left in first half action. Sophomore Maria Munoz stepped in for the penalty kick and buried it past Triton goalkeeper Nicole Medeiros giving Barton the mid-half lead. The Lady Cougars held their own against the Tritons until just under eleven minutes to play when a defensive miscue allowed Laisy Scardazzi’s pass to slip through setting up Paige Savery beating Maria-Elena Garcia one-on-one far post.
It took less than five minutes into the second frame for Iowa Central to begin a fourteen shot assault with eleven coming on frame. Tamara Queiroz gave the Triton’s the lead heading in Savery’s brilliant corner ball just 4:36 in followed by Carolina Arbelaez increasing the lead to two by sticking back a rebound just three minutes later.
Barton got a spark of life four minutes later as Cuenca anticipated a midfield pass and outraced the defense to beat Medeiros top shelf with a perfectly placed chip shot. The momentum was quickly diminished two minutes later as Jordyn Brown won the ball deep in Barton territory and buried a rocket to the far post increasing the lead to 4-2 with 31:25 to play.
Playing much of the half on the Barton end of the field, the Tritons again won a deep ball with Alyssa Montoya getting in the scoring column with another perfectly placed far post shot finding the net. Two minutes late Lays Freitas put the final dagger in the Lady Cougars sending a Queiroz cross to the net giving Iowa Central their final winning tally with 16:20 to play.
Garcia finished with twelve saves in goal for the Lady Cougars as the Tritons assaulted the net seventeen times against Barton’s three.
