By TODD MOORE
Barton Sports Info
Scoring a pair of goals in each half Wednesday afternoon in Park Hills, Missouri, the Barton Community College men's soccer team maximized its 1,100 mile round-trip with a 4-1 victory over Jefferson College in the semifinal round of the Region 6/Plains District Tournament.
Improving to 11-6-3 on the season, the Cougars will now take on familiar title game foe Cowley College (12-1-3) at 7:00 p.m. Saturday in a neutral site Chanute, Kansas, at the Chanute Sports Complex. The 5th ranked Tigers defeated Seward County 4-0 in the other semifinal game held in Arkansas City. Jefferson College ends the year at 3-11-5
Barton dropped a 2-1 decision to Cowley in last year's championship game with this season's matchups decided on a 2-0 loss in Arkansas City before playing to a 2-2 draw October 19th on the Cougars' home turf.
A corner kick set piece put the Cougars on the board 11:51 left in first half action on Diogo Giminez' rise-n-shine header dumping Pedro Lyra's sent ball to the back post.
Shy of five minutes later, Lucas Dos Santos' picked a fellow defender's pocket deep in the Cougars' offensive end to quickly flick a pass over to Joaquin Pico Abedul in drilling mid-net giving Barton a two-goal momentum lead to halftime.
Gabriel Bergamin, who would have the shutout ruined with just 3:10 left on a fluke caromed ball off the crossbar from a 25-yard free kick, provided the Cougars a big 1v1 save protecting the two-goal lead with 29 minutes left.
The gap remained steady until 8:09 remaining when Loic Kanku's cross was met mid-flight by Lyra as the one-touch strike pushed the margin to three.
Three minutes later Isoumail Camara rattled the nets to close out Barton's scoring, slicing through the defense in receiving Giminez' nifty through ball for the Cougars' then 4-0 lead with 5:10 remaining.
Barton Scoring
33:09: Diogo Giminez (6); Assist: Pedro Lyra (2)
37:28: Joaquin Pico Abedul (7); Assist: Lucas Dos Santos ( 5)
81:51: Pedro Lyra (4); Assist: Loic Kanku (5)
84:50: Isoumail Camara (3); Assist: Diogo Giminez (4)