The Barton Community College men's soccer team is seeded 7th for its fifth national tournament appearance as the Cougars travel back to Wichita's Stryker Sports Complex for the NJCAA Division I Championship held June 5-10.
Bringing a 12-2-1 record to the tournament, the 17th ranked Cougars under second year Head Coach Jordan Rideout are joined in Pool B play by 2nd seeded Salt Lake Community College and 11th seeded Coastal Bend College.
Barton opens pool play with a pair of 1:00 p.m. games, the first coming Sunday, June 6, versus Coastal Bend with the second coming on Monday versus Salt Lake. The winner of the pool play action then advances to the semifinal round on Wednesday (4:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m.) with the Championship game slated for 7:00 p.m. Thursday.
Tickets for the 60th annual NJCAA Division I Championship, as well as, the simultaneously held Division II Championship, are $12.00 per day or $50.00 for the All Session Pass. All tickets must be purchased online by going to: visitwichita.com/get-tickets.
Games throughout the tournaments are also available via a per game or tournament pass either live or archived via the NJCAA Network at njcaa.org/network.
The Bruins ran through their 2021 schedule unbeaten as fourth year Head Coach Mark Davis' nation's second ranked squad ride a six game win streak into their first ever championship tournament appearance at 13-0-1.
The lone non-victory for Salt Lake was a 2-2 tie against 5th ranked Snow College. The Bruins won the first meeting against the Badgers 5-3, tied the second contest, before the teams met for the third time in the Region 18 finals. Playing the first 76 minutes scoreless, Salt Lake broke through with the winner before netting the insurance in the 88th minute for the 2-0 victory. Snow received one of the four at-large bids and is seeded 9th in the tournament with fellow pool play competitors 4th seeded Western Texas and 5th seeded Marcum.
Advancing to the West District against 10th ranked Yavapai College, Salt Lake put the first goal on the board just five minutes into the contest, adding another in the 22nd minute.
In their fourteen games, Salt Lake is one of the toughest defensive clubs in the nation surrendering just six goals. The stingy defense is led by a pair of rotating goalkeepers as Christian Olivares and Jose Arellano anchor a nationally 4th ranked .41 goals against average.
Offensively the Bruins are keyed by Levonte Johnson as the Canadian sophomore leads a balanced attack with 10 goals and 9 assists as seventeen different players have rattled the net for the nation's 5th rated offense.
The Bruins also have a staff of four, three assistants including Jordan Carver who built Iowa Western Community College into a national contender. Carver's teams won the 2013 national Championship and reached the big stage tournament six times.
Former Barton Head Coach Mike Brown, who led the Cougars to the 2018 national title game, took over the Iowa Western program two years ago following Carver's departure. Brown's Reivers bring the national top ranked squad to the tournament and will open Pool A play Saturday at 10:00 a.m. against Laramie County Community College.
Ranked 9th in the final NJCAA poll, the Cougars of Coastal Bend under first year Head Coach Adam Butler bring an at-large bid 9-3-2 record to Wichita.
Winners of five straight into the Gulf South District, Coastal Bend and 16th ranked Tyler Junior College locked up to a 2-2 deadlock with the Tyler prevailing in the shootout. The teams squared off two previous times with the Cougars winning 3-0 at home and 4-3 on Tyler's home field.
In addition to the three games against Tyler, Coastal Bend had five other contests against teams either in the final national poll or at some point were in the poll. The Cougars opened up the year with a 3-1 victory over pre-season Northeast Texas Community College but dropped a 4-1 neutral site loss to the Eagles three weeks later. The loss was in the midst of 1-3-1 stretch for the Cougars, dropping road games at Jacksonville College 1-0 and a 2-1 loss at #6 LSU-Eunice before ending the slide on a 3-2 victory at Blinn College and tying #11 Western Texas College in a scoreless draw headed into the Northeast rematch.
The Cougars have three shutouts on the year ranking 25th in the nation at 1.33 goals against average. Offensively Coastal Bend ranks 26th overall, scoring 34 goals in its fourteen games for a 2.43 per game outing.
Twelve players have scored atleast a goal for the Cougars, with sophomore Gabriel Campora of Mexico leading the way with nine net shakers while adding a team second best eight assists to top the team charts at 50 points. England freshman Thomas Williams leads the distributors with nine assists with Brazilian freshman Caio Oliveira third in dishing out seven assists.
Three programs out of the Gulf South District will be in the national tournament with Tyler's district bid and 6th seed in Pool C and LSU-Eunice joining Coastal Bend in another of the four at-large bids getting the 8th seed in Coach Brown's Pool A.