Rising to No. 4 in the latest national rankings, the Barton Community College men's soccer team showed no signs of pressure Wednesday evening, rolling to a 5-2 road victory over Coffeyville Community College to close out conference play with its seventh straight win.
The result keeps the Cougars atop the Jayhawk Conference standings for the time being with 22 points at 7-2-1 and 13-3-2 overall, while the Red Ravens slip to 1-2-5 in league play and 6-4-6 on the season. Barton now turns its focus to Sunday's 5:00 p.m. regular season finale at the Kansas Wesleyan University junior varsity squad before hosting an opening-round postseason match November 1 at 1:00 p.m.
Barton seized control late in the first half, striking twice in the final 10 minutes. Rafael Calmon opened the scoring in the 36th minute, finding himself in the right place at the right time to toe-tap home Lucas Meibom's rebounded shot for his sixth tally of the year. Just five minutes later, Meibom doubled the margin with his first collegiate goal, hammering Samuele Mailer's top-of-the-box feed inside the near post from 19 yards out to give the Cougars a 2-0 halftime advantage.
Barton quickly added another insurance goal early in the second half when Diogo Gimenez delivered a 59th-minute strike from 19 yards out that deflected off the keeper's hands and into the net, courtesy of a Masaki Tsuji setup.
Coffeyville clawed back midway through the period, capitalizing on an uncleared ball in the box to trim the deficit in the 68th minute, then pulling within one just over a minute later on a penalty kick conversion.
The Cougars quickly extinguished any further rally attempt in the 72nd minute as Calmon threaded a clever one-touch chip pass to Luan Cony, who finished inside near post for his second goal of the season. Barton sealed the victory in the 79th minute when Kotaro Kimura's corner kick found the head of Christopher Goerler for his first collegiate goal, rounding out the Cougar scoring in the 5-2 victory.
Goalkeepers Gabriel Bergamin and Keagan Lewis split duties, with Bergamin patrolling the pipes for the opening half and Lewis closing out the second half to secure Barton's seventh straight victory.
BARTON SCORING SUMMARY
35:56: Rafael Calmon (6); Assist: Lucas Meibom (4)
40:11: Lucas Meibom (1); Assist: Samuele Mailer (3)
58:43: Diogo Gimenez (4); Assist: Masaki Tsuji (5)
71:20: Luan Cony (2); Assist: Rafael Calmon (3)
78:18: Christopher Goerler (1); Assist: Kotaro Kimura (5)