By BRANDON SMITH
Barton Sports Info
The 11th ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team strung together a pair of second half goals to capture a 2-0 road victory in its season opener against Dodge City Community College Wednesday evening at Memorial Stadium.
In the midst of a three-game road trip to open the season, the Cougars will travel north to Council Bluffs, Iowa to take on former Barton head coach Mike Brown's 5th ranked Iowa Western Community College Reivers squad at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.
Outshooting the Conquistadors, 5-2 in the opening 45-minutes, the Cougars remained in attack mode throughout the second half holding an 11-2 advantage in shots. Forcing the pressure on the Conquistador defense, Barton would benefit behind a Dodge City double yellow card resulting in a red card gifting the Cougars a man advantage over the final 27:03.
Freshman Loic Kanku broke the stalemate in the 77th-minute sneaking a shot inside the right post cleaning up Lucas Dos Santos deflected throw in pass initially sent inside the 18' giving Barton the 1-neil advantage.
Remaining on the offensive attack, Wilmont Manneh placed the final touches on the scoreboard 7:20 later striking the nets off Keishun Kanesaka's setup pass.
The Barton defense limited the Conquistadors to just two shots on frame and four total shots to help goalkeeper Dennis Bottcher secure his sixth career shutout.