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Barton men’s soccer wins district title; headed to 2nd NJCAA Championship
 The Barton Community College men’s soccer team finds itself exactly where it wanted to be back in August at the start of practice – the 2009 NJCAA National Tournament. Barton earned the school’s 2nd-ever trip there with a 4-2 win over host St. Louis-Meramec Saturday afternoon in the Plains District Championships. Barton had defeated Laramie County (Wyom) Friday, 2-1, to advance to play Meramec and the right to move on the NJCAA Championships in West Windsor, New Jersey in a little more than one week. The Cougars will take a 20-3 record to nationals, where they will take on 3rd ranked Schoolcraft College (Mich). Schoolcraft is 16-1-2. The game will be Thursday, November 19.
Highlights
The Cougars pulled away from Meramec in the 2nd half to qualify for the NJCAA Tournament for the 1st time since 2002. In fact, Meramec scored just 3 minutes into the contest for a 1-0 lead before Barton evened the match at 1-all on a Harry Newman goal on a header from Nathan Walker. Barton took a 2-1 lead 20 minutes into the contest with a Ricardo Yeverino goal on a give and go with Leandro Reis. Meramec tied the contest just before half on Almin Sabotic’s 2nd goal of the half.
The 2nd half was all Barton. The Cougars took a 3-2 lead when Kevin Ellis headed in a corner kick from Tom Shaw 15 minutes into the half. The contest stayed at 3-2 until 10 minutes remained when Dula Fadis kicked the ball in the net inside the 6-yard box after a scramble for the ball. With that goal, the Cougars had a 4-2 lead and needed to just run out the clock for the title.
Barton survived an opening round battle with Laramie to start Plains District action with Barton defeating the Eagles 2-1 for the 2nd time this year. Barton won by that same 2-1 mark back in September in Garden City. This time it meant even more, keeping the Cougars’ season alive.
Again it was a big 2nd half for the Cougars that paved the way to the title game. Barton trailed 1-0 at intermission but didn’t take long to even the score as Larry Mason scored off a quick free kick from Harry Newman just 5 minutes into the half. Barton’s took the lead for the 1st time in the contest with 20 minutes to play. Kevin Ellis followed in a Tom Shaw ball that hit the cross bar and the Cougars were on top 2-1. From there, Barton rode a strong defense and a 6-save effort from Josh Euell to the win.
Schoolcraft is next for the Cougars as Barton goes after its 1st ever win at the national tournament. Barton lost its only two games in 2002 during the school’s initial trip to nationals. That was in just the 2nd year of the program at Barton.
Stats
Stats can be found at www.bartonccc.edu/sports
Next
Nov 19 – v Schoolcraft (Mich) TBA (NJCA Championships in West Windsor, NJ)
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Check out Barton Soccer Online at www.bartonccc.edu/sports |
