Defensive lapses hand 5th ranked Barton Men's Soccer first loss of season at KCK #GoBarton

The 5th ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team was unable to overcome a pair of defensive lapses Tuesday night on the road falling to Kansas City Kansas Community College 2-1 at the KCKCC Soccer Field.

Suffering their first defeat of the season, the Cougars fall to second in the KJCCC standings at 6-1-2 and 10-1-3 on the season while the victory moves the Blue Devils into third place in the league standings at 4-3-3 and 5-3-3 overall.

Amidst a four-game road trip, Barton will step out of conference play Saturday with a road trip to Colorado for a scheduled 3:00 p.m. tilt at 13th ranked Otero College. The Cougars will return to conference play next Wednesday making the trip to 6th ranked Cowley College for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff.

KCK seized the early lead just 12:34 in forcing a Barton turnover off a pass sent from the midfield to the defensive back line structuring a 1v1 Ajay Stewart opportunity and near-post strike.

Producing 23 second half goals, the Cougars would net their 24th of the year with the equalizer coming 3:22 into the second half as Henrique Cruz blasted a near post laser for his second marker of the season coming off Kimito Fritz near side cross.

A costly forced Barton turnover at midfield created a 2v2 situation for KCK as Jacob Thomas through ball finding Stewart on the backside furnished the game winning goal with 9:48 left.

Goalkeeper Dennis Bottcher made just one save on three attempts falling to 7-1-3 on the year. 

Barton Scoring:
48:22: Henrique Cruz (2); Assist: Kimito Fritz (1) 

Series Notes:
Barton is 1-2-2 in the last six meetings against KCK
Barton has dropped the last two meetings at KCK
Barton leads the series 6-5-0 at KCK
Barton leads the overall series 15-5-3