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Golden goal spoils 5th ranked Cougars' gutsy performance in National Tournament opener #GoBarton

Golden goal spoils 5th ranked Cougars' gutsy performance in National Tournament opener #GoBarton

Beating a good team twice in a season and playing two-men down was too much for the 5th ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team to overcome as a second golden goal period net shaker dealt the Cougars a 2-1 National Tournament loss to 9th ranked Indian Hills Community College.

Barton had defeated the Warriors 3-1 earlier in the season but Monday afternoon at the Stryker Sports Complex, the challenges eventually took its toll in the Cougars' pool play opener and sets up another uphill obstacle on Tuesday.

Dropping to 17-3-3 on the year and 0-1-0 in group C play, the Cougars will look to keep the season alive Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. needing to defeat 2nd ranked and 3rd seeded Salt Lake Community College by two or more goals to advance out of pool play. The 10th seeded Warriors improve to 10-3-4 overall and now await Tuesday's result after concluding pool play 1-1-0.

Scoreless after the opening 45-minutes with neither team producing many opportunities, the Cougars broke through with the opening goal just 5:37 into second half play on Augusto Militao's 20-yard free kick for his third of the season.

Grasping all momentum, things quickly took a turn for the worst just 2:02 ensuing as an initial yellow card was overturned into a red card after a referee conference sending Kimito Fritz off the pitch putting Barton a man down with 37:35 remaining in regulation.

Switching into a defensive mindset, the Cougars encountered an additional devastating blow to the backline with 16:52 remaining as a second yellow card issued to Henrique Cruz put Barton at a two-man disadvantage.

Keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard for the following 12:29, the eventual equalizer came with 4:23 remaining on Gustavo Marques' 25-yard strike to the far post.

Despite pitching a scoreless opening 10-minute golden goal period, the outmanned disadvantage caught up to the Cougars just 27-seconds into the second extra golden goal period as Marques struck again in putting away Daniel Mulero's cross.