5th ranked Barton Men's Soccer nearly perfect in pair of season opening victories #GoBarton

The 5th ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team opened the 2024 season outscoring a pair of opponents 11-1 this weekend in Enid, Oklahoma.

On Friday, the Cougars pinned a goal on the scoreboard in each of the frames for a 2-0 victory over a defensive minded Eastern Oklahoma State College squad before returning back on the seven-hour round-trip to dominant host NOC-Enid 9-1 on Saturday.

A usual defensive minded Barton program in its history, the nine-goal output was the most by the Cougars against a fellow NJCAA opponent dating back to 2019 in an October 16-0 victory over Hesston College.

The weekend served as a final tune-up as Barton begins conference play Wednesday with a 4:00 p.m. kick-off at Dodge City Community College against a Conquistador squad picked third in the league race but received one of the seven first place votes in the pre-season predicted order of finish.

Two days later Barton begins a three-game home stretch beginning Friday with 10:00 a.m. kick versus Jefferson College followed by Sunday's same time kick-off against Trinidad State College. The Cougars then return to conference action to conclude the homestand on Wednesday, September 4, at 1:00 p.m. hosting Coffeyville Community College.

A trio of Cougars recorded five points in the two matches, sophomore Maxence Voinier picking up where he left off from last year distributing the eventual game winner before adding an insurance goal against EOSC then outdueled the Jets for another goal on Saturday.

Pedro Lyra and Joaquin Pico Abedul had equally impressive Cougar debuts with five points. Lyra set up Voinier's goal on Friday before the Elizabeth College transfer netted his 3rd collegiate goal beginning Barton's big output just six minutes in the game with another net shaker coming in second half action from Abedul's setup.

Abedul put his five points on the board in Saturday's victory over the Jets, the first of his two goals providing the eventual game winner sixteen minutes into the contest by outracing the defense from near midfield to beat the keeper for his first collegiate goal. Less than a minute later on the Cougar attack, Abedul struck center net in putting away Gonzalo Bassa's second assist of the game putting Barton up 3-0.

The lone goal of the weekend came after the Cougars built a 6-0 lead on NOC-Enid with the Jets getting on the board ten minutes before halftime on a rocket launch just under the crossbar from just outside the eighteen box.