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Seward County continued their long road stint on Wednesday with a three-hour trip to Great Bend where the Saints faced the Barton Cougars in a Jayhawk matchup where an exchange of goals in the first kept the scoreboard even before a late foul from the Saints led to a made penalty kick from Barton to take the lead and eventually the game 2-1.
In an early game matchup, the Saints and Cougars kicked off and found themselves in an instant battle for possession as both sides made their way up and down the field. Renan Ferreira found open space for a shot on goal that was inches from making it past the opposing keeper while the back line of Francisco Nava Gomez and Pepe Sanchez-Migallon held strong to keep Barton at bay. The reigning back-to-back NJCAA Goalkeeper of the Week Bruno Mestres did what he does best with multiple incredible saves to keep the score blank until a second chance was give up to the Cougars who found a small hole to sneak in their first goal and take a 1-0 lead.
The Saints' deficit lasted less than a minute with Felipe Flores taking control by forcing a Barton turnover to gain possession and nailed in a rocket shot to lock the score back up at 1-1 with his third goal of the season. Through a majority of the second half both sides continued to fight to put another goal in the net as the current KJCCC Player of the Week Matheus Ambrozio and Chad Haynes each made a move past the Cougar's back line for a pair of shots but could not connect in the back of the crossbar. With 14:00 minutes remaining it was Seward County who suffered a series of unfortunate events as Barton forced a turnover from SCCC which led to a foul in the box for a penalty kick attempt which sailed into the net for goal number two for the Cougars to move them ahead 2-1 over the Saints to eventually hand Seward County their second conference loss of the 2024 season.
The Saints now fall to a 4-3-3 overall record in the 2024 campaign while also dropping to 1-2-3 in Jayhawk conference action. Seward County will continue their five-game road stint with a pair of games this weekend beginning with a Saturday matchup with Kansas City Kansas at 7:30 PM followed by a non-conference game with Metropolitan on Sunday at 5 p.m.