GREAT BEND – Sophomores Melissa Hetherington and Jamie Smith scored first-half goals and a calculated defensive effort helped the No. 1-ranked Hutchinson Community College women’s soccer team to a big 2-0 Jayhawk Conference road victory at Barton Community College on Tuesday afternoon.
Just three days after HCC’s huge 3-2 victory over No. 19 Johnson County, HCC head coach Sammy Lane was more than mildly concerned about Tuesday’s road battle at one-loss Barton.
HCC (8-0, 7-0 Jayhawk West) posted its seventh shutout of the season, limiting Barton (6-2, 3-1) to two shots on goal.
Sophomore goalkeeper Eunice Figueroa (6-0) posted her third shutout of the season and eight career shutout. Her best save came late in the first half when she had to make a lunging fingertip save to steer a Cougar shot wide to preserve a 2-0 lead.
Hetherington scored her 16th goal of the season and record-setting 52nd career goal 12 minutes into the game, scoring on an assist from freshman Courtney Gahagan.
The Lady Dragons made it 2-0, converting a cornerkick in the 37th minute. Hetherington sent the cornerkick into the box that freshman Danielle Sheehy struck a header off the cross bar, Smith got the rebound and finished off the play for her second career goal and a two-goal lead. Hetherington and Sheehy were both credited with assists.
From there, the Lady Dragons played a conservative game, dominating play through the midfield. Gahagan, freshman Erinn Penny and sophomores Nicole Cronin and Isa Whitley continually thwarted Barton drives through the midfield.
Barton’s top scorer, Bianca Barron was constantly marked up by defenders Smith, Carson Simmons and Avery Gerleman. Barron took five shots, but only one made it on goal.
Hutchinson had a season-low 14 shots and six shots on goal on Tuesday.
The Lady Dragons will play at Allen Community College in a 3 p.m. game on Saturday at Iola.
GAME NOTES – Danielle Sheehy saw her streak of multi-point and multi-goal games come to an end at seven. She has scored a point in every game this season. … HCC had four cornerkicks to Barton’s three. … Barton had eight fouls to HCC’s seven.
