BLUE DRAGONS PLAY TO 1-1 DRAW AT BARTON

HutchCC Sports Information

GREAT BEND – Missed opportunities, both offensively and defensively, were costly for the No. 16 Hutchinson Community College women's soccer team on Wednesday.

A defensive miscue allowed Barton to tie the game in the 70th minute. Then the Blue Dragons had a glorious scoring opportunity in the second overtime go wide left and the Blue Dragons and Cougars played to a 1-1 draw on a murky, misty, windy day at the Barton Soccer Field.

The Blue Dragons played to a draw for the first time since 2014 and for just the fourth time in program history. The tie was the first blemish on Hutchinson's record. The Dragons are now 10-0-1 overall, 5-0-1 (16 points) in the Jayhawk West and 7-0-1 (22 points) in Region VI games. Barton is 4-4-3 overall and 2-3-2 in the league.

Hutchinson finishes 1-0-1 against the Cougars this season. The Blue Dragons received a huge break when Dodge City upset Cloud County on Wednesday. Hutch and Cloud were tied atop the league standings with 15 points.

The game had a defensive tempo from the outset. The Blue Dragons had a season-low 14 shots taken and only nine shot were on goal. Barton had just six total shots, four on goal.

Sophomore Mikayla Moresco scored an unanswered goal, her fifth of the season, to give the Blue Dragons a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Going with the wind in the second half, Barton owned possession but still never got a good scoring opportunity against Hutch sophomore keeper Ashley Main.

That changed in the 70th minute when the Cougars' Jessica Simental found some running room up the middle. Main came out to challenge, but the ball got past her. Simental chased it down next to the goal just before it went out of bounds and chipped it into the empty next to tie the game at 1-1 with 20:45 to play in regulation.

That was only the second goal allowed by the Blue Dragons this season.

Once in overtime, the Blue Dragons began to apply some offensive pressure and out-shot Barton 5-0 in the two 10-minute extra sessions. In the final minute of the second overtime, the Dragons got a free kick from the left of Barton keeper Reyna Gonzalez. Hailey Burke's free kick was deflected by Gonzalez, but the rebound was left right in front of the next and the Dragons couldn't get a controlled touch to finish the play. The ball instead went left of the goal and time ran out.

Main (5-0-1) made three saves against the Cougars. Gonzalez made eight saves, three coming in overtime.

The Blue Dragons will play host to Pratt at 4 p.m. on Friday at the Salthawk Sports Complex.