Cougars attack for 6-0 shutout victory; Sets sights for region tournament

The No. 7 ranked Barton Community College men's soccer team showed no signs of a letdown in scoring a 6-0 victory over Kansas City Kansas Community College Wednesday at the Cougar Soccer/Track Complex.   Peppering the Bluedevil defense with twenty-eight shots, the Cougars scored three in each half to finish up the 2012 regular season.  Led by Hays freshman Ebu Camara's hat-trick plus an assist, the second wave of Cougar players were just as effective in attacking and preserving the win.  The top-seeded Cougars enter Region VI playoffs on Tuesday with a 13-2-1 overall record and an undefeated 10-0-0 conference/region record while KCK slips to the sixth seed at 6-8-2 overall and 4-5-1 in conference and region play.   Barton will host the winner of Saturday's Hesston College-Northwest Kansas Technical College game on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. at the Cougar Soccer/Track Complex.

Barton immediately attacked the Blue Devils, putting up twelve first half shots but were also hampered by an unprecedented fourteen offsides.  Mariano Gelso finally broke through for the Cougars seventeen minutes into the contest as his sliding kick from Camara found the net past KCK goalkeeper Tomas Ortiz.  Eleven minutes later Camara easily knocked in a Garrett Pulliam cross after Pulliam drew Ortiz out of goal.   Camara scored his second goal of the half with an unassisted goal with only 1:17 remaining before halftime. 

Camara,who moved past season leader and reigning two-time conference player of the week Sam McCrillis for the team lead in goals, wasted little time in the second half achieving his hat-trick.  With Collin Cook in to replace Ortiz in goal for KCK, it was the Pulliam to Camara connection again as Pulliam chipped a pass over the Bluedevil defense for Camara to easily beat Cook to give the Cougars a 4-0 lead as a mere ten minutes had ticked off the clock.

With Coach Twelvetrees emptying his bench throughout the early stages of the second half, the young Cougars continued the hunt launching sixteen shots in the second half.  Already with two assists, Pulliam's sliding kick to the near post off a Gelso cross got him in the score column with twenty-six minutes left.   Two minutes later freshman Jovanny Bonilla wrapped up the Cougar scoring taking a Carlos Salguero pass and launched a kick just inside the eighteen to the far post past a diving Cook.