Butler Soccer comes away with a draw at Barton

GREAT BEND, Kan. – No. 7 ranked Butler soccer led for 82 minutes of action over No. 14 Barton at the Cougar Soccer Complex on Saturday morning.

But Barton (1-0-1) netted the equalizer with eight minutes to play as Aya Saiki netted a loose ball off Butler (0-1-2) goalie Carla Apodaca's rejection of a previous Barton shot.

The rematch of 2022's district championship was another hard-fought battle. Butler was able to rinse the taste of the home defeat on Wednesday to Coffeyville out of its mouth and now will look to this coming Wednesday when KCK comes to El Dorado for a 6 p.m. start.

The Grizzlies got the scoring started in Great Bend as freshman midfielder Sakiko Manabe scored off a rebound from Barton's goalkeeper in the 17th minute, putting Butler up 1-0.

Butler outshot Barton 15-12, Baton had five corner kicks to Butler's four, the Cougars had 12 fouls to the Grizzlies seven and Barton had two yellow cards to Butler's none.

Apodaca had five saves and Barton's Mio Tanaka had seven saves.