Box Score by Benny Benton
BANNER ELK, N.C.–Junior Danilo Matos scored a goal in the 32nd minute and Barton keeper Vasily Yakimkin made it stand with seven saves as the Barton College men's soccer team handed Lees-McRae College its first league loss of the season, 1-0, before a Homecoming crowd of 1,568 at Tate Field.
With the win, Barton improved to 3-5-1 overall and 2-2 in league play. The Bobcats slipped to 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference.
It was the second big road win in a row for the Bulldogs, who knocked off regionally-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne, 3-2, in double-overtime on Wednesday in Hickory, N.C.
Juniors Dante De Luca and Erik Pajunk were both credited with assisting Matos' goal. De Luca also assisted all three of Barton's goals against Lenoir-Rhyne.
The two victories followed a similar pattern, with the home team firing shot after shot but not on frame. Lenoir-Rhyne took 39 shots against the Bulldogs, but only 13 were on frame, and Yakimkin posted a season-high 11 saves. In Saturday's contest, the Bobcats took 26 shots to Barton's six, but Yakimkin stopped all seven that were on frame, highlighted by a spectacular tip on a Scott Alford attempt in the 12th minute. The shutout was Yakimkin's first of the year and the sixth of his career.
Lees-McRae had five shots blocked by Barton and a header saved by a defender in the 56th minute. An attempt by Yago Xavier hit the post in the 63rd minute, and two Bobcats rocked the crossbar, Alford with a header in the 67th minute and Jordan Wright in the 83rd minute.
Barton, meanwhile, had just three shots on goal, one of those a Kevin Strassburger attempt turned away by a highlight-reel tip from Lees-McRae keeper Thomas Rusling in the 21st minute. However, one of those shots proved to be enough. With just under 15 minutes left in the first half, Pajunk and De Luca passed the ball to each other in the center of the field, then outside to Matos, who charged in and fired a shot under Rusling.
The goal was the first of the season for Matos, and the seventh of the Brazilian's career. It was the third time this season in which Barton scored first, and the Bulldogs have won all three.
From there, it was a matter of simply surviving the onslaught of shots.
The victory gave Barton its first win in Banner Elk this century, and its second straight defeat of a Lees-McRae program that had won seven straight between 2005 and 2011. The Bobcats are now 16-5 all-time against the Bulldogs.
Barton will seek its third straight road win on Tuesday when the Bulldogs visit former league member St. Andrews University for a 4 p.m. match. The Knights are now a member of the NAIA Appalachian Athletic Conference.
