Box Score by Benny Benton
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Dante De Luca and Alex David provided late goals as No. 21 Barton College rallied for a 2-1 Conference Carolinas victory over King University on Friday.
With the win, the Royal Blue and White (12-5, 7-3) secured the No. 3 seed and a home match on Monday for the quarterfinal round of the Conference Carolinas Tournament.
For much of the match, BC's home seeding, national ranking and possible post-season play beyond the league tourney all seemed in jeopardy, as the Tornado (7-9, 5-5) dominated play.
King took a 1-0 lead in the match in the 24th minute when Chris Hicks tapped the ball into an open net with the back of his heel after a shot from Eli Carrasco had deflected off a Barton defender. The goal was the 10th of the season for Hicks.
The goal was one of 13 shots for the Tornado in the opening period and one of five on goal. The King defense, meanwhile, limited Barton to just five total shots and two on net in taking its 1-0 advantage to intermission.
Play continued that way through the first half of the second period, as King enjoyed a 5-2 edge in shots.
In the 71st minute, however, the contest began to change. A shot by Barton's Erik Pajunk was blocked, resulting in a corner kick for the Bulldogs. Kevin Strassburger took the corner, serving the ball into the box where De Luca got a head on it and drove it into the net to even the match at 1-all. The assist was Strassburger's sixth of the year, matching the team high, and gave De Luca his team-leading ninth goal of 2014.
King nearly regained the lead in the 76th minute on Ryan Murphy's shot, but Bulldog defender Jovan Gracia cleared the ball along the goal line to keep the score tied.
Just 50 seconds later, sophomore Alex David dribbled through the defense with his back to the goal, then turned and fired from 10 yards out past King keeper Kari Sveinsson for his sixth goal of the season to put Barton in the lead, 2-1.
From there, the Bulldogs rose up on defense. The Tornado took six of the match's final seven shots over the game's last 12 minutes, including one in the 82nd minute that seemed destined to go in and tie the score. However, Gracia made another outstanding defensive play, getting a head on the ball as it deflected off the crossbar. Two other shots were blocked by the defense, and the remainder of the attempts missed wide right.
Barton keeper Jens Madsen Hordvik recorded five saves in the match in improving his season record in net to 10-3.
King finished the match with a 26-11 advantage in total shots and an 8-2 edge in corner kicks, but it was Barton who walked away with the win.
The Bulldogs will host Monday's 7 p.m. tournament quarterfinal against Erskine College (8-6-2, 4-3-2) unless the Fleet upsets league champion and nationally-ranked No. 9 Limestone College on Saturday, in which case Barton would play King again.
