Tiger soccer team beats Barton 3-0 to capture fifth straight district title

The Tigers have now won five straight district titles and advance to play at the NJCAA Division I Men's Soccer Championships on November 16-22 in Daytona Beach, FL.

Cowley, winners of five in a row, improves its record to 14-1-1, while Barton falls to 16-4-2.

After three years as an assistant coach with the team, Marcos Ribeiro is taking the Tigers back to the national tournament in his first year as head coach.

"I am proud of the boys; they deserved the win," Ribeiro said. "We had the right attitude, and all their hard work showed on the field."

Cowley College sophomore Leonardo Leitao scored the lone goal of the first half off an assist from Shuto Sasaki.

The score would remain 1-0 until the game's final 20 minutes, when Cowley was finally able to open up some breathing room. Guilherme Coutinho increased the Tigers' lead to 2-0, scoring with 18:07 left to play.

Just more than two minutes later, Cowley would get another goal from Renan Syrio off an assist from Hayato Yoshitake to cap the scoring in the 3-0 victory.

Cowley outshot Barton 22-8, while Tiger goalkeeper Lukas Lowry stopped all four shots he faced while recording his eighth shutout of the season.

"It is always difficult to play a top team like Barton, and controlling the game like we did is very hard," Ribeiro said. "I think the first 10 minutes, they were a bit more aggressive, but as soon as we matched that, we were able to control the game until the end."

After finishing as the national runner-up a season ago, the Cowley College men's soccer team will get another shot at its first-ever national title.

"Now, we are focused on the national tournament, and there isn't much time to prepare," Ribeiro said. "I think the most important thing for us is to arrive there with the right mentality, knowing that each game will be a battle."