After being shut out by Kickapoo to start the season, then shut down by weather for the past week, the Republic Lady Tigers may have wondered if they’d ever score. And their scoring drought continued as they fell behind to Liberty 1-0 early in their home opener Tuesday.
The scoreless string ended when Sierra Casagrand fed Sara Marcotte for a goal with 34 minutes left in the half to even the score 1-1, but Liberty broke back ahead 2-1 on a penalty kick with 8:06 remaining before the half.
The second half, though, was all Republic. Casagrand scored the equalizer a few minutes into the half, then Marcotte got her second goal of the day a short time later to give the Lady Tigers the lead. Ashley Bandfield scored the final goal for the Lady Tigers to account for the final score.
Coach Mike Hines says his team didn’t play poorly at the beginning of the game — it just didn’t catch an early break.
“We had a pretty good start. We were moving the ball around, moving laterally. We had a couple combinations where we put together 15, 20 passes.” says Hines. “We had a couple of early opportunities.
“We still have some folks in the back that are inexperienced, and that led to their first goal off a counter-attack. Those are things we can adjust. We’re going to spend a little time looking at film, and that’s a quick fix.”
Hines says more than anything about the win, he’s happy to see his team’s mental toughness in overcoming two deficits.
“I like the fact that we were down, came back. Down, came back. That shows some resiliency,” he says.
Marcotte and Casagrand, the team’s top scoring threats, didn’t let the early deficit throw them off their game.
“We were just kind of nervous. It’s just our second game, and we hadn’t scored yet,” says Marcotte. “But then when we put it in the back of the net, we knew that we were going to be able to get back in the game.”
Hines says the long layoff, caused by wintry weather, has set Republic back.
“I think we’re lost a little bit of touch. I think we’ve lost a lot of our fitness,” he says. “I’m really glad we got this game in. It was worth me coming out here on Sunday for 3 1/2 hours pumping water off my field so we could get it in.”