Over the past three seasons, Nixa’s soccer team has outscored Republic by a combined 26-1. Tuesday night, things looked quite a bit different.
Nixa needed a golden goal four minutes into overtime to win 3-2, knocking off a rising Republic squad that showed it’s ready to compete at the top of the Central Ozark Conference. The game-winner came when Nixa’s Joey Clem headed a corner kick past Republic keeper Stone Davidson and into the back of the net. It was Clem’s second goal of the game.
“We’re starting to believe we can come in and win some games. That’s the key because in the past, I think we were hoping we would come out and win some games,” Hines says. “We really thought when we came in here tonight, if we fought hard and we did what we needed to do, we were gonna win. And that’s very important.”
Republic had come out strong early, dominating possession in the first ten minutes and taking a 1-0 lead on a Julio Quezada goal eight minutes into the game.
Nixa controlled most of the rest of the 1st half, though. The Eagles missed several opportunities, especially beginning at the 8:00 mark. Davidson made a nifty sliding save to keep the score 1-0. Three minutes later, Nixa briefly faced an open net but failed to capitalize before Davidson recovered. A Nixa shot from 15 yards out sailed just wide at the 3:50 mark.
Finally, with about 3:00 left in the half, Trustin Baker headed in a corner kick by Parker Crawford and the score was tied 1-1.
Republic struck back quickly, though. Tanner Peabody took a pass from Mitchell Heinzler one minute later, slid the ball past Nixa’s goalie, and gave the Tigers the lead at halftime, 2-1.
The score remained 2-1 until about midway through the 2nd half, when Clem scored his first goal of the game for Nixa, heading the ball into the right side of the net to even the score.
From there, the teams battled back and forth, each having opportunities to score but failing to find the goal until Nixa’s game-winner in overtime.
Republic coach Mike Hines says despite the
We felt like we could come out and compete with them this year. I think the score, losing in overtime, indicates his program has taken an important step forward.
Hines says his team’s visible anger about the loss is another good sign, if they use it the right way.
“A lot of guys are really emotional, and they’re angry about the loss. And I don’t mind that, as long as they take the loss and they internalize it and they use it as fuel to come back,” he says. “When we come out and we compete like we did tonight, we’re going to have a lot more games go our way.”
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