After losing leading scorers Sara Marcotte and Sierra Casagrand to graduation, the Lady Tigers exploded for ten goals against Aurora in their season opener. The scoring started with a goal by Morgan Jones about three minutes into the game, and it didn’t stop until Morgan Cantrell drilled a penalty kick in the second half to cap the 10-0 shutout.
In between, Jocelyn Carpenter added a hat trick with three goals of her own. Emily Jordan and Lesleigh Fenton scored two apiece. Even Jade Sawyer, the Republic basketball guard playing her first season of high school soccer, was credited with a goal.
“We played well,” says coach Mike Hines. “Our quality of play was pretty good for the beginning of the season.
“When we got the ball wide, and we did overlapping runs and we got our outside backs involved with the play, good things happened. We were in on goal almost every time, or we had a cross.”
The only down side of the performance for Hines was inefficient passing early in the game — but he says the Lady Tigers improved in that area as the game progressed.
“I think on the kickoff, we started with about 12 consecutive passes, which is pretty good at the beginning of the season,” says Hines.
Of Carpenter’s three goals, two game late in the first half. The third, on an assist from Jordan, made it 9-0 Republic.
“Jocelyn Carpenter played outstanding tonight. I couldn’t have been happier for her,” says Hines. “She was dynamic on and off the ball.”
Emily Jordan had a big game, too, scoring two of the Lady Tigers’ first three goals.
“Her ability to take on two and three players at a time is fantastic. The hope is that when she beats the first or the second, that people will start making runs and not stand and watch,” says Hines. “That’s very important with this team, because we don’t have that physical, dominant forward presence.”
Hines also pointed to Lesleigh Fenton’s play. She scored two goals in the second half, after spending most of the game in the back of Republic’s formation playing defense.
“When we put her up top, she could have had a hat trick in five minutes,” says Hines. “So we have some options. I told them to be patient with us because it’s going to take four or five games to figure out our subbing sequence, and once we figure that out we’ll have a real flow to the game.”
Republic is 1-0. They play again against perennial power Rolla on the road next Tuesday.