Three games. Three wins. No goals allowed. Not a bad weekend for the Lady Tigers soccer team.
Republic completed a three-game sweep at the Ozark Shootout Saturday, defeating School of the Osage 2-0 and following that up with a 2-0 win over Rogersville. The Lady Tigers had beaten Monett 9-0 on Friday night, giving them a composite score of 13-0 in their three games at Ozark.
Saturday, the Lady Tigers started the early game against Osage at 8 am. By 8:02, they’d scored their first goal. Emily Jordan broke down the left side of the field and slid the ball neatly to Jocelyn Carpenter in the middle. Carpenter beat the keeper for a quick 1-0 lead, and it looked like Republic might cruise to another big win.
“The goal that we scored was absolutely gorgeous. You couldn’t have drawn it up on paper any better. I think we kind of took them by surprise,” says coach Mike Hines.
Instead, Osage woke up and fought back, controlling possession for most of the remainder of the first half. They fired several shots at Republic goalkeeper Jessica Laster, but Laster and the Republic defense didn’t break. They took the lead into the second half, and Jade Sawyer finished the scoring about five minutes later. After the Osage keeper tried to clear the ball and popped it into the air, Sawyer headed it back over her outstretched arms from 16 yards out. The ball rolled slowly along the artificial turf and into the goal before an Osage defender could reach it, giving Republic a 2-0 lead.
“We have some resilience. We were able to make some mistakes but still compete, keep our head in the game. Nobody really got too down about things,” says Hines. “Overall, we maintained our composure. We had great runs by our forwards and everybody was feeding the ball to them. This was a great team win–best win of the year.”
In the second game of the day, Republic met Rogersville, a team the Lady Tigers had beaten 3-0 earlier in the season. After a scoreless first half, Carpenter gave Republic a lead less than two minutes after halftime. Emily Jordan put the game away with about 13:30 left, scoring her second goal of the day.
The win runs Republic’s record to 9-1. They’re back at home Tuesday for a game Central Ozark Conference match against Neosho.