In a rough-and-tumble game that landed three injured Lady Tigers on the sideline at one point, Republic lost on the road at Willard 4-2 Tuesday. All four Willard goals were scored by Dylan Owens: two in the first half and two in the second half.
Republic grabbed the lead first, ten minutes in, when Emily Jordan slid the ball ahead to Jocelyn Carpenter, who put it in the back of the net for the first goal of the match.
Owens answered 15 minutes later to tie the game, then gave Willard a 2-1 lead with :51 left in the half.
A rough game got even rougher after the break. Republic, who had started the game with Jade Sawyer injured on the sideline, lost three more starters at various points in the game. Emily Griffith went out in the first half. Carpenter was injured early in the second half, but returned later. Lesleigh Fenton came out after colliding with another player, too–but not before she drilled a penalty kick into the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2.
From there, though, Owens closed out the scoring. She gave Willard the 3-2 lead with 21:00 remaining, and scored again with 13:36 left to account for the final score.
“She had a hot night. Sometimes the ball just bounces your way, and I think we uncharacteristically helped to facilitate a couple of those goals, where normally we would have defended them in a different manner,” says Republic coach Mike Hines. “But they still had the win, so congratulations to them.”
After the game, Hines told his team they would have another crack at Willard later this year.
“We look forward to meeting them again in districts. I’d rather win the second game,” Hines says. “We have a team that’s very cohesive. We were banged up tonight. We had some girls step up. I was proud of that. One thing we don’t do is lose due to lack of effort.”