The Glendale Falcons played like a team that is accustomed to winning district championships.
It took 19 minutes for the Falcons to get their first goal against Republic in the district title match, but they fired off three more in a three-minute span, then held on for a 4-0 win on their home turf Thursday night.
Republic came out in a defensive formation in an effort to slow down Glendale’s potent attack. It worked early on, but Josh Call got Glendale on the board when he booted an arching shot over the arms of Cody Marcotte to give the Falcons the lead.
About ten minutes later, Thomas Burkhardt doubled the lead to 2-0. Then Thomas Spence and Bobby Spence scored within a minute of one another, building the lead to 4-0 with six minutes remaining before halftime.
“They have a system in place that’s clean–very tight soccer–and we just didn’t make the adjustments fast enough,” says Republic coach David Ashby. “They’ve been playing with each other for a long time.”
The Tigers had a couple of scoring opportunities in the second half, but couldn’t finish. They held Glendale’s offense in check after halftime.
“When you get down by four goals, it’s really easy to get down on yourself and just give up,” Ashby says. “I’m really, really proud of my team for not giving up and continuing to battle and just go out there swinging.”
The loss ends a season that was a step forward for Republic, despite the disappointing finish. At 12-11, the Tigers posted their second consecutive winning record. They also won their first-ever playoff game, beating West Plains in the district semifinals earlier in the week.
“It’s absolutely something you can build off of,” Ashby says. “When you go into the next year, you always look back at the previous year, look at the steps that you had, and you’re always trying to one-up that. It gives us confidence going into the next year, knowing we’re capable of playing with some really quality teams and to give ourselves opportunities like this.”