Cody Marcotte made three saves in overtime penalty kicks to help Republic hang on for a season-opening 5-4 (3-1) win over Monett Tuesday night. Marcotte’s heroics helped counter a rocky start which led to sophomore Dalton Ghan taking over the goalkeeping duties in the second half.
“I wasn’t playing too well (in the) first half. I kind of motioned to Coach that I need a little sub so I can just regroup and just kind of try to get to my old self,” Marcotte says. “Then overtime went through and coach looked at me and said ‘You’re going to do PKs.’
“Once you get in there, all you’ve got to do is pick a direction.There’s not a lot of reading into it. You’ve just got to pick, because you can’t really do much after that. Just dive in.”
Marcotte guessed right on three of Monett’s penalty kicks, while Republic made three of its four kicks to clinch the victory.
Republic had controlled the first half of the game, but went to halftime clinging to a 3-2 lead. Dylan Brown took a pass from Julio Quezada eight minutes into the game and slid the ball past the keeper for a 1-0 Republic lead.
A little over a minute later, Monett’s Jason Puente scored to tie it at 1-1.
The Tigers got back-to-back goals from Drew Flippin, in the 31st and 37th minute, to take a 3-1 lead. But Monett’s Puente scored again with :25 remaining in the half to cut the lead to 3-2.
Andres Cecenas tied the game 3-3 less than three minutes into the second half, but Brown’s second goal of the game put Republic back on top 4-3 just a minute later. Monett scored the final goal of regulation when Cecenas found the back of the net for the second time in the 51st minute.
Both teams had good chances to score down the stretch — including two great scoring opportunities in the final minute of regulation.
I thought (Monett) did a good job of closing down the back a little bit more. They were marking Dylan and Drew a little bit more, so they didn’t have the freedom to receive the ball that they did in the first half,” says coach Kevin Hauck “We broke down in the middle of the field and they were able to play through the middle more on us. We weren’t as fluent as a team moving and playing defense in that second half.”
As the second half progressed and the possibility of a penalty-kick finale became more real, Hauck says he had no doubt who would be in goal for the Tigers.
“I knew even if PKs was an opportunity, Cody was the one we were going to.,” Hauck says. “Dalton did a great job filling in. Cody had a couple of rough plays early in the game. The back of his head (and) neck were hurting him a little bit, but he was good to go. He felt fine. He could have continued to go in the second half, but we felt like a chnage at that time was going to be a good change. Going into PKs I told Cody, “You’re my guy, let’s go out there and win it.
“He came up with three huge saves. He…read the ball well, made some good dives. I’m really proud of that young man.”
The win avenges a loss at Monett to start last season for the Tigers. Republic is back home again on Thursday with a game against Lebanon.
