No Republic soccer team had ever won 20 games in a season. With a 2-1 victory over Willard in the district semifinals Tuesday, the Tigers broke that barrier. Now an even bigger milestone is looming.
Republic will try to win its first-ever boys district soccer championship Thursday against Carthage. Kevin Hauck’s squad will also be trying to avenge one of its four losses this season—a double-overtime decision that ended on a header with just four seconds remaining before penalty kicks would have decided it.
Tuesday night, Republic struck quickly against Willard, scoring twice in a six-minute span. In the fifth minute, the Tigers got on the board when Dylan Brown drew the defense to him and slid the ball ahead to Trenton Roetto, who pushed the ball past the advancing keeper for the goal.
Six minutes later, one of the most important sequences of the game helped the Tigers take a 2-0 lead. Republic keeper Dalton Ghan made two acrobatic saves in quick succession, and Republic counter-attacked quickly. Carlos Chan played the ball ahead, Brown slipped by his defender and played the ball on a bounce, and scored on a breakaway.
It was less than two minutes into the second half when Willard scored to cut the lead to 2-1, but Republic’s defense held the rest of the way, setting up a rematch with Carthage later in the week with a district championship on the line.
“All these kids want to want to be the first team in program history to win it for the boys,” says coach Kevin Hauck. “We have put in a lot of hard work this season. We hit it hard in the summer. We’ve had a great season. I the boys that it comes down to Thursday now; all the hard work that we’ve put in, and it comes down to Thursday. Let’s see if we can get after it.”
