For a long time Thursday night, it seemed like Republic was reliving the plot to a bad horror movie it had lived through a couple of weeks ago in their double-overtime loss at Carthage. The same field, the same opponent, the same defensive dominance, and even the same two overtime periods. But this time, with the district championship on the line, Republic found a happy ending. Drew Flippin booted home the golden goal early in the second overtime period to give Republic a sudden-death, 3-2 victory over Carthage, winning the program’s first ever district championship.
On October 3, in the rain, Carthage had ended Republic’s 13-game winning streak with a header, also in double overtime, with only four seconds remaining on the clock. Thursday, Carthage scored another last-minute goal — this one to tie the game 2-2 with just :49 seconds remaining. But instead of staying deflated, Republic recovered to stave off elimination.
In the first overtime, playing the ball into a strong headwind, the Tigers did enough to survive by holding Carthage scoreless. They reversed directions in the second overtime, and that’s when Flippin ended it. The game-winner came after Flippin played the ball left to right across the box, looking for Dylan Brown. He overshot, but Brown tracked the ball down, crossed it back to Flippin, and Flippin finished, setting off a long Republic celebration.
The teams had traded goals in regulation — and Carthage had managed to stay in the game despite playing one man short for much of the game. A red card early in the second half sent off one of Carthage’s players, when he tripped Brown from behind on a breakaway to earn the automatic ejection. That forced Carthage to play with ten men the rest of the way.
Republic capitalized shortly after the red card, when Dylan Brown scored his first goal in the 47th minute. But Carthage didn’t die, and scored after a free kick in the 62nd minute, despite playing into the stiff wind.
Brown gave Republic another lead a few minutes later. The ball popped into the air when it bounced off the keeper’s hands, and Brown headed the ball past him into the net for a 2-1 lead.
It looked like it would be a win in regulation when Carthage stunned Republic, scoring with just :49 remaining on the clock to force overtime. Carthage took the momentum, and the wind, into the first overtime period, but couldn’t capitalize.
For Republic, it was the 21st win of the season. The Tigers are 21-4, and they’ll play Neosho in the state sectionals on October 31. It will be the first-ever boys playoff game played in Republic, and kickoff is set for 6 pm.