The upstart Republic Tigers continued their march to history Saturday, shocking perennial soccer power Springfield Glendale with a late goal to win 2-1 and earn a spot in the state semifinals.
Dylan Brown scored the game-winner from ten yards out after receiving the ball from Drew Flippin on the right wing. Brown waited for Glendale goalkeeper Gage Patterson to commit and tucked the ball into the left corner with just over three minutes remaining to help Republic win a place in the state final four for the first time ever.
The goal was the second of the game for Brown, who had headed the ball into the net on a long throw-in by Flippin in the 9th minute. The early goal gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead and put Glendale, 21-time district champions, on notice that Republic was not content with a quarterfinal appearance.
“The early goal was huge because it allowed us to settle into the game, and I think that was really important for us,” coach Kevin Hauck says.
Republic kept its lead until halftime, but Glendale controlled possession early in the second half, ratcheting up the pressure on the Tiger defense. Hauck says he thinks nerves got to the Tigers as they emerged from halftime with a slim lead and a final four appearance on the line.
“Up 1-0, we knew it was going to take 40 minutes of almost perfect soccer to hold onto it against them. I felt we were a little nervous with it,” he says. “Things calmed down and got a little bit even later on, and that made me start to feel a lot better.”
The Falcons scored the equalizer in the 52nd minute when Grant Compere took the ball with his back to the goal, spun, and fired it off the wet turf, and in turn off the fingers of diving Republic keeper Dalton Ghan. That tied the game 1-1, and seemed to put an extra spring into the Falcons’ step.
Glendale got another break a few minutes later when Republic defender Alex Leonard had to leave the game with an injury. At 6’1”, Leonard was a key to Republic’s defense against the aerial attack of a taller Falcons lineup. But the Tigers adjusted and continued to turn Glendale away until the quick-strike game-winning score.
The winning play started with a goal kick by Ghan. The kick sailed beyond the midfield stripe and Glendale headed it back toward the Republic defense. But Eli Masten played the ball out of the air, reversing the play’s direction and setting up what happened next. Masten played the ball off to Trenton Roetto, who took it in stride and slid the ball ahead to Drew Flippin on the right wing. Flippin quickly played it back to the middle, where Brown sprinted through a seam in the defense and finished.
“We practice that a lot,” Hauck says. “When Trenton won and I saw Drew on the right side, I was hoping he was going to hit him. We’ve practiced playing the ball back into the middle quickly, and Drew saw it, and hit it. It was perfect, and Dylan kept running and was able to finish. It’s something we’ve worked on a lot, and it just happened that it came at a good time.”
From there, the Tigers played defense for the remaining three minutes to earn their spot in the semifinals. They’ll play Parkway Central (18-8-1) or Fort Zumwalt South (14-12-1) Friday afternoon at 2 pm.
