Republic dominated the game, but it was a single play by Anna Jones late in the second half that made the difference in a 1-0 win at home over Carthage.
Jones took a give-and-go pass from Jessica Montenegro, dribbled around a defender, and fired home a shot from just outside the goal box for the game-winner. The ball rolled just inside the right post, beyond the outstretched arms of the diving Carthage goalkeeper, who had fended off shot after shot in the game’s first 65 minutes.
Jones’ goal put Republic ahead, but it was goalkeeper Tara Campbell who helped seal the shutout and the victory just a few minutes later. Carthage mounted its only serious scoring threat of the night on a breakaway, but Campbell came off her line to knock the ball away, allowing the Lady Tiger defense to clear it.
“It was really crazy,” Campbell says. “Thirty seconds before, I thought, “What if I have a half without even touching the ball? That would be kind of cool to say.’ Then they come rushing down … and she had that breakaway and I came out. I didn’t think I was going to get it, but I got it.”
Campbell said one of her biggest challenges was trying to stay warm on a bitterly cold, windy night, with all the action happening at the other end of the field.
“I was just roaming around my little box trying to stay warm. It was really hard because there’s nothing for me to do. I can’t really run around,” she says.
Very little of the action happened within 30 yards of Campbell, especially after a halftime adjustment by Hauck to spread the field and give his offense more space.
“We weren’t using our wings … so we went to three up top and we spread it out a little more, and allowed for three to control everything in the midfield for us. I think going to that really allowed us to put pressure on them. We really had shot after shot there for a while. We just weren’t getting anything to fall, unfortunately, but it really opened up the game for us and I thought we had more space to work with.”
The JV Lady Tigers got goals by Hannah Lease, Yeraldin Quezada, Hannah Richards, and Miku Nambara to win 4-0.
The varsity Lady Tigers are now 3-2.
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Farr Better Player of the Game
Anna Jones was in the thick of the action up top for the Lady Tigers all night, but it was her pinpoint shot just inside the right post late in the second half that gave Republic the lead and paved the way for a win. For her effort, Jones is our Farr Better Player of the Game.
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