Less than two minutes after Republic’s Ethan Meyer broke a scoreless tie late in the game, a game-tying penalty kick by Parkview seemed like the same kind of gut-punch the Tiger soccer team has been taking all season. This time, though, the Tigers picked themselves up and punched back.
Republic recovered from a would-be heartbreaker with a goal early in overtime to knock off the Vikings 2 -1 and earn its first win of the season. Kalem Murray’s booted an overtime free kick more than 50 yards, and Will Fronabarger skied to boot it on a hop, crossing the goalkeeper’s face to sink the ball into the left corner of the net.
The win was the first of the year for Republic, which has lost several close games, but was coming off a lopsided loss to Neosho earlier in the week.
“It felt good. I told the boys, ‘The hardest one is always the first one…’ We really had to work for it. We had a lot of opportunities. We missed some chances early on in the game, but we stayed with it and we finished it off in the first overtime, and that’s what counts.”
The overtime victory was even more thrilling after the Tigers had seemingly let one slip away in regulation. Meyer’s goal with 6:30 remaining, after 73 minutes of scoreless soccer, seemed like it would hold up. But less than two minutes later, a foul in the goal box at the other end resulted in a penalty kick to tie the score 1-1.
“It takes your breath away,” Hauck said of the late equalizer by Parkview. “But you’ve got to be able to move on from it… If I can’t re-focus, then the boys aren’t going to be able to re-focus.”