Republic withstood several fierce attacks from the Bolivar offense in the first half and managed to get a single goal to secure a 1-0 road win at Bolivar Thursday.
The Tigers’ only score came about 30 minutes into the game, when Kalem Murray played a free kick into the box. When Bolivar’s keeper came out to make the save as Will Fronabarger pressed forward, the ball bounced loose and Fronabarger popped it into the goal. From there, keeper Drake Lightfoot and the Tiger defense held on.
The Tigers are returning to full strength after a bout of Covid quarantines, but coach Kevin Hauck said it was evident that some players have been missing for a while.
“Tonight we got everybody back except for Marco (Donjuan), who gets to come back next week, and we really haven’t had a whole lot of practices together with everybody back,” said coach Kevin Hauck. “You could definitely tell the connection wasn’t very good tonight, so some parts were a little more difficult to watch.”
Despite the lack of coordination at times, the Tigers managed to pick up another win, improving to 11-7. The victory guaranteed that the Tigers will finish above .500 this season despite starting with five straight losses.
“The good thing (about tonight) is the boys kept fighting. They kept grinding it out and we were able to pull off the win, and that’s the main thing,” Hauck said.
