Adison Gibbs had one thing on her mind when she scored the game-winning goal in double overtime Tuesday night.
“See ball, get ball,” she said. “That’s what Coach Tucker told me, and that’s exactly what I did.”
Gibbs’s goal gave the Republic Lady Tigers a 3-2 win over the Willard Tigers. It was a big victory for Republic, which improved to 6-4 overall and 1-0 in the conference.
The Lady Tigers had to come from behind to get it. They led 1-0 in the first half after Molly Blades scored off a corner kick by Kaylee Cornelsen.
“Kaylee served it in, and it was a perfect ball,” Blades said. “Basically, it was coming to the Willard defender who was on me, so I kind of just took a touch in front of her. The rest is history.”
Willard tied it before halftime and went ahead 2-1 in the second half. Republic, which has lost several close games to tough opponents, didn’t get down, though.
“That was exactly why we got so amped up is because we wanted to do something different with it, and we knew this was the team that we could for sure do it on,” Cadence Lugar said.
Lugar tied it with about 10 minutes left in regulation.
“I was right outside the goal, and their defender was dribbling… and I kind of just took it away from her and hit it to the left corner, and the goalie wasn’t blocking far post, so it went in.”
It stayed 2-2 until Gibbs won it in the second overtime. She got a pass from Blades and put it away.
“It was a great assist and pass in by Molly, and I was making sure I stayed on side because I knew I didn’t want to get called off on that,” Gibbs said. “I saw Molly cross it in, and I took a step around the defenders and cut in across, and I just saw the ball, and I just shot it, and it went in.”
Last year, Republic didn’t get its sixth win until April 25. The Lady Tigers are just two wins away from matching their total for all of last season, when they finished with eight.
Willard fell to 4-4.
Republic will travel to Webb City on Thursday.