Republic soccer season ends in disappointment

The Class 4 District 11 soccer tournament was supposed to end with a showdown between top-seeded Republic and #2 seed Carthage. Instead, Joplin knocked off Springfield Central for the district title, after those two teams pulled big upsets in the semifinal round. For Joplin, it was an overtime win on penalty kicks (2–2, 5–4) that sent Republic home disappointed, a year after the Tigers had made their first-ever trip to the state semifinals.

From the start, Joplin (8–16) showed it was not willing to back down from the heavily favored Tigers (15–9). Just five minutes into the game, the Eagles scored a goal to take a 1–0 lead, and they possessed the ball for most of the opening 20 minutes. It wasn’t until the midway point of the second half that Republic managed to find its footing and get some scoring opportunities of its own.

Drew Flippin tied the game in the 32nd minute, scoring on a free kick from about 25 yards out to even the score at 1–1.

Rashawn Davis put Joplin back ahead just five minutes after halftime. From that point on, Republic ramped up the intensity and pushed into Joplin’s half of the field again and again, but barely missed several scoring chances. In the 51st minute, Austin Beck’s shot ricocheted off the crosspost. Four minutes later, Chris Pacheco got off a shot in the box, but it popped over the top of the goal.

Finally, in the 63rd minute, Republic got its second goal to tie the game on a penalty kick by Flippin. The kick was set up after a run through multiple defenders into the box by Chris Pacheco, who drew the foul.

Playing in his last game as a Tiger, senior goalkeeper Dalton Ghan made several great saves to keep Republic alive. He made a fantastic save in the final minute, when Joplin’s attack pulled him out from the goal to his left, then shot across his body. Ghan dove back to his right to make the save and force overtime.

Just four minutes into overtime, Ghan made another save on a one-on-one attack by Joplin’s Davis. He saved the game again three minutes later, diving to tip the ball just wide of the left post.

Republic had its best chance in overtime on a shot by Flippin in the 93rd minute, but for the second time in the game, the Tigers were denied when the shot hit the crosspost.

Joplin and Republic were tied 4–4 after the first five penalty kicks. The Eagles advanced after Joplin’s goalkeeper made a save on the sixth kick, followed by a Joplin goal.

“There’s not much you can say. We missed some opportunities that would have sealed the deal for us, and you just can’t do that in districts,” coach Kevin Hauck said. “We let [Joplin] stick around, and they did a good job. It wasn’t one of our best nights, unfortunately.”

Hauck said the most difficult part of the loss will be saying goodbye to this year’s seniors, who were freshmen when he first took the coaching job at Republic.

“It’s harder because of [having] such a good senior group. What they’ve been able to build with me has been pretty special, so that’s been tough,” he says. “To me, that’s what makes it more difficult than anything.”