Soccer Tigers split as stretch run begins

Two days after losing their chance to share a conference title, Republic rebounded with a win on the road at Bolivar.
Tuesday, Republic fought Ozark to a 1–1 tie at halftime before two goals in the second half allowed Ozark to pull away. A goal in the first minute of the second half set up the Ozark win.
“The first half, we had a lot more intensity. We had a lot of energy. We were all over the field,” said coach Kevin Hauck. “I thought we did a really nice job of pressuring them, and I thought that was the key to the game for us.”
But the quick second-half goal helped turn the momentum toward Ozark, according to Hauck.
“We knew we needed to communicate and do a better job of marking their runners, and we just lost track of that,” he said.
Ozark added a second goal in the 54th minute to take control, and Republic had few scoring opportunities from there.
Republic responded with a 4–0 win at Bolivar Thursday. It was a game in which Hauck stressed to his players the importance of having fun–and they did.
“Before the game, I told the boys, ‘I don’t want us to get unfocused here, but I just want us to have fun tonight,’” Hauck said. “We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves, and we played at times with a lot of tension and … stress, knowing how good we should be.”
Jorge Jimenez and Kalem Murray each scored a goal for Republic, and Drew Flippin scored twice in the second half.
“We’ve talked about it off and on throughout the season,” Hauck said. “They’ve even told me when they’re having fun and feeling good, they play better, and I want to make sure that we’re able to do that, especially this close to districts.”