Soccer season ends in district disappointment after milestone win

Republic’s soccer team celebrated a program milestone early in the week before a district disappointment ended their season Saturday. On Tuesday, Republic beat Nixa for the first time ever, and its 2–0 victory clinched the program’s first-ever conference championship. (The Tigers tied with Branson at 7–2.)
“It feels great. The boys came out and they played extremely well tonight. (I’m) just really excited where we are as a team right now, and (with) how they’re playing. It’s hard not to be excited at this point,” Hauck said.
Will Fronabarger and Marco Donjuan both scored second-half goals to lead the Tigers offensively. In addition, goalkeeper Drake Lightfoot surpassed the 500-saves mark for his career. He’s just the seventh player to pass that milestone, according to the MSHSAA soccer
record book.
Hauck said the win Tuesday showed the continued improvement of the boys program. “I think that just shows how well as a program we have developed here at Republic, and how well the boys have taken to each other and feed off that energy,” Hauck said. “Each year, we just seemed to get closer and closer, and this year, finally over the hump.”
But the celebration turned to disappointment Saturday, when Republic lost to Joplin (16–6) in the district quarterfinals. With the teams tied 1–1, Joplin scored a late goal to eke out the victory and advance to the semifinals.
The loss ended Republic’s season at 13–8–1. Republic had started 2–4 before winning 11 of its last 16 games.