By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
REPUBLIC – It has been a season of firsts for the Republic High School boys’ soccer team.
First 20-win season.
First district championship.
First sectional win.
And now – the first trip to the state quarterfinals.
Behind the strength of senior Dylan Brown’s leg – and head – the Tigers (22-4) defeated Neosho 5-2 in a Class 3 sectional Tuesday night.
“It feels great,” Republic coach Kevin Hauck said of the Tigers’ season of firsts. “These boys really earned this; they deserve this. It’s a great accomplishment.”
The temperature was a crisp 44 degrees at game time, and it took both teams a while to get warmed up as they traded time of possession for about the first 10 minutes.
Republic peppered back-to-back shots toward the Neosho goal before Brown buried a shot off a ricochet in front of the goal for a 1-0 lead in the ninth minute.
Both teams traded chances the remainder of the half, and Neosho nearly tied it up just before halftime with a great shot that Republic goalkeeper Dalton Ghan had to go high for and punch out.
The Tigers wasted little time adding to its lead in the second half when Christopher Pacheco found Brown, who headed the pass into the goal for a 2-0 advantage and the 100th goal of his career.
While the milestone is great, Tuesday night wasn’t the night to celebrate it.
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“It means a lot, and it feels good,” Brown said, “but we’ve still got business to take care of as a team. Those things can be celebrated after the season.”
But Brown wasn’t finished adding to his and the Tigers’ total on Tuesday night.
A Neosho foul in the box set up a penalty kick for Brown, whose shot deflected off the goalkeeper to give Brown the hat trick and the Tigers a 3-0 lead in the 59th minute.
Even with the 3-0 deficit, the Wildcats never felt like they were out of it.
Almost a minute after Republic’s third goal, Angel Alvarado sent in a ball that Bryan Perez collected and buried to put Neosho on the board (3-1).
The Wildcats weren’t finished, as Perez made a run up the right side of the field and scored on a 1-on-1 opportunity to make it a game at 3-2 in the 75th minute.
“That’s kind of what we’ve done all season,” Neosho coach Steve Schnackenberg said. “We’ve had lot of hard knocks and tough breaks during the season and always fight back. That says a lot about these boys that they always come back, they always fight back and don’t give up. We knew we weren’t done at 3-0.”
The quick scores seemed to knock the Tigers on their heels.
“At 3-1, we kind of felt the momentum shifting and we pushed up a little too high trying to get a nice attack,” Hauck said, “we lose the ball and they get through on a breakaway and were able to finish it. It made things interesting.”
Neosho was unable to capitalize on back-to-back free kicks. Pacheco intercepted a ball, carried it up the left sideline and sent a cross to Brown, who buried it in the lower left corner to give Republic some insurance – 4-2 – in the 83rd minute.
“He’s a good soccer player,” Schnackenberg said of Brown. “He’s in the right place at the right time, they play him the ball and he finishes.”
And, for good measure, Andrew Flippin sent a through-ball that Trenton Roetto sent on to Brown for goal No. 5 with just seven seconds to go and a 5-2 victory.
“(Brown) likes to score,” Hauck said. “He’ll be honest, he wants the ball at his feet and he wants to get goals. He’s always goal-hungry and we love having that because we can defend pretty well. I feel really good about our defense. They did a great job for us. And to be able to have a nice goal-scorer like that up top really helps.”
Next up is a quarterfinal date with Glendale, a 1-0 winner over Rolla, in a matchup on Saturday.
“I definitely feel we have the pieces to compete with anybody in the state, and I’m excited for the challenge Saturday,” Hauck said.
And, the Tigers aren’t finished, according to Brown.
“We knew that we were going to be good (this season), and nobody was really giving us a chance and we used that to our advantage,” Brown said. “We wanted to come out and win a district championship; that was our main goal. And, here we are. We want to keep going. We don’t want to stop.”
