By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A focus on defense paid off for the Branson soccer team in the season opening Webb City Kick Off Classic.
The Pirates notched shutout wins over New Heights Christian (2-0) and Webb City (1-0) on Thursday and Friday, and then allowed one second-half score against Republic in Saturday’s championship contest before earning a 3-1 victory.
“Our defense showed up big this week, not only our goal keeper but our whole back four and even our subs coming in on the back four,” Branson coach Kyle Sutton said. “They know what’s expected of them and they really take pride in not allowing goals. We have our goal scorers and then we have our defenders whose job is to keep goals out and they really take pride in that. Not only our back four but our entire 11 does. We understand if we don’t give up goals we don’t lose. That’s been a big point of emphasis for us and the guys obviously executed it really well this week.”
The Pirates went 1-2 in last year’s Webb City Shootout and didn’t earn their third win until Sept. 24 en route to a 12-13 season. Now 3-0, they’ll travel to Nixa and Ozark before competing in the Parkview Showdown.
Branson struck early against Republic on Saturday, with Justin Mazilu knocking in an unassisted goal barely two minutes in, but it remained a 1-0 game until the second half. Mazilu came up big again about six-and-a-half minutes after the break when he scored on a penalty kick to make it 2-0.
“The first one the ball was bouncing around in the box and he was there to clean it up and finish,” Sutton said. “He’s awesome. The quality he has is great and there’s still more to come from him. He’s only a junior and he’s doing stuff we haven’t seen guys do before. I think really highly of him and expect a lot more from him as well.”
Republic, which suffered a 2-1 loss on penalty kicks to Monett in the opener, and then defeated Hillcrest 2-0 as part of a Friday doubleheader, got on the scoreboard with 19 minutes remaining when junior Sieb Kleevan cleaned up a deflection to cut it to 2-1.
“He’s a foreign exchange student who just joined our team,” Republic coach Jesus Zuniga said. “He’s kicking as well so football is kind of his priority and then he joins us when he can. Normally he plays in the midfield but we saw something in the jamboree where we liked his tenacity and you saw him clean that up, he just has a knack for being around the goal. Whenever you do something so long and you get to do it just for fun you see the true emotion, just the free style of play come out and that’s what he’s doing. That’s a challenge for these kids. It’s a childish game so let’s be kids and have fun and enjoy it.”
The previous three matchups between Branson and Republic were each decided by one score, and Kleevan’s goal brought some renewed urgency to the rest of the second half. Branson sophomore Kale Hinkle gave the Pirates some breathing room, though, when he slipped a goal past the defense with two minutes remaining to make it a 3-1 game.
“He’s been awesome too,” Sutton said. “He’s an undersized forward who knows how to find spaces and get on the ball. It’s hard when you’re his size and you’re playing against center backs who are huge. He’s able to find the spaces and be very effective up top for us.”
“I thought they played really well and the fight we showed today was awesome,” he said. “You come up from Branson to Webb City three days in a row and it’s long and it’s hard especially the first couple weeks of school. The grit they showed to come up and compete not only one day but three days in a row is awesome. To come out and score in the last two minutes of the entire tournament is awesome. It just shows what we’re all about.”
Branson finished with 7 shots on goal.
While Republic didn’t have to travel all three days, the Tigers had their own challenge in playing twice on Friday.
“I thought we actually played well,” Zuniga said. “I just told the boys, I’m not going to say it was expected to lose but we got better every half and that’s all I can ask for from the boys early on in the season. It’s tough to play two games in one day. We had to play early, had an hour and a half break and then play again yesterday so that’s really tough on the legs. Mentally and physically that’s exhausting, no matter how old you are.”
Zuniga said the Tigers were mostly without senior William Pinnell, who led the team last season with 15 goals, as he recovers from an injury.
“He got a few minutes today,” he said. “I’m not making any excuses for injuries because everybody has them this time of season. I’ve told the boys we don’t want to be playing our best soccer right now in August when we’ve still got September and October to play. We want to click in November and if we’re getting better every half that’s all we can do. I told them not to be discouraged but we have a tough schedule. If we want to feel bad for ourselves we can either have a few wins on our side or we can be 1-5 this time next week. It just depends mentally how much we check in.”
Republic (10-16 last year) is back in action Tuesday with a home game against Springfield Catholic.
Webb City defeated Hillcrest 2-1 on penalty kicks in the 3rd place match Saturday morning.
