She may have had 80 full minutes to work with, but Republic (12-7) junior Emily Jordan needed less than 40 of them to notch three goals on Monday – leading her host Lady Tigers to a 4-1 win over Central (13-6).
With all three of her scores occurring in the first half of play, Jordan quickly amassed momentum for Republic and kept it on its side throughout a game that featured two teams that are poised to make deep runs in the postseason.
“She's a special player,” Republic head coach Kevin Hauck said of Jordan. “Whenever something presents an opportunity for her to take a shot, she's not going to pass it up and I don't want her to pass it up.”
The junior captain looked to strike from close range on several occasions in the very early going, but was unable to find any success against sophomore midfielder-turned-goalie Danielle Barstead – leading Jordan to make an adjustment that resulted in finding pay dirt on an almost regular basis.
“I was trying to take shots dribbling in and [Barstead] would always come to the ball out wide if I took a touch too big, so I started shooting from the outside,” Jordan said.
Barstead, who had never previously played at the keeper position prior to Monday, filled in over the opening 40 minutes for senior Hannah Frey, who arrived late due to a prior commitment. With Barstead regularly placing herself farther in front of the goal than a traditional goalkeeper, Jordan took advantage and sailed all three goals over the sophomore's head and into the back of the net.
Jordan's netters came at the 19:43, 16:37 and 4:25 marks of the first half to put the Lady Tigers up by a count of 3-0 by halftime.
“As a smart player, you're going to look to take those opportunities a little farther out, especially if you see the goalie moving up like that,” Hauck said. “I'm proud of Emily to be able to see that and take those opportunities. It really sparked us for the rest of the game, which was nice.”
With 34:26 to go in the second half, senior defender Jade Sawyer knocked in Republic's fourth goal of the game – coming off a corner kick by Jordan.
A score on a penalty kick by Central's Jaiden Ellerbee four minutes later ended the Lady Tigers' shutout bid, but failed to put a damper on the Lady Tigers' 12th victory of the year.
Even before the win, Hauck's team already locked up the No. 1 seed in its district tournament – shifting Hauck's priorities from collecting regular season wins to staying healthy.
“That's definitely the number one goal, especially being one week away from when districts are,” Hauck added. “Besides that, we really want to make sure we're focusing on the little things and our next two games, and making sure that we're correcting what we need to correct going into districts and playing our best soccer.”
Central, who will be the top seed come district time as well, is still trying to get to full strength with just one game remaining on the regular season slate.
“It's the last games of the season and I'm not all that upset,” Central head coach Chris Welch said after the loss. “We're tired and still injured, so we just have to keep pushing forward.”
Republic travels to Webb City on Tuesday before hosting Monett for Senior Night on Thursday. Central returns home for its final tune-up before the postseason on Thursday as it hosts Catholic
