By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
REPUBLIC — Colin Cash didn’t hesitate.
Not when the ball came to him late in the district championship game on Wednesday night, and certainly not when the Nixa midfielder was asked if it was the biggest goal he’s scored in his life.
“Definitely the most important goal I’ve scored,” he said.
Cash’s tally in the 70th minute capped Nixa’s wild second-half comeback and sent the top-seeded Eagles to a 2-1 victory over Republic in the Class 4 District 12 championship game.
After being held scoreless for more than an hour and trailing for most of the night, the Eagles scored twice in eight minutes to rally their way to their first district title since 2017. Nixa will host archrival Ozark, the District 11 champion, in the first round of the state tournament on Saturday.
The tournament seemed well beyond reach for much of the first half, as Nixa (15-9) was unable to mount any significant attacks against third-seeded Republic (12-10). Marco Donjuan scored off a corner kick in the 25th minute to give the hosts a 1-0 lead that held through halftime.
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“Credit to Republic,” Nixa coach Evan Palmer said. “They came out on the front foot. They were on us. They were doing so many things better than us in that first half and they got a goal — a really deserved goal — and we just kind of held on that first half.”
The Eagles made some formation adjustments at the break and opened the second half with several sustained attacks. Republic goalie Drake Lightfoot held them off for as long as he could, but Kaleb James found the equalizer in the 62nd minute when he converted a corner kick.
“In the first half, we were just really not a good team,” Cash said. “In the second half, we really brought it together. Once we got that first goal, we had the momentum.”
The Eagles almost took the lead in the 68th minute when Andrew Butler got a step on the defense, but Republic’s Cole Wells chased him down and forced him to take a bad-angle shot that Lightfoot stopped easily. Only two minutes later, Cash took a pass from teammate Seth Weatherfield and promptly sent a high, arcing shot over the goaltender for the game-winner.
“He’s such a talented player,” Palmer said. “He was having a tough game in the first half, but he found his game in the second half. He played really well in the second half, just like all of the team did, but he found it when we needed it.”
The split-second nature of the play — and Cash’s lack of hesitation — wound up being crucial.
“We had a guy right there,” Republic coach Kevin Hauck lamented. “But instead of being in front of him to win that ball — like we were all night — he just was a step behind him. The Nixa player did a great job of being able to get his foot on the ball first before our defender was able to.”
Republic had two chances to pull even in the final 10 minutes, but Nixa turned them both away.
The first came in the 76th minute when Donjuan sent a high cross into the box, but Nixa goalie Nicholas Reid came off the line to snatch it out of the air before it found its target.
The Tigers tried again a minute later, but Reid made the initial save and the ball was cleared away before anyone from Republic could tap it home.
“You have to play the full 80 minutes,” Hauck said. “We played a really good first 40 minutes and we knew we were going to have to play a terrific second 40 minutes to be able to beat them. We were close to it, but we just weren’t able to do it and weren’t able to withstand the pressure.”
Now, the pressure is all on Nixa. The Eagles face an Ozark team that beat them 1-0 on September 15 in a game that Palmer said was very similar to the one they played Wednesday.
“They scored early and held on and we couldn’t finish our chances,” the Nixa coach recalled. “But we’re finding ways. … We were able to find it tonight. We hope we can keep that going.”
