By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Branson soccer team entered Tuesday night in a four-way tie for the Central Ozark Conference lead with just one game remaining.
And that game was at Neosho, one of the four schools with a 6-2 conference record.
But head coach David Brenner knew his team was capable of something special this season and the Pirates proved him right, earning a 4-1 road win and clinching a share of the COC championship.
“In 14 years we’ve always been competitive,” Brenner said. “We’ve been mid-range in the COC but I told this group back in August the day we started that they had a chance to be really special and do something we had never done before. That’s where their mindset has been, but just looking at the next game. We haven’t looked at a conference title, we haven’t looked at a district title. We’ve looked at the next game.”
Branson can look at that conference title now, and the school will share bragging rights with Republic, which downed Nixa 2-0 on Tuesday to equal the Pirates’ 7-2 mark.
The Pirates (17-5) were in control all night against Neosho and built a 2-0 lead in the first half. Senior Brayan Barboza opened the scoring in the 24th minute with an assist from senior Carlton Epps. Just six minutes later Epps scored on a penalty kick, and senior keeper Pilot Ascone added a diving stop before the half to keep the Wildcats scoreless.
Still, Brenner didn’t let his guard down.
“The most dangerous score in soccer is 2-0 because it just takes one for them to get the momentum back,” he said. “We talked at halftime and we said we’ve got to keep pressuring, we’ve got to keep our wits about us. We know they’ve got a great crowd here that gets loud, gets them motivated and they get excited. When high school boys get excited then play can get a little chippy at times. We were focused on each other and keeping our play clean and ourselves clean.”
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Less than a minute into the second half Epps scored unassisted to make it a 3-0 game. The Wildcats had a penalty kick of their own in the 53rd minute but Ascone made another diving save and Neosho couldn’t corral the loose ball.
Epps scored for the third time in the 59th minute, again on a penalty kick, for Branson’s final goal.
Neosho junior Juan Perez provided the only highlight for his team with a beautiful shot to the left corner in the 67th minute. It was too little, too late for the Wildcats.
“They’re obviously a good team and played well so congratulations to them. We didn’t,” Neosho coach James Carter said. “I think it’s probably a fair result. The good news is we get to keep playing. We’re not into the playoffs yet.”
Branson, which took just seven shots and put five on goal, made the most of its scoring chances.
“Good teams do that,” Brenner said. “When you’re playing against a defensive team like Neosho is, they’re not going to give you many chances so when you do get one you’ve got to go out there and take it. We’ve got a very special front line with Carlton and Brayan and then our center mids feeding balls and then our back line – what can I say about our back line? We just threw a freshman into goal and our back line said alright, we’re not going to let the ball get to him. We had a little mental breakdown but it wasn’t a huge one.”
“You can’t give up a lot of chances because the good ones with good players will put them away,” Carter said.
Neosho took 18 shots in the game with 10 of them on goal.
