By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
It was only the last day of August, but the Republic boys soccer team might have made a small bit of history on Saturday in Webb City.
The Tigers, after winning twice on Friday––4-0 against Hillcrest and 3-2 against Monett in a shootout––broke a lengthy deadlock against the host Cardinals with two goals in the final minutes to win 2-0 in the Webb City Shootout championship game.
That means Republic is now off to a 3-0 start, and that’s the first time the Tigers have done that in at least a decade and a half.
“We graduated eight kids last year and we’ve got two seniors right now who are getting significant minutes but we really had to revamp like half our roster,” Republic coach Jesus Zuniga said. “Our JV team had a heck of a season last year and a lot of those guys are putting in minutes now. Usually it doesn’t translate over but these guys bought in early. They’ve worked their tails off all summer, they really have, and they play with heart. You can’t coach that.”
The Tigers showed it against a Webb City team that beat them 5-0 last October.
While scoring chances were few and far between in the first frame, Zuniga urged his players to “keep fighting” in the second half. Republic nearly took the lead about six minutes in, first with a strong shot in traffic and then on a put-back header, but Webb City keeper Kade Weston fully extended in making a diving stop.
Republic senior Diego Zuniga sent a free kick off the crossbar in the final 10 minutes, and then finally broke the scoring drought a minute later with a long shot from the right side into the back left corner of the goal.
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Things went south for Webb City after that, with the Cardinals forced to play shorthanded after a red card, and Republic junior William Pinnell knocked in a pass from Zuniga with three minutes remaining to help ice it.
“William was a JV guy last year,” Zuniga said. “Diego is the guy everyone thought would be our stud––and he is a stud, don’t get me wrong––but he’s finding a way to get others involved. It’s his senior year and I gave him a challenge. Does he want to get kids involved and do some things? It’s up to him, and he and Miles (Thomas) have stepped up tremendously as leaders.”
Republic keeper Koal Williams, a sophomore, totaled six saves in the contest. Both teams had six shots on goal.
“Webb gave it to us in the second half,” Zuniga said. “I felt they had better play the second half, but the boys stuck with it, found a way to grind and trust each other and play for each other.”
“It’s just the beginning for us,” he said. “They want to earn respect and this is a small step in the right direction.”
Webb City dropped to 2-1 with the loss and, like Republic, was just minutes away from its second shutout of the weekend. The Cardinals beat Branson 3-2 in a shootout and blanked New Heights 3-0 on Friday.
“We will learn lessons from this,” said Webb City head coach Nick Harmon. “A lot of poor decisions and a loss of composure in the second half, but I thought overall we played pretty well up until that last 10 minutes or so. Just some breakdowns they capitalized on, and credit to Republic. They obviously deserved to win.
“The effort was good, it’s definitely not anything I can complain about,” Harmon said. “A lot of guys showed heart and toughness to run through some tired legs and tired lungs. At this juncture in the season, we’re not game fit yet, so mental lapses like today and losses of composure in certain moments can be chalked up to fatigue, but at the same time we should have been sharper today. We weren’t sharp enough.”
