Being the #1 seed isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be. The Republic Lady Tigers, seeded 1st in the district soccer tournament for the first time in program history, stumbled in the district semifinal, losing to Hillcrest Tuesday 3-2 in overtime. Hillcrest’s defense came up big, holding Republic’s all-time leading scorer, Sara Marcotte, without a goal during the game.
The Lady Tigers had beaten Hillcrest 3-0 earlier in the season, but this time the Hornets broke ahead early, scoring a goal less than five minutes into the 1st half. Republic answered about nine minutes later when Emily Griffith scored the equalizer to make it 1-1.
But Hillcrest didn’t let the game stay tied for long. They scored again at the 20:00 mark of the 1st half and took a 2-1 lead into halftime.
The Lady Tigers scored again to tie the game with 21:20 remaining in regulation when Sierra Casagrand fed Emily Jordan for a goal to make the score 2-2.
Neither team scored again until Hillcrest put the ball in the net shortly after overtime began. The win sends them into the district championship with a 10-15 season record, where they’ll meet Willard (14-8). The championship game will be played Thursday.