For the second year in a row, the Republic Lady Tigers toppled a #1 seed to win a district soccer championship. This year, the victim was Willard in a 2-1 Republic victory. It was senior Taylor Patton in goal for Republic, under pressure all afternoon, who took a starring role. Patton says she expected to be under attack before the game began.

“Honestly, yes, because I knew they’re such a good team, and have such a good record,” she says. “But I tried to stay positive and keep my team up, so I could keep it out of my box as much as possible.”

Willard peppered Patton with shots for much of the opening 15 minutes. But with 24:14 left in the half, Sierra Casagrand’s booming free kick from more than 30 yards out hooked just beneath the crossbar, over the outstretched arms of the Willard keeper, to give Republic a 1-0 lead. (See video.)

Nine minutes later, the Lady Tigers caught a break when Sara Marcotte tried to center the ball from the left corner. The ball arched high into the air, and somehow floated over the Willard keeper, bounding into an open net for a 2-0 Republic lead. That’s where it stayed until halftime.

Less than five minutes into the 2nd half, Lindsey Owens brought Willard back within a goal, and Willard used the momentum to put more pressure on the Republic defense. But Republic wouldn’t break, and even mounted a few scoring chances of its own, despite failing to score again.

Willard’s closest equalizing opportunity came in the final five minutes, when a shot bounded off Patton’s hands and rolled toward the goal line. It got within a foot of the goal before Hannah Wilson came out of nowhere to kick it away and save the victory.

“What I think about with Taylor at this moment is her coming to me this fall saying ‘Coach, I want to play goalie. I think I can do it,’” says coach Mike Hines. “She’d never played goalie before. So she started working in the offseason and (assistant) Shane Kennard came out and he has done a miraculous job.

“Her play in the final 5-8 minutes of this game, we wouldn’t have won it without her.”

Patton’s performance recalled a similar game last year by senior goalie Amanda Snider in the district semifinals against Carl Junction. She had what Hines calls “the game of her life” to help Republic advance.

The Lady Tigers advance to sectionals for the second time in the three-year history of their program. They’ll meet Carl Junction at home next Tuesday.

Mountain View-Liberty jumped ahead 1-0 just two minutes into their district semifinal game against Republic. But that was the last bit of good news they’d get all night.

Republic (17-6) answered quickly and decisively, dominating the game from there on with relentless pressure on Liberty’s defense. Republic pelted the Liberty keeper with shot after shot, until Sarah Marcotte got Republic on the board with 30 minutes left in the half, breaking through the left side of the defense and shooting from about 15 yards out.

Five minutes later, after another flurry of action in the goal box, Marcotte kicked home a rebound on a shot by Jocelyn Carpenter to make it 2-1 Republic.

It took another five minutes for Marcotte to complete the hat trick, as she scored on another rebound to make it 3-1.

Forty seconds after that, Sierra Casagrand got loose on a breakaway and sent the ball sailing past the goalie for a 4-1 lead. It stayed that way until Marcotte scored her fourth goal on a penalty kick after being pushed from behind on a shot attempt 5 yards from the goal. That made it 5-1 at halftime.

After the break, Casagrand scored her second goal of the night on a shot that crossed left to right, just beyond the Liberty keeper’s reach.

Marcotte scored on a penalty kick with 33 minutes remaining to make the score 7-1.

And Tara Chapman got in on the action with 16 minutes left, scoring a goal to account for the final margin.

The game was delayed by lightning before the finish. That also pushed back the start of the second semifinal game, won by Willard (14-3) over Hillcrest (6-16) 3-2.

Republic and Willard will play at Republic for the district title Friday at 3:00 p.m.