The only thing that wasn’t cold at Republic’s season-opening soccer game Tuesday was Rolla’s offense. The Bulldogs scored four goals — two in each half — to power their way past Republic 4-0. The loss was a disappointing start for the Lady Tigers, who return a strong mix of returners and newcomers from last year, and who looked impressive in their jamboree last Friday against stiff competition.
“When we played in the jamboree, we looked like a completely different team than we did tonight,” says coach Kevin Hauck. “I’m not really sure what happened. I don’t know if mentally we weren’t in it tonight, or what. Friday we were much more aggressive as a team, and we worked off each other as a team.”
Hauck says some individual players had moments of aggressiveness, but in general, he was disappointed with the start. The important thing, he says, it to learn from the loss and get better.
“We do have a lot of young girls who are either starting or subbing for us. We’re a very young team, and with that, we’re going to learn,” Hauck says. “We need some of the older girls to be able to step up and take leadership for us, and to be able to help us move forward, and I think we will. Hopefully, we take away that we’re a much better team whenever we pressure and work together as a team than whenever we do it individually.”
Despite the opening loss, Hauck says he hasn’t lost his optimism for what he believes can be a special season.
“I think this team can really turn it around,” Hauck says. “I think it’s one bad game and we’ll fix it. We looked so much better Friday at the jamboree, and whatever that spark was, we just need to find it.”
Republic gets a chance to find that spark Thursday when they travel to Rogersville.
The JV Lady Tigers won their game 1-0.