The young Lady Tigers put together stretches of solid play in their soccer season opener, but two first-half defensive breakdowns put them in a hole they couldn’t climb out of. Rolla took advantage of its 2-0 halftime advantage to earn a 5-2 win at home Monday night.
Republic controlled possession for much of the first half, but two goals during a two-minute stretch midway through the half helped Rolla jump on top. Rolla’s Emma Fontenot scored both goals, then completed a hat trick with another goal two minutes into the third half.
Republic got on the board for the first time with just under 29 minutes left in the game. The Lady Tigers moved the ball from left to right across the box, with Molly Blades feeding Adison Gibbs in the middle, then Gibbs finding Paige Elsenraat on the left side of the box. Elsenraat, a freshman, scored her first career goal with 28:44 on the clock.
The goal lit a spark under the Lady Tigers, who nearly added another goal 80 seconds later when Blades grazed the crossbar with a shot from the right wing.
Rolla managed to ride out the Republic rally, though, and eventually regained control. Two goals in the final ten minutes gave the Lady Bulldogs a 5-1 lead.
Elsenraat scored her second goal of the game with 29 seconds remaining when she re-directed the ball past the sliding Rolla keeper.
Despite the early loss, coach Jesus Zuniga said he saw a lot of good things from his young team.
“There were so many positives. I thought we did great things. I told them after the game, they out played us in the second half, but we outplayed them (in the first) half,” Zuniga said. “We had two really good opportunities in the second half and didn’t finish them. They had two opportunities in the first half and did finish them.”
Rolla had played in a weekend tournament, while Republic was playing its first game of the season.