Eagles now in COC driver seat with one conference game left

Well, it had to come to an end at some point. The Carthage Tigers, though, would have preferred it to happen on another day.

After tying the match late in the second half, the Carthage Tigers couldn’t stop Nixa in overtime as the Eagles came away with a 3-2 Central Ozark Conference win at Nixa High School.

“We never really showed up today,” Carthage Head Coach Chris Rogers said. “Nixa is a good team, and they took it to us. We came out flat.”

The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak, but more importantly, it dropped the Tigers to 5-1 in conference. Nixa, along with the rest of the schools in the COC, have one more conference match next week. If the Eagles beat Branson, which introduced men’s soccer this season, next week, the conference title would belong to them.

Carthage trailed by two — 2-0 — heading into the second half, but goals by Joe Curti and Christian Solis tied the match to force overtime.

The Tigers play at 5 p.m. next Thursday against Joplin at home.