June 2, 2017 at 12:42 p.m.
Survive and advance
Sturzl's OT goal lifts Hodags past Marshfield in playoff opener
Survive and advance
The Rhinelander High School girls' soccer team opened its WIAA playoff campaign against Marshfield Thursday at Mike Webster Stadium and did just that. Anna Sturzl's goal in the third minute of extra time was enough to lead the Hodags past Marshfield 3-2 on to Saturday's regional final at Pulaski.
In the first half, it didn't appear survival mode was necessary for Rhinelander.
The Lady Hodags scored roughly five minutes into the game and held a 2-0 lead at halftime. Then Marshfield turned up its aggression. Rhinelander made two critical defensive errors and couldn't find a way to finish, resulting in a tie game at the end of regulation.
The Lady Hodags remained composed, however, and Sydney Zettler hit Sturzl with a perfect pass, which the junior finished just 2:20 into overtime, and the Hodag held on over the final 17-plus minutes.
"We played a pretty good first half," RHS head coach Dan Millot said. "Realistically, we did not give Marshfield many scoring opportunities today and the two goals they did get were defensive mistakes by us. If a team's going to make those types of mistakes, the other team better capitalize and Marshfield did. They definitely made it more of a game than it had to be, but it is what it is."
Sturzl put Rhinelander on the board early on a cross from Franson less than six minutes into the game and Izzy Haverkampf gave the Lady Hodags a two-goal cushion halfway through the first half.
Rhinelander controlled the first half, doubling the Lady Tigers 6-3 in shots and corner kicks.
"We had quite a bit of pressure on them in the first half," Millot said. "Their keeper kind of sat on her line quite a bit and didn't come out and attack the ball. We were able to get the ball deep to Alayna Franson and Anna Sturzl and they were able to make some pretty nice services into the box. I thought that's what we did well. We exploited that space."
In the second half, Marshfield made a switch to a more aggressive keeper, causing some of those plays to disappear.
Rhinelander's own keeper, Abby Oettinger, had a stellar outing, but one crucial mistake allowed Marshfield to get on the board.
Oettinger cleared a ball, but it bounced directly to Marshfield's Kendra Tremelling, who blooped the ball over Oettinger's head before she could get back into her net.
Then, with a little less than 16 minutes to play in regulation, Marshfield's Nina Hashimoto took the ball off defender Brooke Mork's foot and found paydirt to tie the game.
Rhinelander rebounded from the mistakes and ramped up the pressure, but couldn't find a way to score.
Franson had a point-blank opportunity in front of the keeper and shot over the net, moments later she set up Haverkampf, who also missed with 2:36 to play, sending the game to overtime.
"We missed a goal in the first 30 seconds that really needed to be in the back of the net and it wasn't," Millot said. "I think that would have set the tone really early on what we were going to do. In the end, a win is a win and you move on to play another today."
It didn't take long in overtime for Rhinelander to finally find its scoring touch.
Zettler hit Sturzl with a perfect pass and she raced past a defender. This time she made no mistake, burying the eventual game-winner and the Lady Hodags hung on for the remaining 17:40 of overtime.
"I needed to place it right," Sturzl said. "I couldn't let the goalie get in front of me and I needed to get there as fast as I can."
Third-seeded Rhinelander survived the upset bid from Marshfield, a team it defeated 4-2 earlier this year, but the regional semifinals will bring another rematch.
This time, the Lady Hodags will be the underdogs, traveling to second-seeded Pulaski, which thumped a short-handed Rhinelander squad, 5-1, back on April 8.
Sturzl didn't play in that game and defender Lauren Fabich played only a handful of minutes before sustaining a knee injury that sidelined her for much of the first half of the season.
"Pulaski is just a tough team," Millot said. "Against Pulaski, if we get the opportunities that we did tonight against Marshfield, we gotta bury the ball. We cannot afford to miss point-blank shots. Pulaski is going to put the pressure on us. They have girls that can shoot from 25 yards, from anywhere on the field. So we've got to put a lot of pressure on the ball. At the same time, we've got to control the ball a lot more than we did the first time."
Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. at Pulaski Middle School.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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