May 24, 2017 at 2:05 p.m.
RHS girls' soccer starts week with back-to-back shutouts
RHS girls' soccer starts week with back-to-back shutouts
The Lady Hodags kicked off the week's schedule with back-to-back home victories against Medford and Wausau Newman, teams they previously beat 10-0 earlier in the season.
Medford was first on the docket on Monday at Mike Webster Stadium.
Rhinelander came in having never lost to the Lady Raiders. The Hodags haven't even allowed a goal to Medford since 2012.
Both streaks continued as the Lady Hodags won 10-0, pushing their all-time record to 14-0 against Medford.
Isabelle Haverkampf started and finished the scoring, making book-end goals, with the first coming less than four minutes into the game.
Alayna Franson would score to go up 2-0 less than 15 minutes into the game, but it was not seamless.
Rhinelander dominated possession during the first half - not allowing a shot on goal - but struggled to connect passes and finish in the first 30 minutes of the game.
"You have to recognize how a team is playing and they were sinking seven people into the box," RHS head coach Dan Millot said. "When we were trying to feed the ball through, it's kind of hard feed it through that picket fence, but once we started to open it up and shot the ball from the outside, it forced them to come out and challenge us a bit more. We had to loosen their defense up a little bit."
In the last 15 minutes of the half, Rhinelander turned it on, scoring four goals in five minutes to head into halftime up 6-0.
Sydney Zettler scored the first two goals to ignite her team and then scored 42 seconds into the second half to earn the hat trick.
"Sydney played an excellent game tonight," Millot said. "She distributed the ball well tonight, she had a hat trick and played well. She had a fierce battle against one of their better players. It was a physical battle and it was nice to see Sydney step up to that challenge."
Haverkampf ended the game with 14:22 left on a laser to the top corner of the goal, giving her two goals and an assist.
Anna Sturzl chipped in a goal and two assists. Meanwhile Albiona Sabani had two goals to end the first half, Franson had a goal and an assist and Payton Van Zile added two assists.
Wausau Newman
On Tuesday, Rhinelander looked to complete the season sweep over Wausau Newman, a team it only needed 67 minutes to score 10 goals the first time around.
It took less than 10 minutes to get on the board as Lauren Fabich ripped a shot that Brooke Mork deflected and bounced off the hands of Newman Catholic goalkeeper Sydney Calo's hands and in.
Then Rhinelander went into an offensive slump, struggling to beat a game Newman Catholic squad and often shooting the ball directly at the keeper.
The Lady Hodags got some breathing room early in the second half, but finally broke the game open in the final 20 minutes to win 5-0.
"Newman played with a lot of heart tonight," Millot said. "They beat us to 50-50 balls. They came ready to battle. They upset Lakeland last night and because they took it to Lakeland ready to battle. Player for player, are we a better team? Absolutely. I think they had some players that played really well tonight. Their defense played well as far as making sure they got back. I think they were determined that the first result that happened the first time, didn't happen tonight."
The Lady Hodags scored a little more than five minutes into the second half as a perfect cross from Franson found the foot of Sturzl.
Sturzl was the beneficiary of another perfect ball in the 72nd minute and she outraced the defense for another goal.
Since returning from injuries early in the season, Sturzl and Fabich have begun to make an impact for Rhinelander.
"They are playing very well," Millot said. "They're playing smart, they're playing within themselves and I'm just happy to see it. We're going to still go easy with Lauren, but Anna Sturzl is at the top of her game right now. I think she'd like to be finishing a little bit better, but she's a threat all the time."
Sturzl's second goal sparked a stretch of six minutes that saw the Lady Hodags score three goals to crack the game open.
Exactly three minutes after Zettler fed Sturzl, she struck again, this time doing things herself.
Zettler took a shot from nearly the goal line that bent just inside the opposite top corner of the goal, perhaps aided slightly by the wind.
"Some of our passes and shots started to hit where they needed to hit later in the game," Millot said. "We took 37 shots tonight, we only put 19 on goal and only five were in the back of the net. So that tells you that we didn't do a great job of placing our shots tonight. Our shot selection wasn't that wonderful and it's something we need to work on. When we think we're playing a lesser opponent we tend to force things and we don't need to do that. We need to be patient."
Rhinelander (18-3, 13-0 GNC) wraps up the regular season with Senior Night against Antigo on Thursday at Mike Webster Stadium.
Nick Sabato may be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter @SabatoNick.
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