October 18, 2017 at 1:11 p.m.
Road runs through Rhinelander
Top-seeded Hodags set to begin WIAA tourney run
Road runs through Rhinelander
Fresh off a 5-2 victory over Shawano Tuesday, Medford comes to town this afternoon to face the Hodags in a Division 3 regional semifinal.
Despite having home-field advantage through the sectional semifinals, the Hodags need look back only to last Thursday to know that a run to the sectional finals is far from guaranteed. Medford, which comes in as the No. 8 seed, led Rhinelander until the 72nd minute and the Hodags needed a long-range goal from Freddy Wisner with just over two minutes remaining to pull off a 2-1 result.
Afterward, coach Dan Millot said he hoped the game gave Rhinelander a wake-up call, while providing other teams in the bracket a false read of the caliber of the Hodags' side.
"Hopefully the message that it sends to other teams is, 'OK, Rhinelander's not so good. They only beat Medford 2-1.' Hopefully we can surprise, especially teams that don't know us, with that type of result," he said. "Especially for seniors, it's one and done. Either you win and go on or you lose and go home, and we're going to try to extend our season as long as we can."
Perhaps, however, the result is more of a testament to the depth of the bracket, which Millot described as wide open, and for good reason. The Hodags are the only team with an unblemished record against the half-sectional field, but that 6-0-0 mark was exclusively against the three other GNC schools in the bracket - fifth-seeded Mosinee, sixth-seeded Lakeland and Medford.
Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia is the No. 2 seed, but racked up a 15-1-2 overall record against mainly smaller Division 4 schools as it finished second in the Central Wisconsin Conference to Marshfield Columbus, which handed the Falcons their lone loss. Amherst, however, has not exactly blown away the competition in its three games against the half-sectional field. They have a 3-2 win over Medford, plus a 3-1 win and a 1-1 draw against Lakeland to their credit.
Third-seeded New London is 4-0-1 against the field, but lost to Great Northern Conference runner-up Northland Pines, a Division 4 school, 5-3 earlier this year.
"When you throw New London and (fourth-seeded) Clintonville in there, Amherst, it's going to be an interesting bracket and you're going to see some upsets," Millot said. "We're definitely hoping we're not on the (wrong) side of one of those and we're going to make sure that doesn't happen. That's why we have to be ready to play."
Rhinelander will be going old school - venue-wise at least - for the playoffs. Today's game, and any subsequent tournament games through the sectional semifinal round, will be played in front of Rhinelander High School due to construction work at Mike Webster Stadium. That brings with it an earlier start time due to the lack of lighting in front of RHS. Today's game is set for 4 p.m., and the Hodags will play at 3:30 p.m. Saturday should they advance.
"Unfortunately, the games start at 4 o'clock, which will hinder some of the crowd early on ... but our fans are great and we hope to get a ton of fans out to watch us play," Millot said. "It's nice to be home. It's nice not to have to get on a bus. Kids can go to school, do what they need to do with little distraction."
If last Thursday's game is any indication, the Hodags should expect a physical game from Medford today. The teams combined for 30 fouls and three yellow cards in last week's fixture.
Millot said, while the Hodags played for the win last Thursday, they did not show their entire hand to the Raiders. For starters, Rhinelander rolled out an altered starting 11, starting all eight of its seniors in the final regular season home game. Millot also hinted at some changes in tactics and personnel for today's rematch.
"We have some situations regarding set pieces that we'll bring out," Millot said. "We talked about even a possible formation change to kind of shake things up a little bit and move people around so that we're not predictable."
One thing is certain, the Hodags will try to make sure the ball is on the feet of its most dangerous players - including Jonus Sabani and Matthew Von Oepen who finished first and second in the Great Northern Conference in scoring.
"We've got to find a way to get Jonus open when he's marked and if we can't get him open that means other guys need to produce. We're going to move some players around and see who wants to play," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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