October 23, 2017 at 1:02 p.m.
Hodags hold off Clintonville for regional title
RHS to host Amherst co-op Thursday
Hodags hold off Clintonville for regional title
Matthew Von Oepen and Jonus Sabani both scored in the opening half hour and the Hodags withstood a late threat by Clintonville to fend off the Truckers 2-1 Saturday in a WIAA Division 3 regional final match at the RHS soccer field.
The Hodags dominated the match statistically, outshooting Clintonville 38-10, but Matthew Morse's strike in the 79th minute pulled Clintonville back within a goal. Rhinelander buckled down from there, keeping the ball primarily in the Clintonville half of the field and preventing the Truckers from getting another shot on goal.
"As hectic is it got in the last 10 minutes I thought the team, for the most part, stayed pretty composed, especially when we killed the last three minutes of time off the clock," coach Dan Millot said. "I think they sensed they would be able to hang in there and make Clintonville work for it."
Von Oepen was the benefactor of a miscue in the fourth minute as his shot from roughly 25 yards slipped through Clintonville keeper Seth Betz's outstretched hands and into the back of the net.
He and Sabani hooked up to double the lead in the 27th minute as Von Oepen played a perfect cross to Sabani's head at the top of the six-yard box and Sabani nodded the service home.
"Very high quality," Millot said of the Hodags' two goals. "Those are the types of things we need to have happen. We need to have other people scoring as well but we're going to take what we can get right now and move on to the next round."
Rhinelander had a number of other chances in the opening half with a southerly breeze at its back - outshooting Clintonville 23-5 over the first 45 minutes - but had only the two goals to show for it. Hunter Hicks struck the left post on a breakaway in the 31st minute and just missed redirecting a Sabani cross for a goal in the 39th.
Josh Randolph was called upon to make three saves in the match for Rhinelander. He denied a Cesar Elias chance from 20 yards in the 15th minute and snatched a Nick Schoen hard shot that was seeking the top left corner in the 24th.
In the 65th minute, moments after Freddy Wisner was yellow carded for dangerous play, Randolph tipped a Elias free kick from roughly 30 yards up over the crossbar and the Hodag defense snuffed out the two corner kick chances that followed.
Clintonville finally broke through with 11:10 to play as the Rhinelander defense tried to step the Truckers' attackers offsides. Matthew Morse snuck behind the back line and, with no offside flag to be found, dribbled toward net and finished to the left side.
"We took some chances, got burned taking a chance," Millot said of the goal.
Both offensively and defensively, Millot said the Hodags were a bit cavalier in their play on Saturday, more ad lib than by design.
"I think we did some things that were unorthodox for us. We took some chances that we need to rethink about taking in certain situations," he said. "Players wanting score so bad that they're taking shots that are unrealistic. I shouldn't say unrealistic, but we can do better. We can make better choices and the decisions that we make need to be much better than what we just did."
The win marked Rhinelander's first regional championship since 2008. The Hodags advanced to the sectional final that year before falling to Eau Claire Memorial with a trip to state on the line.
"We have an opportunity," Millot said. "We're playing OK right now and we're not playing our best. We're winning not playing our best. I'd like to see what happen when we start playing our best. Hopefully that will happen pretty quick here."
The Hodags will host second-seeded Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia/Rosholt at 3 p.m. Thursday. The Amherst co-op defeated third-seeded New London 2-0 Saturday evening.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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