October 25, 2017 at 12:51 p.m.
Amherst awaits
Hodags set to face Falcons with sectional final trip at stake
Amherst awaits
The Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia/Rosholt co-op will travel to the RHS soccer field this afternoon for a WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal contest, with the winner advancing to Rice Lake Saturday to take on the winner of today's Amery-Rice Lake match for the right to advance to the state tournament.
A half sectional that promised parity and upsets has failed to deliver so far, with the higher seed winning every matchup. The top-seeded Hodags hope that holds true one more day against the second-seeded Falcons. If so, Rhinelander will be off to its first sectional final since 2008, and only the third in program history.
However, that's not going to be an easy task against the Central Wisconsin Conference runners-up, according to Hodag coach Dan Millot. Shortly after his side defeated Clintonville 2-1 Saturday in a regional final, he drove to Stevens Point and watched Amherst dispatch third-seeded New London, 2-0.
"I think it's going to be an extremely tough game come Thursday night," Millot said, noting he observed an Amherst team with the speed and skill to be dangerous, especially in transition. "Amherst is a very talented team, a team that possesses quite a bit of team speed as well as players that are good on the ball and good off the ball. We're going to have to be on the top of our game Thursday to come out of there with a victory."
Millot needed to make that trip south to do some reconnaissance on the Falcons. Amherst enters the contest 17-1-2 overall on the season, the lone defeat was a 2-1 loss on Oct. 13 to eventual CWC-champion Marshfield Columbus.
There are no individual statistics on the Falcons on the Central Wisconsin Conference website, or on WisSports.net, and there are only a couple of common opponents for the two sides this year.
The Falcons defeated Medford 3-2 in Stetsonville on Sept. 26, and have a 3-1 win and a 1-1 draw against Lakeland in a pair of games played four days apart. The T-Birds were without top offensive weapon Kieran Mullen for both contests due to injury.
"It's really hard to gauge anybody based on their regular season schedules. Teams are just up and down," Millot said. "It's going to be quite interesting. Even though they put up good competition against GNC schools, what I saw the other night with them was a very, very solid team."
One thing Millot insists the Hodags will have to do is play 90 minutes of strong soccer, something the team had not done in its last three outings. The Hodags scored twice in the final 20 minutes to defeat Medford 2-1 to end the regular season Oct. 12 and then netted four on the Raiders in the first 20 minutes of the playoff rematch, before coasting to a 4-0 victory. Saturday's regional final against Clintonville was a similar story. The Hodags were up 2-0 and dominating at the half-hour mark, only to find themselves hanging on late for a 2-1 win.
"We come into games and start hard and fast - at least we have the past few weeks - and then we seem to coast," Millot said. "We're at a position in the season where we can't do that. We've got to play for 90 minutes."
"We've got to limit our own mistakes, finish our opportunities and play for 90 minutes. I think if we do that, we'll be OK," he added. "It's just a matter of the kids buying into what we're going to do this week."
Start time for today's game has been pushed up to 3 p.m., before classes are dismissed for the day. With sunset at 5:53 p.m. and a cloudy forecast, RHS activities director Brian Paulson said he wanted to ensure there was enough daylight to finish the game, in the event 20 minutes of extra time and/or a penalty kick shootout are necessary to determine which team advances to the sectional finals.
"It would be great to have a great student body there. I know they have to pay to get in because it's a WIAA sectional game, but if we could get a huge fan base there, that would be awesome," Millot said. "Amherst, even though it's an early game, their fans will travel well. They had a lot of fans in Stevens Point the other night and I'm hoping we can at least have more fans than they do on our own home pitch."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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