September 14, 2018 at 12:41 p.m.
Second-half surge
Rhinelander scores nine times after halftime, routs Medford 9-2
Second-half surge
Trailing 1-0 after 45 minutes, the Hodags looked like world beaters in the second half. They scored four times in the first 3 minutes, 34 seconds after the break and went on to defeat the Raiders 9-2 at Mike Webster Stadium.
The Hodags scored seven times before 14 minutes had elapsed in the second half, an offensive barrage the likes of which Rhinelander has not seen this season.
"We just talked about this being our home field that we knew this was going to be a close game and we needed to clean some things up," Millot said. "I couldn't be more proud of these guys for how they came out. They just wouldn't been denied."
Matthew Von Oepen opened the floodgates with two goals less than a minute apart moments into the second. After Hugh Wiese was tripped just outside the penalty area, Von Oepen bent a direct free kick from 20 yards around the Medford wall and inside the right goalpost to tie the match.
Moments later, Von Oepen was tackled inside the penalty area and converted on the penalty kick chance to give Rhinelander a 2-1 lead in the 48th minute.
The Hodags were far from done, however. A mere 38 seconds after taking the lead, the Hodags added to it as Von Oepen crossed the ball to Martin Hoger on the back side of the box for a finish to put the Hodags up 3-1. Hoger scored again following a long pass by Freddy Wisner to make it 4-1 just 29 seconds after that.
"We needed to clean our passes up. We needed to get a little more aggressive. We were hanging on to the ball too long at times," Millot said of his team's halftime adjustments. "Our first three, four goals in the second half were about win (the ball and) transition it. I think we took them off guard and there was a time where you saw the momentum took over. They started to play on their heels."
Junus Telli, who scored twice for Medford on the night, snuck a shot past Rhinelander keeper Josh Randolph to momentarily cut the lead to 4-2 in the 52nd minute, but the Hodags restored the three-goal advantage seconds later as Miles Wentworth put Von Oepen on a run and the senior captain completed his hat trick.
Von Oepen then set up Daniel Ritchie on a well-timed run up the left flank in the 59th minute to make it 6-2. Von Oepen fed Nicholas St. Pierre on a two-on-one breakaway seconds later for yet another goal.
Millot moved St. Pierre, a junior, from defense to striker on Thursday night, with successful results.
"The kid's got a nice shot and the kid hustles and he's not slow," he said. "We were just trying to figure out ways how to put pressure on them, how could we surprise them once in a while. He had one goal tonight, but his runs created a lot of opportunities for others.
"We moved some people around. We weren't scoring goals and we needed to see if we could light some fire under some people and we got quality minutes from everybody tonight," he added.
Hunter Hicks added a goal for Rhinelander run the 79th minute and Wisner capped off the scoring in the 85th, putting away a penalty kick after Von Oepen was tackled by Medford again inside the 18-yard box.
Medford actually slightly outshot Rhinelander 32-27 in the match. Most of that was a byproduct of a first half that was controlled by the Raiders. Medford outshot Rhinelander 19-11 over the first 45 minutes and had a number of dangerous scoring chances, but the only goal for their efforts was a Telli header off an AJ Adleman corner kick in the 38th minute.
"I thought Medford did a good job possessing the ball in the first half," Millot said. "They had more chances than we did. They were getting better-quality chances than we were but, again, we stepped it up and we came back."
Following a 3-1 loss Tuesday night in Eagle River to Northland Pines, Millot said the Hodags needed to play with more fire and passion. Rhinelander certainly had that on Thursday night, as it got back to .500 overall on the season (3-3-2) and moved back into second place in the GNC, two games behind the Eagles, which defeated Mosinee 3-1 on Thursday.
Could Thursday's second half be the turning point of the season for the Hodags?
"I'll let you know in a few weeks," Millot replied.
The Hodags are idle until next Thursday when they close out the first half of the conference schedule at Antigo. Millot said the team will use a break in the schedule that sees the team play only once in a 11-day span to rest and recover.
"Having only one game next week is very beneficial to us because then we can look at healing and getting everyone 100 percent again," he said.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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