October 23, 2019 at 12:47 p.m.
Hodags squander lead, fall to Lakeland on PKs
Hodags squander lead, fall to Lakeland on PKs
Lakeland scored three unanswered goals to tie the match early in the second half and then the two sides played to a stalemate the rest of the way. Ninety minutes of regulation settled nothing, neither did 20 minutes of overtime in a 3-3 draw. Eventually, Lakeland prevailed in a penalty kick shootout, 5-4, and moved on to face top-seeded Waupaca tonight.
The result, which will officially count as a tie on both team's records, comes as no surprise. Rhinelander and Lakeland have now tied in four of their last five meetings. But this one stung a little more for the Hodags, because of how it ended.
"I told them I'm proud of them, to go out in a shootout, a little unexpected the way the game started, but every time we play Lakeland in ends in a tie, ends in a close match," Rhinelander coach Nathan Bates said.
Lakeland converted all five of its penalty kicks in the shootout. Rhinelander misfired in the third of five rounds when senior Miles Wentworth pushed his shot wide right of the goal. Hugh Wiese and Braden Mork converted in the fourth and fifth rounds for Rhinelander to force Lakeland's Collin Quade to make a shot to win the match. He did just that, tucking a shot inside the left post past a diving Gavin Ostermann.
"Miles went far right on one of the PKs. It's part of the game. It happens. Nerves got the best of some of the kids," Bates said.
Early on, it seemed like Rhinelander was going to roll on a cold, windy, misty night. The Hodags scored twice in the span of 14 seconds to seize control. Wiese sent a deep cross to Nicholas St. Pierre on the left flank to get behind the defense and St. Pierre converted the breakaway to put Rhinelander ahead 1-0 in the 11th minute. Moments later, Wiese found space roughly 20 yards from goal and fired to the top-right corner to give Rhinelander a 2-0 lead.
Beau Howard made it 3-0 in the 20th minute moments after Boh was denied on a strong chance from 25 yards for Lakeland. The Hodags made a quick counter attack up the right side and Mork found Beau up the flank. Beau outmaneuvered keeper Vincent Strong and tapped the ball into an open goal to give Rhinelander a commanding lead.
"The first 20 minutes we changed the formation," Bates said. "Lakeland's been used to us playing one attacker up front and attacking mids behind. Tonight we went to a 4-3-3 and put a lot of offensive pressure on them right in the beginning of the game."
Lakeland found its bearings moments later. Teag Wagner scored from the top of the 18 on an open look in the 22nd minute to make the score 3-1 and seemingly change the momentum of the game.
"We started on fire and I think the kids kind of though they had the game wrapped up because the pace of the game changed big time after we got those first three goals," Bates said.
Lakeland closed the gap to one with 57 seconds remaining in the half as the Hodags failed to clear the ball from their own box. Boh eventually gained possession for Lakeland, moved around a Rhinelander defender and fired home a shot from 12 yards to cut the lead to 3-2.
The T-Birds leveled the match on a set piece moments into the second half as Kyle Bengtson sent a corner kick into the box that Quade tapped to the back post for Jason Hilgart to finish.
"They caught us off guard and they caught back up," Bates said.
Lakeland, aided by a strong southwesterly wind, controlled the second half. The T-Birds outshot Rhinelander 16-4 over the second 45 minutes and the Hodags did not have a shot on goal.
Lakeland kept the wind at its back for the first of two, 10-minute overtime halves and Boh rang a shot off the right post in the 91st minute. Rhinelander met a similar fate off the exact same post in the 108th minute as Harri Shinners split defenders at the top of the 18 and the rolled a shot past Strong and off the base of the post.
"Harri had one right off the post. Brandon Boh had one right off the post. Even at that point, it could of ended the same way it did now," Bates said, noting that there is no sudden victory in playoff soccer overtime.
Shinners and Daniel Ritchie converted the first two penalty kicks for Rhinelander, matched by Bengtson and Brendan McMahon for Lakeland. Boh put Lakeland ahead in the third round after Wentworth's misfired. After Wiese scored to tie the shootout at 3-3 in the fourth round, D.J Ratajczyk answered to put Lakeland ahead again.
Bates said there was not much Ostermann could do with where Lakeland placed its shots in the shootout.
"He got a hand on two of them actually but no, not much (he could have done)," he said. "Lakeland had perfect placement. They were in the corners every single time. Pretty much on penalty kicks, when you go into a shootout situation, you guess. You try to guess the same way every single time and, hopefully, out of the five, you're going to get one. It's a guessing game. You can watch the hips, watch the foot, but you keep going to the same spot and, hopefully, one of them comes up in your hands."
Lakeland outshot Rhinelander 38-17 in the match, and 15-10 in shots on goal. Ostermann recorded 12 saves in defeat. Rhinelander ends the season with a 3-8-6 record while Lakeland moved to 7-8-7.
"I told the team I'm going to miss a lot of these (seniors) next year - Harri, Daniel, Miles, Nicholas, Breckin," Bates said. "I had a great season. It's a great group of kids. I had a lot of fun with them. They kept me on my toes from start to finish and I'm going to miss them."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.