September 18, 2019 at 1:55 p.m.
RHS soccer ties Antigo, falls to Shawano
RHS soccer ties Antigo, falls to Shawano
A spate of early second half breakaways resulted in a 4-2 loss for the Hodags Monday night at Shawano and an 89th minute header goal by Tanner Resch off a corner kick Tuesday left the Hodags stunned with a 1-1 draw over perennial Great Northern Conference backmarker Antigo at Mike Webster Stadium.
Rhinelander outshot both teams, but struggled to put the ball in the back of the net.
"We've been having issues with that. We'll get shots and they're not on frame," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said after Tuesday's draw. "Same with yesterday when we played Shawano. We had 22 shots on them, and very few on us. We just can't find homes for them. I've been trying to change things up to get some finishers in there and so far we are really struggling with that."
Rhinelander 1, Antigo 1
Rhinelander outshot Antigo 39-8 on Tuesday, but had nothing to show for its efforts until a Hugh Wiese goal in the 87th minute. The Hodags were stunned moments later as Resch headed home a Brody Bunnell corner kick to square the match.
The end result was a 1-1 draw and a historic result for Antigo, which broke its 79-match GNC losing streak. In fact, since joining the GNC in 2008, Antigo had only one other conference game that did not result in a loss. Even that was a technicality as the Red Robins were retroactively given credit for a forfeit win over Mosinee in 2011 due the Indians' use of an ineligible player.
"Hat's off to Antigo. Their program is coming a long way," Bates said. "They looked pretty good. Like I told their coach, it was the best I've seen them play in years. They had a great game and Antigo's defense was tough. They really were. We were down there a lot but they were shutting down a lot of our attacks tonight.
"All I can say is I can't be disappointed with the boys. All we were lacking on was finishing ... The result tonight, we got a tie. It's not what we wanted, but it's better than a loss."
Despite attempting 39 shots, Rhinelander put only 11 shots on goal, and did not really crank up the stress on the Antigo net until midway through the second half. Wiese, Wyatt Haverkampf and Joseph Heck were denied on looks in the 68th, 69th and 70th minutes.
Wiese had another shot from the top of the 18 that was denied in the 82nd minute, and Daniel Ritchie's advance from 30 yards away was stopped in the 83rd minute.
Finally, in the 87th minute, Wiese took a hard shot from the top of the 18 that went through keeper Cordell Umland's hands and into the back of the net.
Antigo pressed immediately after the goal, and came up with the equalizer two minutes later.
"We got one in and then, of course, they put a big 6-2 guy (Resch) up on the corner kick and he wasn't blocked," Bates said.
Shawano 4, Rhinelander 2
Rhinelander had more scoring chances Monday night. Shawano did a better job finishing scoring chances.
That was the difference as the Hawks scored three goals early in the second half on breakaways to defeat the Hodags 4-2 in a non-conference game against Shawano.
Rhinelander had plenty of opportunities behind the defense as well, and got a couple of Harrison Shinners strikes after Shawano took a 4-0 lead, but the comeback was too little, too late.
"About the first 15-20 minutes of the second half, they had a kid on their team that just got multiple breakaways and he put three more in the back of the net," Bates said. "We changed some stuff up and the last 20-25 minutes we were pretty much on their end of the field. We missed five full breakaways, 1-on-1 with the goalkeeper. We put two in the back of the net, but we missed about five where it was 1-on-1 with the goal. We shot wide. We shot right at the goalie, couldn't find the back of the net."
The biggest change was moving Shinners up to forward and dropping Joseph Heck back to defender, which led to some breakaway chances for the Hodags.
"Harri's got the wheels to beat their defense," Bates said. "They had some fast kids and we were having a hard time getting through. Once we got Harri up there, they couldn't keep up with him."
Shots were 22-13 in Rhinelander's favor. Bates said the Hodags had the better of play through the first half hour of play, but Shawano was able to score late in the first half to take a 1-0 lead at the break.
"The first half we were pretty much dominating. We were in front of their net the first 30 minutes. We couldn't find the back of the net," he said. "There was a communication breakdown between our defense and our goalie and they got one in on a weird bounce."
Scoring details for Shawano were not immediately provided.
Up next
Despite all of the struggles, Rhinelander still remains in the GNC mix. In a conference first, all three boys' soccer matches played Tuesday night ended in draws. Medford played to a 1-1 tie at Northland Pines while Lakeland and Mosinee finished 1-all in Minocqua.
Rhinelander sits 1-1-2 in the GNC, still tied for third in the conference race heading to Medford this evening.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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