May 24, 2021 at 8:53 a.m.
Hodag soccer blanked by Lakeland 3-0
Hodag soccer blanked by Lakeland 3-0
The T-Birds scored twice in less than a minute late in the first half and added a penalty kick goal early in the second as they defeated the Hodags 3-0 in Great Northern Conference play at Mike Webster Stadium.
Sophia Myshchyshyn scored twice for the second-place T-Birds, and Leah Wolfe tacked on a goal as the Hodags (3-3-1, 2-2-1-0 Great Northern) suffered their second straight defeat.
"I knew going into it we had some tough competition," Rhinelander coach Nathan Bates said. "I knew Lakeland had a great team and they do. They have a very good coaching staff and they have a great group of girls that have been playing ball together a long time."
Scoreless until late in the first half, Lakeland was able to put some pressure on the middle of the Hodag defense to turn the game in a blink of an eye.
Myshchyshyn was given space in the Hodag box and received a cross from Josie Wentland. Myshchyshyn needed on touch to set up and beat Rhinelander keeper Kahlie Arneson to make it a 1-0 game in the 33rd minute. Moments later Olivia Melka sent a ball from the wing to Leah Wolfe in the box. After a battle for the ball, Wolfe got an angle, shot and made it 2-0.
"Late in the first half our defense kind of fell apart," Bates said. "We left their No. 1 player (Myshchyshyn) on the team wide open twice and that's all she wrote on those. Our defense had some communication breakdowns. They knew going into this they couldn't leave her open and it happened twice in a matter of minutes. That was the defining factor of this game."
Wentland went down in the Rhinelander box in the 48th minute following shoulder-to-shoulder contact with Hodag defender Audrey Schiek. Following a conference, the officials called a foul on Schiek and award a penalty kick to Lakeland - which Myshchyshyn buried in the top right corner to make it 3-0.
That was it for the scoring the rest of the way.
"We had a pretty questionable call, in my opinion, on that penalty kick but it is what it is," Bates said. "That happens, but the second half, if the girls would have come out (in the first half) like they did in the second half, we probably would have won this game tonight. The second half, in my opinion, we owned them for the most part. We had the better looks. We had more shots on them the second half. It was just a little too late."
Overall, Lakeland had a 24-14 edge in shots against the Hodags, but that margin was only 7-6 in the second half. Arneson made 10 saves for the Hodags before checking out in the final minutes. Senior Lily Berger played the final six minutes and recorded one save.
Despite the loss, the Hodags clinched a top-four spot in the GNC thanks to Northland Pines' 2-1 victory over Medford Thursday afternoon. That means Rhinelander will get another crack at Ashland and Lakeland, plus the winner of today's Northland Pines/Mosinee match, when the second round of conference play begins this Thursday.
"Hopefully we're ready the second time around here," Bates said. "The girls are improving every single game we get out here. We're learning more and we're getting better. We're not out of it. Yeah, conference isn't in our reach anymore, but we're going to try to focus on regionals, sectionals and go from there."
Rhinelander hosted Marshfield in a non-conference contest last night, which concluded after deadline. The Hodags wrap up the first round of GNC play this evening at Medford. Their opponent for Thursday's first game of the second round has not yet been determined.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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