October 11, 2021 at 8:53 a.m.
Hodags rally not enough vs. Mosinee
Hodags rally not enough vs. Mosinee
Toren Holtz scored twice and Jaegar Dhein added a goal amid officiating confusion as Mosinee fended off Rhinelander 3-2 at Mike Webster Stadium.
"The boys put on a good game. They fought really hard and all the way to the end," Rhinelander coach Nathan Bates said. "We had a couple of calls that were very, very unfortunate, in the first half especially."
Braden Mork and Tucker Frederickson each scored from long range for Rhinelander in the second half. Both tallies pulled the Hodags within a goal, but Rhinelander was unable to overcome Holtz's speed and Dhein's contentious goal in the 34th minute.
Video replay shows Dhein behind the last Rhinelander defender when Cole Holtz sent a through ball past the Hodags' back line. The pass went to Greyden Rogers, who was in an onside position at the time of the pass. However, the assistant referee's flag momentarily went up to signal offsides.
Rogers sent the pass ahead to Dhein, who tapped it in from six yards out to make it 2-0.
According to the laws of the game, being in an offsides position at the time of a pass does not automatically constitute an offsides offense. Only if and when that player becomes actively involved in the play - by playing the ball or by interfering with play or an opponent - does an offense occur.
"The sideline judge flagged it and then he took it away because he said the ball didn't go to the player he thought it was going to, was what his call was," Bates said. "He decided it was not offsides anymore, and it was a goal. The player that he called offsides did not touch the ball, but he already had it flagged at that point,"
Bates added that his defense hesitated amid the confusion.
"Yes, they saw the flag, Tucker Frederickson, all of them on the outside stopped going for the ball. They came over afterward and couldn't believe that the goal was a goal," he said.
Further complicating matters, video replay appears to show Dhein offside at a second instance during the play - ahead of both the ball and the last defender when Rogers delivered the pass that Dhein deflected for the score.
"I was very upset about that call and I let myself be known about it," Bates said. "All season, I've been pretty quiet, but that one made me really mad."
Mork pulled Rhinelander within a goal in the 46th minute as he won a loose ball and scored from near the top of the 18, but Toren Holtz answered in the 56th minute as he timed a run past the Hodag back line with a cross by Cole Holtz already in the air. Toren Holtz attacked from the right flank on the breakaway and scored to make it 3-1.
Toren Holtz, who came into the night tied with Lakeland's Yaroslav Myshchyshyn for the most goals in conference play, scored in a similar fashion to give Mosinee a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute.
"We had a plan on it. Most of the time we did shut him down but the couple of times the kids decided to just let him stay open, I knew (we were in trouble)," Bates said. "We had a game plan going on it. We were going to stay on him. They let him stray a couple of times and I knew it was going to happen."
Rhinelander pulled to within one again in the 73rd minute. Play continued with Rhinelander possessing the advantage following a Mosinee foul near the half line and Frederickson let loose from 40 yards, sending a bouncing shot inside the left post.
Rhinelander had a few more opportunities late to tie the game and send it to penalty kicks, but Charlie Heck missed high from the top right corner of the 18-yard box in the 74th minute, Mork missed wide on a hurried shot in the 77th minute and Mosinee's Keaton Wieloch made a diving save on Leo Losch's desperation chance from roughly 40 yards with 15 seconds remaining in regulation.
"The kids played well. They played aggressive. They played tough. They didn't quit the whole game. They played a good game. Mosinee's a tough competitor and we knew that coming into this and it's a lot different outcome than it was the first time we played them," Bates said, referencing a 4-0 loss at Mosinee when the teams first met back on Sept. 14.
Rhinelander outshot Mosinee 20-16 in the match, but Mosinee had a 12-5 edge in shots on goal. Gavin Ostermann made nine saves in defeat for Rhinelander.
The Hodags (5-6-4, 3-4-1-1 Great Northern) were set to find out their playoff assignment this weekend during a seeding meeting that concluded after deadline. Rhinelander will close out the regular season at home Thursday night against Antigo.
"Our focus right now is playoffs," Bates said. "No matter where we seed in here, we can compete with every single team in this playoff. If the boys show up to play, there's not a team that's in this bracket that we cannot beat."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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