August 29, 2022 at 8:11 a.m.
Hodag soccer sweeps both games in home invite
Hodag soccer sweeps both games in home invite
The Hodags scored in bunches as they won both games in their home invitational in the Hodag Dome. Two goals in the first four minutes of the second half proved to be the difference as Rhinelander beat Waupaca 3-1. The Hodags followed with a five-goal barrage in the first 10 minutes against Hayward, leading to an 8-0 rout of the Hurricanes.
Seniors Shane Petrick and Braden Mork spearheaded the attack on Saturday. Mork scored twice, including the game-winner, in the opener against Waupaca. Petrick had a five-goal effort against Hayward, including four scores during the Hodags early salvo.
"The boys have had a great couple of weeks of practices and the first three games now," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. "Attitudes are great. Everybody's clicking together as a team. There's a lot of good stuff to go off of."
Mork put the Hodags ahead for good against the Comets in the 43rd minute, intercepting a pass from the Waupaca back line before firing a contested shot from 20 yards into the back of the net. Moments later, he and junior Will Quinn got on a 2-on-0 breakaway and Mork tapped it to Quinn for a composed finish.
Bates said Rhinelander made a tactical change at halftime that paid off against the Comets.
"We saw they were running three (defenders) in the back and we changed our formation at halftime to capitalize on that and the end result was the end result on that," he said. "It worked well."
Mork put Rhinelander ahead in the 23rd minute, getting on the end of a Garrett Younker send up the middle and converting a breakaway chance. Waupaca drew level in the 33rd minute as Ricky Tesch found space on the backside of the defense following a Riley Wahler corner kick and knocked it past senior keeper Cooper Radke.
"We let a hiccup happen on a corner kick, which they put one in, but we were putting a lot of pressure against them," Bates said.
Rhinelander outshot Waupaca 25-9 in the match and dominated the second half by a 13-2 margin in the shot count.
Bates said it was a key win over the Comets, a team in Rhinelander's half-sectional for the WIAA tournament.
"They had some tough competition this morning with Waupaca, which was a great judge on where we're going to be for the season if we continue to play the way we're playing," he said. "We're going to be competitive in every game we play."
Rhinelander took advantage of a young Hayward defense early and often in the second game. Petrick arced a shot to the upper righthand corner of the goal of a Matthew King cross in the second minute, and it was only a sign of things to come.
Petrick crossed to Andrew Henrichs for another long-range finish in the fourth minute and then Petrick and Mork hooked up on back-to-back-to-back goals in the sixth, eighth and 10th minutes to give Rhinelander a 5-0 lead.
Petrick dropped a pass to Quinn for a finish from 25 yards in the 23rd minute and Mork made it 7-0 in the 30th minute, converting on a breakaway chance.
The Mork-to-Petrick connection worked one more time in the 55th minute, with Petrick flicking a shot in off a Mork corner kick to give Rhinelander and eight-goal lead.
Petrick scored five goals in both his sophomore and junior seasons. He matched that in 55 minutes of work Saturday afternoon and has now has seven goals in the first three games of the season. Meanwhile, Mork sits at eight assists already for the year.
"They're both great, smart players and they are able to capitalize," Bates said. "They read each other very, very well and the put through balls together very well. Both of them together are deadly up top."
A change in the WIAA rulebook this year dropped the threshold for the mercy rule from a 10-goal lead to eight following the 60-minute mark. While the Hodags wanted to get the game done early, Bates said they also wanted to use the time to extend the bench and work on some tactics.
"I wanted to use this opportunity to have the boys utilize our passing game, which we do have a great passing game when we want to do it," he said. "Obviously, there's always room for improvement. On certain things and we were pulling people off today and talking to them about things we want to change and they went back out and they did it. They're listening and hopefully it can stay that way the whole season."
Hayward had only one shot one goal. Radke stopped a breakaway chance from Noah Hill in the 13th minute.
The Hodags begin Great Northern Conference play tonight at Medford. The Raiders sit 3-1 through the first week of the season. The sides have split their last four regular season matches, but Medford has knocked Rhinelander out of the WIAA tournament each of the last two years.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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