April 6, 2023 at 6:26 a.m.
Hodag girls' soccer falls in opener
Hodag girls' soccer falls in opener
Ashland had its way with Rhinelander's defense, especially early in Monday afternoon's season opener, scoring three times in the first 16 minutes en route to a 3-1 result at the Hodag Dome.
Sophomore Sienna Mika scored twice for the Oredockers. Rhinelander (0-1-0, 0-0-0), which was to have played twice this past Saturday, only to see those games canceled due to the April Fool's Day snowstorm, could not slow Ashland's attack early in the game and, ultimately, dug itself an insurmountable hole.
"We've got things to work on," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. "Obviously the first 10 minutes of the game we had some defensive errors, a goalkeeper error. Things happened.
"It's the start of the year. It's not what we wanted but, all and all, we saw a lot of good things happen tonight."
Ashland had pressure on Rhinelander from the opening whistle. Junior goalkeeper Mya Krouze recorded eight saves for the match for the Hodags, including a diving stop on a Hannah Bochler chance in the fourth minute, but the Oredockers struck first moments later. Mika got free off a drop pass from Madilyn Martin and fired a shot from the top of the 18-yard-box off the right goalpost that caromed into the back of the net.
Bochler got free on a run up the right flank in the seventh minute and converted a 2-on-1 chance. Mika finished Ashland's early offensive onslaught as she poked in a Lily Nye drop pass off a rebound in the 16th minute.
The Rhinelander defense - replacing three all-conference starters from last year including conference defensive player of the year Audrey Schiek - had its hands full early.
"They do the same thing over and over, and they're good at it," Bates said of Ashland's attack. "They overload us with their offense, they bring it down and they do a cross. That's what they do every year, and it caught us a few times, obviously. We had a couple of mistakes back here where the defense held on to the ball too long instead of sending it down the field and it cost us a goal."
Senior Ava Lamers, the Hodags' leading scorer from last season, had Rhinelander's lone goal. She scored in the 10th minute off a touch pass from sophomore Leah Weigel following a free kick. Lamers nearly converted off the same set piece play in the 19th minute, but fired a shot high and wide left.
Overall, Ashland held a 19-10 edge in shots for the match, and an 11-5 edge in shots on goal.
Bates said Ashland knew who to defend early in the game and the Hodags were unable to vary their attack enough to generate more scoring opportunities.
"We just kept trying to do the same thing over and over and over again. They knew what we were going to do, and we kept doing it. We talked to the girls. We came out and played the ball up the middle," he said. "They stuffed the middle on us. They knew Ava was in the middle, and they stuffed the middle on us. That's kind of what shut us down."
The Hodags had a couple of other chances that they could not convert. Ashland keeper Maggie Tutor fumbled a cross into the box in the 27th minute, but recovered and smothered the ball ahead of sophomore Sophie Miljevich. Weigel fired a shot in the 30th minute to the upper left hand corner of the goal that Tutor knocked away. The Ashland sophomore also knocked aside a Miljevich look in the 53rd minute that Morgan Van Zile was unable to redirect, rushing in from the back side of the play.
The Hodags also had a few breakaway chances negated by offsides calls.
"We've been working set pieces and the girls executed it beautifully tonight. We had one, and we almost got it again. On a corner kick too, same thing, we just whiffed on it," Bates said. "We had our opportunities. Soph was offside a little bit and so was Mo otherwise we had some good looks. It could have been 3-3. It could have been whatever but first game and, moving forward, we're going to continue to work hard, and I think the girls will have a good season."
Rhinelander bounced back from a season-opening loss to DeForest last year and went 14-6-1. The Hodags would have played Shawano and Eau Claire North last Saturday, had a major snowstorm not canceled the event.
"I wish we would have had our tournament this weekend to really shake off the rust and figure some stuff out," Bates said. "The scrimmage (against Three Lakes) was great and all, but it wasn't enough. We got some play time, but it wasn't like we got to play the varsity for the full 80 minutes. We got 20 minutes here, a break, and 20 (more) minutes. I didn't feel like we were able to generate anything and get some stuff going with it."
Rhinelander was back in action on the road Thursday night at Wisconsin Rapids in a game that concluded after press time for today's edition. The Hodags return home this coming Thursday night to open the Great Northern Conference season against Medford.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
WEATHER SPONSORED BY
E-Editions
Latest News
E-Editions
Events
August
To Submit an Event Sign in first
Today's Events
No calendar events have been scheduled for today.
Comments:
You must login to comment.