June 5, 2023 at 9:19 a.m.
WON, OH!
Hodags avenge losses, knock off Lakeland for regional title
WON, OH!
"I just had to finish," she said.
Oh, what a finish it was.
Lamers made the most of a defensive gaffe, scoring on a breakaway in the 65th minute as the Hodags knocked off the rival T-Birds 1-0 for the regional title at IncredibleBank Field.
Rhinelander avenged a pair of 1-0 losses to Lakeland during the regular season that cost the Hodags a chance at the Great Northern Conference title.
The Hodags didn't seem to mind that fact on Saturday. Regional champion has a better ring than conference champion, anyway.
"It feels absolutely incredible. That was a team win, for sure," Lamers said.
With both sides tightly guarding the other's best players, it boiled down to who was going to blink first. Lamers was in position when Lakeland did, whiffing on a clearance attempt.
"I know that their last defender always drops back as soon as they're about to kick the ball, so I dropped with her and she missed," she said. "I knew I had a 1-on-1 and we work on those all the time."
"Lakeland put up a heck of a fight, like we knew they were going to. It came down to one mistake they made," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. "The girls played their hearts out and left everything on the field tonight and I'm extremely proud we were able to clinch that."
Even though things were knotted nil-nil at halftime, Saturday's game had a different feel than the first two Rhinelander-Lakeland meetings this season. Lakeland, which had neutralized Lamers and the Hodag offense with physical play in the midfield over the first two games, was being whistled more for its challenges. The T-Birds racked up 15 fouls and two yellow cards in the game - including one on defensive midfielder Maria Gironella for persistent infringement against Lamers.
Meanwhile, the Hodags were giving the T-Birds a taste of their own medicine. They used a combination of Hailey Gabor, Mia Tulowitzky and Helena Wisner to shadow and slow down Lakeland's two top scoring threats - Alyson Lazaroff and Josie Wentland.
"We did what they did to us," Bates said. "We man-marked both of their key players tonight and pretty much shut them down. Alyson didn't have a whole lot tonight with Gabor on her. The second half we (marked) Josie and Alyson, just like they were doing to us. That seemed to be the difference in it.
"We figured, by doing so, it was going to create a lot more space for Ava to work, and it did."
Lakeland was not able to find many chances to equalize once Rhinelander pulled ahead. Moments after Lamers' goal, Hodag keeper Mya Krouze collected Wentland's free kick chance from 40 yards.
The T-Birds made one final, desperate push up the field in the final minute. Krouze collected a through ball in the box just ahead of Lakeland's Taylor Heleniak, who piled into Krouze, knocking both players to the ground. Both players were shaken up and had to leave the field. Helena Wisner played emergency keeper over the final 12 seconds, picking up a drop ball inside the box once play resumed before throwing it out of bounds and allowing the clock to expire.
Play was back and forth throughout. Though Lakeland had a 16-11 edge in total shots, the Hodags had a 9-7 advantage in shots on goal.
Lakeland had a few threatening looks early on. Wentland pressed the end line and sent a cross to Bobbi Lee in the 12th minute that Lee shoved wide right of goal. Lazaroff was denied in the 18th minute by Krouze on the shot to the left post.
Rhinelander's best first-half look came in the 30th minute as Lamers picked her way through the defense, but was unable to get to a loose ball through contact before Lakeland keeper Ava Evenhouse could collect it.
The Hodags had a couple of strong looks early in the second half. Aubrey Younker missed just wide left from 15 yards in the opening minute of the second and Evenhouse denied free kick attempt from Lamers in the 42nd and 56th minutes.
Krouze made a diving stop on Lakeland's best second-half scoring chance as freshman Molly Jorgensen rainbowed a shot from the right wing on net from 30 yards in the 62nd minute.
Rhinelander secured its second regional title in three years with the win and denied second-seeded Lakeland a chance for a second straight trip to the WIAA state tournament.
Rhinelander 1, Medford 0
The Hodags got to Saturday's regional final match thanks to a 1-0 home victory over Medford Thursday night at Mike Webster Stadium.
Just like Saturday night, Lamers was in the right place at the right time to pounce and score the lone goal of the match.
In Thursday's game, that moment came in the 43rd minute as Sophie Miljevich sent a corner kick toward the back post. The ball caromed off a Medford defender and to Lamers, who fired through traffic from 10 yards.
Medford, which lost 6-0 and 4-0 to Rhinelander during the regular season, made the Hodags work in Thursday night's opener - the start of which was delayed 30 minutes by lightning.
"Medford, they were pumped up the whole game," Bates said. "At halftime I told the girls, 'you've got to step it up.' This isn't the same team we played at the beginning of the year and it isn't the same team we played a couple of weeks ago. We've got to go out there on fire and come and bring it. The girls did. They stepped it up right away in the second half, put a lot of energy into it."
Rhinelander controlled the stat sheet, outshooting the Raiders 23-5 in the match. Krouze made two saves in the match, but on ambitious Medford looks from outside of 30 yards.
Ashland ahead
Rhinelander's reward for winning Saturday night is an opportunity to avenge another loss from the regular season as it will travel to top-seeded Ashland on Thursday for a WIAA sectional semifinal.
The Oredockers knocked off Rhinelander 3-1 in the regular season opener back on April 3 in the Hodag Dome. Lamers said she expect a different game in Thursday's rematch.
"We played them very early and it was not one of our best games. I think we're ready. I think we have momentum going now," she said.
Rhinelander, which was still breaking in its new defensive line in that opener, conceded three goals to the Oredockers in the first 16 minutes of the match. Sienna Mika scored twice in that game and Hannah Boechler had the other goal. Lamers scored Rhinelander's lone goal in the match off a free kick in the 10th minute.
"We're going to go back this week and watch some of the film on them," Bates said. "Things have changed since we played them. We know that. We're going to go back, hit the whiteboard and kind of work on some stuff and we'll see what happens."
Thursday's game will take place at 5 p.m. at Northland College's Ponzio Stadium.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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