May 3, 2023 at 2:15 p.m.
Hodag soccer beats Mosinee 4-0
Hodag soccer beats Mosinee 4-0
Sophie Miljevich scored twice and the Hodags used three second-half goals to pull away from Mosinee in a 4-0 victory at Edgewood Park.
It was a needed win for Rhinelander (6-3-0, 4-1-0 Great Northern) following a 1-0 loss last Thursday at Lakeland which put the Hodags in chase mode for the conference title. Lakeland held serve and maintained a three-point lead over Rhinelander in the conference with an 8-0 win at Antigo on Tuesday.
"It was a good bounce back from last week," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. "Our passing looked a lot better this evening. We were stepping to the ball a lot better and beating them out for the ball. We looked a lot more hungry for the ball."
Bates said it took Rhinelander a while to adjust in its first game on grass this season, but the Hodag offense finally got rolling midway through the first half. Ava Lamers notched her 16th goal of the season and Rhinelander took a 1-0 lead to the break. The Hodags then benefitted from an own goal early in the second half before Miljevich scored twice in the final 15 minutes to ice it.
"It was a little slow to start there, but we kept the pressure on the whole time," Bates said. "Mosinee packed the box pretty hard on us, but the girls played well. It took awhile to get moving again but, once we did, we put a lot of pressure on them and the girls had a good game, all and all."
Lamers got the Hodags on the board in the 25th minute shortly after Mosinee snuffed out a through ball attempt from Lamers to Miljevich. Lamers intercepted the clearance, dribbled to just outside the 18-yard box and fired inside the left post.
Mosinee's Kaitlyn Selle was denied on a breakaway chance moments into the second half and the Hodags got some breathing room a short time later. Lamers sent a cross into the box in the 44th minute that Mosinee defender Madelyn Wayerski misplayed on a clearance attempt, inadvertently knocking it into the back of her own net.
Though Mosinee appeared to devote extra numbers to its defense on Tuesday, Bates said there were chances to breach the back line that Rhinelander did not take advantage of in the first half. Miljevich finally got loose late in the second half from her striker position. She got on the end of an Aubrey Younker send up the middle to score in the 67th minute and then took a well-placed pass from Nevaeh Rappley for a finish in the 70th minute. The two tallies gave Miljevich 10 goals on the year.
"We were able to get a couple of those and capitalize on some of that stuff. The girls worked well together," Bates said. "We weren't doing enough through balls and I'm pretty certain if we would have done a few more through balls in the beginning of the game we would have had a lot more numbers on the board in the first half."
Rhinelander outshot Mosinee 38-9 in the match and had a 20-5 edge in shots on goal. The Indians had a couple of decent looks early in both halves, but Mya Krouze recorded five saves and the Hodags turned in their fifth shutout of the season.
"The girls came out after halftime a little bit slow on the defense end and Mosinee came out pretty hot," Bates said. "They almost were able to capitalize on that. Thankfully they didn't and we were able to keep a clean sheet again tonight."
The Hodags are back in action at Antigo this afternoon, beginning the second round of conference play. Rhinelander defeated Antigo 11-0 when the teams met April 18 in the Hodag Dome.
"We're going to start over and hopefully we can get a clean sheet the second round here and hopefully accomplish the first goal the girls set out for the season," Bates said, alluding to the Hodags hopes of overcoming last Thursday's loss at Lakeland and still earning at least a share of the GNC title.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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