May 10, 2023 at 2:25 p.m.
Hodag soccer drops Medford 4-0
Hodag soccer drops Medford 4-0
Ava Lamers scored twice and added an assist as Rhinelander downed Medford 4-0 at Raider Field.
The win kept Rhinelander (8-3-0, 6-1-0 Great Northern) even with Lakeland, which defeated Mosinee 3-0 Tuesday, on 18 points in the conference standings. Lakeland had a match in hand on the Hodags, which it was set to play Thursday at home against Northland Pines while Rhinelander had a bye in league play.
Medford (3-10-0, 2-4-0 Great Northern) made Rhinelander work for its success on Tuesday, but the Hodags were eventually able to pull away thanks to three second-half goals.
"Medford came out pretty hot and heavy. That's probably best I've seen them look in a long time," Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. "They looked really good tonight. They made us earn it but, even so, the girls were able to pull through. We had a lot of opportunities on their net. Their goalkeeper played amazing, just like the first time we played them. Their team looked really good, but our girls were able to do some really good stuff tonight and come away with the win."
A pair of underclassman strikers, Sophie Miljevich and Morgan Van Zile, also scored for the Hodags, who outshot the Raiders 18-4 in the match.
Miljevich had the lone tally of the first half as she got behind the defense on a Lamers through ball and slid a shot past Medford keeper Sophia Brunner in the 16th minute.
The Hodags took advantage of a couple of Medford fouls to double the lead in the 42nd minute. Leah Jamison put Lamers on a run and, while the pass was too strong, Brunner was outside of her own penalty area when she picked up the ball, resulting in a free kick. Lamers drilled the kick, which hit a Medford defender in the hand at the goal line, resulting in a penalty kick that Lamers buried to make it 2-0.
Van Zile gave Rhinelander some added breathing room in the 56th minute. Lamers sent a ball forward that Miljevich deflected out to the far flank for Van Zile, who capitalized on an open look from 15 yards.
"It was really nice to see Mo get on the end of one this evening and put one in there. She's had a lot of opportunities this year so it was great to see her finally connect," Bates said. "Our through ball game tonight was really good with Ava and our front line. All of our goals, except for the PK came off some really nice stuff that the girls were putting together tonight."
Lamers rounded out the scoring in the 63rd minute as she won a Medford goal kick, dribbled to the top of the 18 and tucked a left-footed shot inside the right post.
Before the Hodags pulled away, Medford appeared to have a couple of instances where it outflanked the Rhinelander defense. Though the Raiders slipped behind the back line a couple of times early in the second half, they struggled to finish in the final third of the field, either getting run off of breakaway chances or having weak crosses knocked away by a recovering defense.
"They definitely had a couple of opportunities on the back line there this evening," Bates said. "There was only one really that was concerning to me, but (center back) Emma (Chiamulera) had them pretty well handled. They definitely has some speed up top tonight. They were trying to send long balls and let (Valeria Polendo) run after it. They had a couple of opportunities this evening, but the defense was able to hold them out and come away with a clean sheet still."
Mya Krouze needed only two saves to record Rhinelander's sixth conference shutout in seven games.
The Hodags canceled a non-conference match at Marshfield scheduled for Thursday, providing the team an opportunity to rest up for a non-conference tournament Saturday in Waupaca.
The Hodags will begin play in the eight-team tournament against Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia and will play three, 60-minute matches on Saturday.
"We're trying to rest up a little bit here," Bates said. "We've got a pretty skeleton crew going on with our JV squad and some of other girls. We're going to rest up, not push our luck and go out and try to win some games Saturday and have some fun."
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.