Hodag soccer falls to Lakeland, loses control of GNC destiny

MINOCQUA — The Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team shut down Yaroslav Myshchyshyn and the Lakeland offense right up until it didn’t on Tuesday night.

The T-Birds erupted for three goals after halftime and defeated Rhinelander 3-0 in a pivotal matchup of Great Northern Conference contenders in Minocqua.

Lakeland’s win, coupled with Mosinee’s 4-1 victory over Northland Pines on Tuesday, dropped the Hodags into third place in the GNC — four points behind Mosinee and two behind Lakeland — with only two conference games remaining. Even if the Hodags win out in GNC play, they would need the two teams in front of them to stumble in order to win the conference title.

“Hat’s off to Lakeland. They played a good game,” Hodag coach John Weigel said afterward. “We started off the first half good. I was proud of the first half. We just kind of fell apart there a little bit, some of our communication.”

Rhinelander had held one of the top-scoring offenses in the GNC without a goal for more than 120 minutes, including a 1-0 shutout win at home over the T-Birds Sept. 7.

The levy finally was breeched in the 46th minute on Tuesday as Myshchyshyn, the reigning GNC offensive player of the year, slotted a pass through the Hodag back line to a charging Cameron Bernard on the left flank. Bernard got past the defense and converted a 1-on-0 chance against Hodag keeper Barak Rappley to put the T-Birds on the board. 

Lakeland doubled its advantage just over two minutes later as Marshall Holmquist sent a pass ahead to Bernard for a point-blank chance in the box. Though Rappley made the initial save, Bernard nudged the rebound over to freshman Oren Slemmons for a tap-in that made it 2-0.

“When you go down two, you try to keep the boys’ spirits up and talk to them and pump them up, but when you go down you lose that mental (edge),” Weigel said. “It’s a mental and physical game. Sometimes both of those you’ve got to battle.”

Myshchyshyn added a penalty kick conversion for Lakeland in the 65th minute as the Hodags committed a foul on the edge of their own penalty area while trying to defend a free kick into the box.

The Hodag back line, which had stood strong most of the year, conceded 28 shots on Tuesday, 10 of which finished on goal.

“The first half, I thought we kind of limited Yaro a little. He did get a couple nice looks at us, but I thought we shut (midfielder) Dominic (Gironella) down a little bit and were just hoping we could get one in there but then things kind of fell apart for us there a little bit.”

Lakeland put only three shots on frame in the first half, but Rappley made stellar saves on two of them to keep the match level at halftime. He stopped Myshchyshyn on a point-blank chance in the 18th minute and then denied Bernard on a sprawling save to the left post just before the break. 

    Rhinelander goalkeeper Barak Rappley makes a save during the second half of a GNC boys’ soccer game against Lakeland in Minocqua Tuesday, Oct. 3. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rappley made seven saves all together in the defeat.

“He had some great saves,” Weigel said. “A couple of those were, the one Yaro had, he must of have been five, six yards out from him. Barak was in the right position, made his body big and got his body on it. He made some great saves tonight.”

Rhinelander was limited to 12 shots and only four on goal. Matthew King narrowly missed right and then high on successive chances in the 62nd and 63rd minutes as the Hodags looked to crawl back into the match. Lakeland keeper Talan Pockat made a diving stop on a Will Quinn chance in the 77th minute. 

“We had some square passes to kind of nobody and Lakeland was just able to pick those up,” Weigel said. “I was hoping for more plays down into the corners to equal into some corner kicks but it was kind of sparse tonight.”

Rhinelander (6-3-3, 5-2-0-1 Great Northern) was set to take on Mosinee on the road Thursday in a game that concluded after press time for today’s edition. Rhinelander is back in action tonight at Merrill and will close out the regular season next Thursday night at home against Northland Pines.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].