Soccer: Mosinee knocks Hodags out of GNC race

MOSINEE — After a promising first half of the season, there will be no Great Northern Conference championship this year for the Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team. 

The Hodags’ second-half woes in the conference slate continued Thursday with a 1-0 loss at Mosinee. 

Rhinelander needed a win, and some help, to control its title destiny going into the regular season finale this Thursday at home against Northland Pines. The Hodags got neither as Jaeger Dhein’s breakaway goal in the 29th minute proved to be the only tally while Lakeland took care of Medford 4-0 on the road Thursday.

Those results locked Rhinelander into third place in the final conference standings, regardless of what takes place this week.

“With conference out the window, you just regroup and reorganize,” Hodag coach John Weigel said. “The season kind of starts over when it’s playoff time.”

Dhein’s goal came in the midst of a first half that Mosinee controlled from roughly the 15th minute on. He outflanked the defense on the right, dribbled in on net and finished a 1-on-0 chance against keeper Barak Rappley inside the left post. 

“I kind of made a point to the boys that we need to come out with some urgency and start on fire and it didn’t get through,” Weigel said. “We started off a little slow. We had that fire at the end, but ran out of time. We were a little too late.”

The Hodags were outshot 27-13 in the match but were able to generate some quality chances, especially during the final 20 minutes. 

Both Will Gretzinger and Asher Rivord narrowly missed getting a foot on a Mason Shinners cross into the box in the 66th minute and then Shinners missed a redirection attempt wide right from the back post after Gretzinger headed a corner kick in the box less than a minute later. 

Will Quinn was denied on a long range chance in the 70th minute and the Hodags were unable to capitalize on a set piece off a corner kick in the 79th minute.

While promising, Weigel said the response was too little, too late.

“In soccer, you can’t wait to go down a goal or wait until the last 10-15 minutes to get that fire. It’s hard to come back,” he said.

The Hodags only had one shot on goal in the first half. That was a Shinners breakaway attempt in the 10th minute that was denied. Matthew King just missed the left post from the top of the 18 on a pass from Rivord right before the end of the half.

“We had some great opportunities,” Weigel said. “I thought a couple of those corners, especially with them pulling everybody back, we put more guys into the box and we had lots of numbers up there but we didn’t get one to fall.”

Rhinelander keeper Barak Rappley made nine saves in the loss.

    Rhinelander’s Matthew King carries the ball upfield during the first half of a GNC boys’ soccer game at Mosinee Thursday, Oct. 5. King recorded a hat trick one night later at Merrill, helping the Hodags to a 3-1 victory. (Jeremy Mayo/River News)
  

Rhinelander 3, Merrill 1

The Hodags closed out the week Friday night by bouncing back into the win column in non-conference play. King’s hat trick was the difference as the Hodags got by Merrill 3-1 on the road. 

Tied 1-1 at half, the Hodags dominated the final 40 minutes, outshooting the Bluejays 19-2 over that stretch. King scored in the 45th minute and again in the 55th to account for the final margin.

“Matthew had three goals. As a team, I thought we played better,” Weigel said. “The goals are great but we had some other plays that didn’t equate to goals. Matthew and Michael (Schiek) hooked up for a give and go and there were some other plays that just stood out to me. That was some good soccer out there. It was a fun one tonight.”

King got the Hodags on the board in the eighth minute on a pass from Schiek. Merrill’s Kekoa Schuetze made the save on the initial chance, but King gathered his own rebound and tapped it in. 

Merrill drew level in the 28th minute a tripping foul in the box resulted in a penalty kick, deposited into the low right corner by Sebastian Trevino.

“One of our guys kind of stabbed for it. That’s soccer, sometimes those happen,” Weigel said. “PKs are hard start for any keeper. They got one in on us but, for the most part, I thought we had the better game and a lot more opportunities.”

King put the Hodags back in front off a tough chance in the 45th minute. He got on the end of a Quinn through ball and, with defenders flanked on either side, fired a shot from the top of the 18 that snuck inside the left post. King then scored off a Schiek corner kick in the 55th minute, deflecting in a cross from six yards.

“I thought we had the better opportunities and the boys came together,” Weigel said. “Sometimes it’s easy for a group of teenage boys to get down, but they stuck with it and came back with some of that urgency that I’ve talking to them about and they were able to put a couple more in the back of the net.”

Rappley was credited with two saves in the victory. 

Rhinelander (7-4-3, 5-3-0-1 Great Northern) was set to learn its playoff fate Sunday evening as the sectional seeding meeting took place after press time for today’s edition. The WIAA tournament will begin next Thursday. 

Regardless of where the Hodags fall in the nine-team half sectional draw, there’s a decent chance they will have to get through Lakeland and/or Mosinee in order to make a deep run in the tournament. After losing to both of those sides last week, Weigel said his team cannot have any lapses in play if they want to come away from any potential playoff rematch victorious.

“When we played that (second) Antigo game, or a couple of other games, we started out on fire and finished throughout the 80 minutes like that,” he said. “We’ve got to play a whole 80 minutes. You can’t play 40 or 50 minutes. It’s got to be the whole thing.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].