Hodag soccer stumbles at Medford

A scuffling offense bit the Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team again in its bid to remain atop the Great Northern Conference standings. 

The Hodags were shut out on the road Thursday night, and goals in each half were enough to push the Medford Raiders to a 2-0 victory.

Though Thursday marked the first time Rhinelander has been shutout in GNC play, the Hodags have only six goals in six conference matches so far this year. The Hodags’ only multiple-goal game in that span was a 2-0 win at Antigo Aug. 31 against a Robin side that has allowing a league-worst 5.3 goals per contest. 

“Finding the back of the net’s kind of eluding us a little bit,” Hodag coach John Weigel said. “But we’ll go back to practicing and try to finish out strong.”

Dayne Jacobson had a goal and an assist for the Raiders. He helped put Medford on the board in the 36th minute as his cross into the box found Grant Neubauer in traffic and the ball found its way into the back of the Hodag net past keeper Barak Rappley.

“It was one of those that just kind of pinball around down there,” Weigel said. “Barak made a play on it and it just kind of slipped under him. Some of them just bounce around and Medford got the upper hand on it.

“I thought we played really well that first half. Even though the score was 1-0, I thought we were still very much in the game. Our shots and shots on goal kind of matched them tonight.” 

The Hodags had chances to equalize the match. Just after the 60-minute mark, a shot from the midfield rang off the crossbar and a rebound chance deflected off the left post. Neither found their way to the twine, however, which has been a common refrain for Rhinelander, especially during conference play. 

“That crossbar one, I’d like to see that again,” Weigel said. “ It was about as close as you can get without it being a goal. We had some great chances. I know (Will) Gretzinger had one beautiful breakaway, but the keeper came out and we weren’t able to capitalize on it. We had a couple of nice corners that I thought were going to go in, but we couldn’t get it in the back of the net tonight, offensively.”

Jacobson tacked on an insurance goal in the 73rd minute as he made his way through traffic and fired a hard shot to the left post that appeared to go off Rappley’s hands and into the back of the net.

Medford held a 14-11 edge in total shots in the contest. Both teams attempted seven shots on goal and Rappley made five saves for Rhinelander in defeat.

The Hodags fell to third in the GNC with the loss. Lakeland (5-1-0-0) took the lead thanks to a 2-1 win at Northland Pines Friday night while Mosinee (4-1-1-0) moved into second with an 11-1 win over Antigo Thursday. With rematches with Lakeland and Mosinee still in the offing, the Hodags still control their own destiny in the conference race, but will need to find some offense down the stretch. 

Hayward postponed a scheduled non-conference game against the Hodags on Saturday. No make-up date has been determined for that match. Rhinelander (5-2-3, 4-1-0-1 Great Northern) will look to get its offense back on track at home against Antigo this coming Thursday.

“We know the big picture in the back of our head but we’re going game to game. We’ve got Antigo next and we’ll work on changing some stuff up,” Weigel said. “I think the boys are still very much in this.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].