Hodag soccer dismantles Antigo

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team scored in the opening minute Tuesday night against Great Northern Conference back-marker Antigo and never eased off the accelerator.

By the time the game reached its conclusion the Hodags had scored 17 times — the most in a single game in GNC history — as they routed the Red Robins 17-0 at Mike Webster Stadium.

The barrage lapped the old conference mark of 13 goals set in 2014 and matched in 2022 — both in Rhinelander wins over Antigo. The Antigo back line appeared defenseless against the Hodags’ passing game, which sent free runners toward the Robins’ goal virtually all night long.

“The girls played well as a team. There was no selfish play tonight,” Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. “They did everything that we asked and worked on. We were doing our good passing game, shots from the top, through balls, slotted back passes. They worked really well tonight.”

Sophie Miljevich scored six times in the contest while three freshmen —Vivian Lamers, Ella Miljevich and Lindsey Hoerchler — all recorded hat tricks. The win kept Rhinelander (5-0-1, 2-0-0-1 Great Northern) in a first-place tie in the GNC with Medford, which defeated Mosinee 4-1 on Tuesday. Lakeland moved to third, one point behind the co-leaders, with a 3-1 win over Northland Pines.

It took only 57 seconds for the Hodags to find their opening tally as Leah Jamison and Sophie Miljevich both broke behind the Antigo back line on a 2-on-0 attack. Jamison crossed the ball to Miljevich for an easy finish from roughly 10 yards out. 

The hits kept on coming from there. Lamers scored on an Ella Miljevich through ball in the fourth minute, Ali Birk put Ella Miljevich on a run that made it 3-0 in the ninth minute. Sophie Miljevich scored on a rebound in the 10th minute and again on a Lamers through ball in the 12th minute to make it 5-0. Hoerchler recorded her first of the night off a Hayley Schiek send in the 14th minute, Lamers broke free on a Morgan Van Zile pass in the 26th minute and Van Zile was on the receiving end of a breakaway pass from Jamison that made it 8-0 in the 32nd minute.

Rhinelander tacked on two more in the final minute of the opening half. Hoerchler finished on the back post off a cross near the byline from Sophie Miljevich and the Mijevich sisters connected for one more breakaway goal with 13 seconds remaining before the half. 

Bates credited the selfless play of his team on Tuesday. All but one of the team’s 17 goals had an assist.

“At the end of the day I look at it, almost every one of the goals that we had tonight was off of an assist and off of a pass,” he said. “It wasn’t like we worked individual skills this evening. We went into the game tonight talking about working as a unit as we have been and that’s what we did tonight.”

WIAA soccer’s mercy rule does not go into effect until the 60-minute mark, and only if a team has a lead of eight goals or more. Depsite already meeting the goal threshold, the Hodags kept adding to their lead in the second. 

    Rhinelander’s Sophie Miljevich presses through the Antigo defense in the second half of a GNC girls’ soccer game at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, April 23. Miljevich scored six times and the Hodags set a single-game conference record in a 17-0 rout of the Red Robins. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Hoerchler finished her hat trick in the 44th minute off a Ella Miljevich pass. Hoerchler then sent Sophie Miljevich through the middle of the Antigo defense for the 12th goal in the 47th minute. Outside back June Chiamulera put one through the midfield and on to Sophie Miljevich for another in the 48th minute. Ella Miljevich scored on a send by Schiek, and Jamison scored on a Sophie Miljevich pass, both in the 50th minute. 

Ella Miljevich scored on a breakaway from Jamison in the 55th minute and the final blow was dealt in the 58th minute as Lamers got free on another send from the back by Chiamulera.

Rhinelander outshot Antigo 48-0 in the match as the ball never crossed into the Robins’ attacking third of the field. Senior Mya Krouse and freshman Rylee Mickevicius split time in the Hodags’ goal on Tuesday and never faced a shot.

All seven of the Hodags’ second half goals were scored and/or assisted by one of the team’s top three scorers — the Miljevich sisters and Lamers. 

Asked if his reserves should have seen more playing time late in a blowout game, Bates acknowledged that the team tried to get as many subs in as it could, bearing it mind that its junior varsity squad had just played a full-length game against Wausau West preceding the varsity contest.

“We rotated reserves in all night. We had Gabby Wanta in, she’s JV. We had Hayley in there, Becca (Brost), Mollie Arneson. We rotated in a lot of reserves from our JV squad,” he said. “We had Lindsey Hoerchler in there tonight. She’s been a JV player all year. She had a hat trick tonight. We rotated a lot. We had Rylee in at keeper, which is our JV keep. I felt like we did rotate a lot of our girls in tonight that were on reserve.”

Rhinelander was set to travel to Eagle River Thursday to face Northland Pines in a game that was scheduled to start after press time for today’s edition. The Hodags will travel to Rice Lake on Saturday for a triangular where it will see the Warriors as well as Baldwin-Woodville from the opposite half of the Division 3 sectional draw.

“Pines Thursday is not going to be a walk in the park. Every time we play there, it’s always a tough game for us and we’re expecting that to be a tough game,” Bates said. “Then we have a pretty good test this weekend playing Rice Lake and Baldwin-Woodville, which is going to be good to see the girls get some tough competition from some other sectional opponents.” 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].