Hodag soccer sees red again in regional loss to New London

NEW LONDON — For the Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team, the 2024 season ended much the same way it began. Once again the Hodags fell to New London and once again they had fewer than their full complement of 11 players on the field when the final whistle blew Thursday night.

This time around New London was in control before the Hodags were dealt a pair of red cards and the Bulldogs defeated Rhinelander 4-1 in the WIAA Division 3 Regional semifinals in New London.

Oswin Menez, who scored a 75th minute goal with the Hodags down to 10 men when the Bulldogs beat Rhinelander 1-0 back in August, had a goal and an assist on Thursday. Ryan Peters added a pair of assists on set pieces as New London led 3-0 by halftime. But the story ended up being a whistle-happy, physical affair. The teams combined for 35 fouls in the match and the Hodags had six yellow cards issued against them.

“It was a very strange game. I’m not going to say anything, but the calls, it was a very strange game,” Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. “It felt like at moments the boys really couldn’t play. If they touched each other, it was just a foul, the whole game. It was just a weird game.

“It was hard to kind of get momentum going and a rhythm going because it was a lot of starts and stops throughout the whole game.”

Four of those yellow cards led to the ejection of seniors Aiden Ostermann and John Turek, who were both shown red cards for picking up their second yellows in the final seven minutes of the match. That left the Hodags to play out the contest with only nine men. 

No official reason for the yellow cards was given on a copy of the official scoresheet, signed by the match officials and provided to the Rhinelander side after the game. Ostermann appeared to be called for persistent infringement in the 39th minute after accumulating a number of fouls in the first half. He was then sent off after a hard foul drew his second yellow in the 73rd. Turek appeared to be booked twice for dangerous play on hard fouls in the 55th and 75th minutes. 

Additionally, Karter Massey was booked after what appeared to be a hard foul in the sixth minute and Hart Hokens was cautioned for apparent dissent in the 57th. New London’s Klever Menez was given a yellow card for dissent after the final whistle.

“Some of them I do fell they were needed, a couple of the yellow cards. Some of them I didn’t think were needed at all. I don’t think they should have been yellow cards,” Bates said. “I don’t really understand what the red cards really were, other than they were second yellows but, in my opinion, I didn’t feel they were worthy of a second yellow. We’ve played a lot tougher games, a lot more physically at this level and I felt like some of them were pretty soft yellows, to be honest with you.”

Apart from the fouls, the first half got off to a choppy start as the Rhinelander defense frustrated the Bulldogs with an offsides trap. New London was whistled offsides four times in the first nine minutes, and 14 times overall, in the contest as its attackers were constantly early against a Hodag back line that stepped forward at the right time.

“They do a lot of fast shifts where they have a guy outside wide, bring it to one corner and the other guy comes in and they finish it that way,” Bates said. “It was working very well in the first half. We had a lot of offsides calls on them in the first half. The sideline judge was on point with it. All and all the defense did a pretty good job of shutting down their run game.”

While Rhinelander shut down New London’s through ball chances, the Bulldogs eventually found success by getting pressure inside the box.

Immanunuelle Mukete came off the bench and had been in for only seconds when he got on the receiving end of a Oswin Menez cross for a goal in the 15th minute. Peters then set up New London on a pair of set pieces late in the half. He sent a corner kick to the top of the six-yard box for an Oswin Menez finish in the 30th minute and then chipped a ball to the back post off a free kick in the 35th minute, where Skyler McCoy got a toe on it to redirect it home from close range. 

“We had a couple of unlucky breaks in the first half,” Bates said.

Rhinelander had a faint glimmer of hope in the 67th minute as sophomore Aidan Lueder scored on a free kick from roughly 25 yards out to trim the lead to 3-1.

“I think we pulled it together and actually played a lot better in the second half than we did in the first, but a little too late at that point,” Bates said. “We had momentum going. That was a beautiful upper 90 shot. It was gorgeous. He put it right where it needed to be and it was a great shot.”

That momentum was squelched by the two late red cards and Roolens Darius finished off the scoring in the 77th minute for New London off a Drew Peters cross. 

In a ironic twist, considering all the whistles that went against the Hodags down the stretch, Rhinelanders awarded a penalty kick in the final seconds of the game, but senior Michael Schiek skied his chance from the spot over the crossbar. 

New London controlled the game, outshooting the Hodags 23-11 overall and 13-6 in shots on goal. Senior keeper Barak Rappley made nine saves in the loss for Rhinelander.

The loss brought Rhinelander’s season to an end with a 4-10-2 record. 

“It was a rebuild year for the program,” Bates said. “We’re going to miss the seniors we had on the team. They ground a lot to the program and they did a great job this year. I’m looking forward to seeing what these younger guys do in the future. There’s still a lot of talent left on the team. I think the kids can pull it back together and put it on the board.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].