Rhinelander soccer scores early, late to down Mosinee

The Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team jumped ahead of Mosinee in the fifth minute on Tuesday night. It took another 75 minutes for the Hodags to find an insurance goal.

Scores from Hart Hokens and Michael Schiek lifted the Rhinelander offense while keeper Barak Rappley made six saves as the Hodags defeated Mosinee 2-0 in Great Northern Conference play at Mike Webster Stadium.

At least temporarily, the win lifted Rhinelander into the GNC lead — two points ahead of Lakeland before the sides met in a Thursday night match in Minocqua that concluded after press time. Bates called Tuesday match a strong result for his side, considering Mosinee took Lakeland to a penalty kick shootout just five days earlier.

“They’ve got a couple of guys that are pretty darn talented. The other night, they took one of the favorites in the conference to a shootout,” Bates said. “We’re building each week, like I said. We’ve still got a lot of work to do before the season’s out, but I’m happy so far. We’ve got two wins and a tie. In conference play we’re doing pretty good so far. That’s cool to see.”

Hokens put the Hodags ahead in the fifth minute as he worked into the attacking third off a pass from Schiek. He split a pair of Mosinee defenders and then worked around a screen in the box as he fired a shot from 15 yards that went in to keeper’s right.

“It was a beautiful through ball to Hart and he was able to outrun the defense,” Bates said. “He had a beautiful shot. It wasn’t a one-on-one with the goalie, he had a really nice angle, shot from just slightly inside the 18 that went far back corner. It was a beautiful shot.”

Rhinelander fell back into more of a defensive posture after the goal with Hokens reverting to the back line much of the night. That bared out in the stats as Mosinee outshot the Hodags 10-7 overall and 6-3 in shots on goal. For the most part, however, Rhinelander was able to neutralize Mosinee’s attempts to let attacker Omar Ingram run free behind the Hodag defense.

Rhinelander finally got the clincher with 14 seconds to play in regulation as Schiek fired from just outside the 18-yard box and tucked his shot inside the left corner. The goal was the result of a buildup near the attacking third as Dean Gillingham dropped the ball back to Charlie Johnson, who fed it ahead to Schiek on the right flank.

“Mikey was able to one away for good measure to seal the deal. It was nice to see because we were getting pretty tired there and Mosinee was pressing still,” Bates said. “We were able to come out and put one in on them pretty fast. After that we kind of changed up our formation slightly and played a little more conservative to get through the game. Later in the game, we were able to put in one more there to put them to bed.”

    Rhinelander’s Michael Schiek, right, reacts with teammates Kamden Kostrova, left, and Charlie Johnson, middle, after scoring a goal in the final minute of a GNC boys’ soccer game against Mosinee at Mike Webster Stadium Tuesday, Sept. 10. The Hodags defeated Mosinee 2-0. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Mosinee had a couple of late chances before Rhinelander put the nail in the coffin. Chase Kowalski fired directly at Rappley from 20 yards in the 76th minute as he tried to beat the defense on the right side off a pass forward by Shawn Sowadski. Less than two minutes later, Sowadski got free on the left side of the box and fired a shot from 12 yards that Rappley swatted away to the near post. Kowalski was stationed there for the rebound, but Rappley denied the putback chance as well, before the Hodags sent it out the side for a throw in. That was the last true threat Mosinee mounted. 

“Barak had a huge save with maybe three, four minutes left in the game. He made a diving extension save and then a follow up shot came in from Mosinee and he was able to make the secondary stop,” Bates said. “The boys came out, put in a lot of effort, fought hard and they came away with a good win tonight.”

The Hodags are set to play Black River Falls and Shawano Saturday as part of an invite at Mike Webster Stadium and the Hodag Dome. The invite is scheduled to start at 10 a.m., though exact match times had not been announced as of press time.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].