Hodag soccer takes two of three over weekend

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team has a .500 record following a grueling non-conference schedule to begin its season. That’s right where coach Nathan Bates hoped his team would be as it gets set to begin Great Northern Conference play.

The Hodags got there by winning two of their three games late last week, beginning with a key 2-1 non-conference home win over Stevens Point Thursday night at Mike Webster Stadium. Rhinelander followed that up with a runner-up showing Saturday in the Lake Mills Quad, defeating Jefferson 10-2 before falling to the No. 2 team in Division 4, Lake Mills, 4-0.

“The girls have shown a lot of grit and now they’ve really come together as a team,” Bates said as the Hodags enter the GNC portion of their schedule with a 3-3-0 mark. “Seeing exactly what our girls were capable of doing and how they were able to compete with these really tough teams, they’ve exceeded all my expectations. Moving forward, I hope they can take what they learned with these tough competitions and put that back in place starting in our conference and throughout the playoffs.”

Rhinelander 2, SPASH 1

After jumping out to a two-goal lead Thursday night, the Hodags held on to defeat the Panthers 2-1 at Mike Webster Stadium.

Ella Miljevich scored in the 16th minute and Vivian Lamers added what proved to be the game-winner in the 54th minute. The Hodags withstood a late-game rally from the Panthers after Elaine Cziakwoski brought SPASH within a goal in the 71st minute. 

“I would say as a team and as a unit tonight, everybody on the team did their job, and they did a really great job at what they were supposed to execute tonight,” Bates said.

In a first half that featured plenty of offensive chances for both sides, Ella Miljevich scored the lone tally as she received a drop pass from Lindsey Hoerchler and fired a one-touch shot from roughly 22 yards out to the right post that keeper Sophia Smith deflected but could not prevent from finding its way home.

“That was awesome. She’s playing in her position very, very well,” Bates said. “She is doing a great job in the middle of the field and distributing the ball and shooting the ball. Very proud of her, it was a great, hard shot that she put on there pretty early in the game.”

Lamers gave Rhinelander a 2-0 lead in the early portion of the second half as she was in the right place at the right time to follow up a shot from Sophie Miljevich that went through Smith’s hands and bounded free near the goal line. 

“The girls, we’ve been harping on them to follow in the shots, especially when they’re hard shots coming in,” Bates said. “Viv did that beautifully and she followed right through with it, with her body, and put her right back in the back of the net.”

Point’s goal was a result of a set piece with just more than nine minutes to play. A scrum for the ball ensued following a corner kick and Czaikowski was able to get a foot on it from close range before the Hodag defense could clear it. 

The Panthers had only one quality chance to equalize the match in the final minutes as Amelia Castleberg fired just over the crossbar on a free kick from 31 yards in the 75th minute. Otherwise, the Hodag defense stiffened in the second half, limiting a Panther offense that had 12 shots in the first half to only five over the final 40 minutes. 

“Tonight the defense definitely shut down where we knew their strong suits were on the team, and offensively we were attacking the side that we knew that was their weak side,” Bates said. “By doing that we were definitely able to get a lot of opportunities down on their goal by attacking, exploiting their weakness on their defense as side.”

    Rhinelander’s Hayley Schiek attempts to block a pass from Stevens Point’s Amelia Castleberg during the second half of a non-conference girls’ soccer game at Mike Webster Stadium Thursday, April 10. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Additionally, Bates credited midfielder Hayley Schiek for slowing down Castleberg in the Point attack. After several quality looks in the first half — including one that hit off the crossbar in the 23rd minute — Castleberg’s only real threat in the second half came on the late free kick.

“Hayley Schiek tonight played amazing. She did her job and she did it perfect,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked her to do a better job than what she did this evening, and I’m very, very proud of her. Offensively, she was still able to make the ball, bring it up the field distribute it. Then on top of it, the defensive side of things, the minute the ball turned over, she got right back on her mark and she definitely, I would say, frustrated Point’s best player on their team tonight.”

While the Hodags scored twice, they had plenty of other chances to add to that advantage. Becca Brost beat Smith in a scramble off a corner kick in the sixth minute, only to have the potential goal cleared off the line by defender Kyra Beversdorf. Sophie Miljevich rang the crossbar twice in the match — first on a look in the 39th minute and again on a strike from 20 yards in the 78th. Hoerchler was denied by Smith on a kick save off a breakaway chance moments before Lamers made it 2-0.

Overall, the Hodags had a 27-17 edge in shots and a 9-6 advantage in shots on goal.

“The girls are doing what we asked,” Bates said. “I mean, we’re starting to shoot the ball a heck of a lot more than what we were in the first couple of games, which obviously pays off. They did really good.” 

Sophomore Rylee Mickevicius played all 80 minutes in goal for the Hodags, making five saves in the victory. It was the first time this season that either she or senior Emalee Detienne went the distance in goal as the two jockey to earn the starting keeper position. 

“We’re figuring some stuff out here. Emalee’s doing a great job in there, Rylee did a great job this evening,” Bates said. “We’re trying to give them a little longer stints. Tonight Rylee was doing so good throughout the game that I thought it would be a mistake to switch keepers in the middle of a game — especially with how hard of a press game this was and how physical it was. Rylee was already in there and her head was in the game.”

Lake Mills Quad

The Hodags rolled through Jefferson in the early game but weren’t able to overcome a slow start in the nightcap against Lake Mills.

The Hodags jumped out to a 5-1 lead at halftime against Jefferson and ended the game early via the eight-goal rule. Lamers and Sophie Miljevich each scored four goals in the contest. Ella Miljevich and Kiley Pooch also scored. The Hodags dominated that match, outshooting the Eagles 24-4.

“Jefferson did not hold anything to the girls, they really didn’t. It wasn’t a real true test for them this morning,” Bates said. “They were able to pick them apart any way that they wanted to today. They made pretty short work of them.”

Sophie Miljevich and Pooch each added a pair of assists. The Hodags also got helpers from Hoerchler and June Chiamulera. For Pooch, the goal and two assists represented her first points of the season.

“Kiley had a great weekend,” Bates said. “She did a great job. She made a lot of good passes, smart decision-making. She has some good finishing on her today. She did a really, really fine job.”

The Hodags fell behind early against Lake Mills as the L-Cats scored twice in the opening six minutes and took a 3-0 lead to halftime before tacking on one more goal in the second. 

In what has been a common theme during the early season, the statistics provided by the team had the Hodags outshooting Lake Mills by a 16-14 margin, but the L-Cats had the better scoring chances. 

“It wasn’t a defensive battle the whole game. We definitely had a lot of offensive pressure on them, unfortunately we just didn’t have a whole lot of quality hard shots on goal,” Bates said.

Mickevicius played the entirety of both games in goal for Rhinelander, making one save against Jefferson and two against Lake Mills. 

Rhinelander was scheduled to have one more non-conference game tonight against Wisconsin Rapids, but that game has been canceled with the Hodag Dome temporarily out of commission and Mike Webster Stadium being used for the Hodag Hybrid track meet. The Hodags kick off GNC play at home against Mosinee Thursday night.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].