Hodag soccer drops key game to Ashland

If the Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team is to make a deep run in the WIAA tournament next month, it is clear an old nemesis will be standing it its way.

The Hodags dropped a key game for regional seeding on Friday afternoon, falling 2-0 to the Ashland Oredockers in Ashland.

Avalon Piff scored both goals in the first half for Ashland. Though the Hodags had more total shots in the game, they were never able to rally.

“It was unfortunate. The girls definitely had an off night,” Hodag coach Nathan Bates said of the team’s first game in eight days. “You know, I’m not making excuses. They just had a bad game. I mean, we all go through it every season. There’s something like this (that) happens. We had an off night tonight.”

According to Bates, the referees missed that there was a Hodag defender in need of medical attention midway through the first half, leaving the back line essentially down a player as the Oredockers scored their first goal on a Piff breakaway through the middle in the 21st minute. 

“We had an unfortunate event in the beginning of the game where one of our center backs went down, having some difficulty breathing, and she was down there for a period of time,” he said. “And the sideline judge was yelling to the center judge and the center judge never saw it and wasn’t listening. And after that point there, they got a through ball and breakaway with our center back out. And, you know, they got a goal.”

Piff scored once more in the 38th minute to give Ashland a 2-0 lead at the break. 

According to statistics kept by the team, shots were 15-9 in favor of the Hodags, but Rhinelander struggled to get shots on frame in the match. The Oredockers finished with an 8-4 edge in shots on goal. Though Bates said his side had the better of play in the second half, scoring opportunities didn’t materialize. 

“We just couldn’t capitalize on the breaks,” he said. “We weren’t pulling the trigger tonight. We weren’t shooting. I mean, we definitely had the ball on their end of the field a majority of the second half, but, we fell behind early on, and it just kind of took the wind out of our sail.”

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Hodags and could potentially loom large in the postseason with Ashland sitting in the same nine-team regional grouping as the Hodags. The Oredockers were set to host Lakeland Monday night in a game that concluded after press time which could also go a long way to determining which team has the inside track on the No. 1 seed in the regional. Rhinelander defeated Lakeland 1-0 last month.

“It was a big game, and unfortunately, we fell short tonight, you know, but we’re not going to let that hold us down,” he said. “The girls have had a great season thus far, and we’re going to continue to go out and try to win games and, do the best we can. We’ll see how it shakes out at the seeding meeting.” 

Ashland knocked Rhinelander out of the WIAA tournament in the sectional semifinals in 2023, and did the same to Lakeland last year. However, Bates said he was confident that a potential rematch with the Oredockers could turn out differently with better play from his side. 

“We need to play our game. I mean, we honestly had a better firepower all over the field, and I feel like we have the better team as a whole. We just had a bad night tonight,” he said.

Rhinelander (8-4-0, 5-0-0-0 Great Northern) travels to Mosinee this evening to begin the second half of the Great Northern Conference season. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].