Rhinelander soccer breaks down Mosinee’s wall, wins 3-0

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team overcame a pesky Mosinee defense Tuesday night to remain perfect in Great Northern Conference play, defeating the Indians 3-0 at Edgewood Park.

Sophomores Kiley Pooch, Ella Miljevich and Vivian Lamers collected first-half goals for the Hodags (9-4-0, 6-0-0-0 Great Northern), who dominated the night, but had a hard time scoring against a Mosinee formation that packed the 18-yard box in an effort to wall off its goal.

The tactic kept Mosinee (1-8-1, 1-5-0-0) from mounting any sort of offensive threat in the game as the Hodags outshot Mosinee 29-0 in the match.

“The start of the game through the whole thing, they literally didn’t have a single forward out there the whole entire game,” Hodag coach Nathan Bates said. “It was just pack the box from the beginning to the end. We had some opportunities, put some goals in the back of net. But, at the end of the day, I mean, we had a hard time getting it in there with so many people this evening.”

Pooch was able to break through in the ninth minute off a pass from Ella Miljevich. Ella Miljevich added to the lead from Gabby Wanta in the 20th minute and Lamers rounded out the scoring in the 36th minute. Because of Mosinee’s compressed defensive formation, Bates said virtually all of Rhinelander’s attacks came from outside the 18-yard box. 

“The goals all came from outside of the box. All the shots were from outside of the 18. That was the whole game tonight,” he said. “All in all, I mean, the girls played a good game. They moved the ball really, really well. We had a lot of shots. Their goalie had quite a few saves. But the end of the day, it was really tough to get in there when they had so many people inside of the 18-yard box the whole night.”

Despite the win, Bates expressed frustration with Mosinee’s defensive tactic, which has been employed by a handful of teams over the past couple of seasons in an effort to slow down the GNC’s top scoring offense. 

For Mosinee, it was an improvement from a 7-0 loss at Rhinelander April 17 in which they were outshot 46-0.

“It’s just hard to play when you have teams like that don’t want to come out and play, you know, head-to-head,” he said. “It’s a different tactic that me and my coaching staff don’t do, and I don’t understand it, but the end of the day, I mean, it’s a tactic. And unfortunately, it’s cost us games before because, you know, it’s a strategy, but it’s a weird one.”

Regardless, Bates said it was a nice bounce-back win for the Hodags following a 2-0 loss to Ashland last Friday. 

“We spread the wealth. I mean, Soph(ie Miljevich) had quite a few opportunities. Lindsey (Hoerchler) had some opportunities,” he said. “Everybody tonight was shooting the ball and trying to get it in back the net there. But they worked well and a lot better than what we did last Friday. So that was good to see that they were back out there moving the ball around playing as a team.” 

While the Ashland loss could have regional seeding implications, Rhinelander potentially got some help in that regard on Monday when Lakeland beat the Oredockers 2-0 in Ashland. Rhinelander holds a 1-0 victory over Lakeland from April 22 and the sides won’t meet again until May 29 — after the regional seeding meeting takes place. 

Rhinelander was set to face another team that has had a tendency to hedge its bets on a defensive struggle, Medford, Thursday night in a game that was slated to begin after press time for today’s edition. The Hodags are back home on Tuesday to take on Antigo.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].