Hodag soccer drops regular season finale at Antigo

The Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team was on the wrong end of a second-half scoring binge Thursday night as it dropped its regular season finale 4-1 at Antigo.

Four goals were scored in under six minutes during the middle stages of the second half. Unfortunately for Rhinelander, the barrage saw its deficit expand from 1-0 to 4-1 during that span. 

“It was a little bit of a frustrating outing,” Hodag coach John Vojta said. “We had four misjudged balls end up in the back of the goal. To be honest with you, we should have won the game 1-0. It’s really hard to say that when you lose 4-1, but we didn’t have our communication skills going tonight, unfortunately. But other than that, the guys played hard. They played well.”

Asher Rivord connected for his third goal of the season for Rhinelander in the 54th minute. 

“Ball got shot in the box, deflected up in the air,” Vojta explained. “Asher took it out of the air with a prep touch and just blasted past the keeper. It was a nice goal, actually.”

That goal brought the Hodags within one. Diego Flores Martinez recorded the opener for the Robins in the seventh minute and Scott Hagerty doubled the lead in the 52nd prior to Rivord’s response. Antigo quickly restored the two-goal advantage on a Parker Chaney tally in the 55th minute and Hagerty tacked on another goal in the 58th. 

Rain picked up during the second half of the match, which Vojta said, made things more challenging across the board.

“The surface was a little bit slippery. The ball was skipping in the second half, not so much the first half. It was very slippery to catch the ball,” he said.

Antigo finished with an 18-9 edge in total shots and had a 15-4 margin in shots on goal. Rhinelander’s keepers combined to make 11 saves in the match, according to statistics kept by the team.

The loss secured a last-place finish in the GNC for the Hodags, who went 1-9-2-0 in conference play and 1-13-3 overall in the regular season. Rhinelander finished two points behind Medford, which used a 2-1 upset win over Mosinee last Monday to leapfrog the Hodags in the standings.

Rhinelander and Medford will meet tonight in the opening round of the WIAA Division 3 playoffs at Mike Webster Stadium. The Hodags had a draw and a win in their two regular season meetings against the Raiders. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. The winner will advance to Thursday’s regional semifinal round and play top-seeded Lakeland in Minocqua.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].