Hodag soccer gets on scoreboard, but not win column at Pines

In its ninth game of the season, the Rhinelander High School boys’ soccer team finally scored its first goal of the year Thursday night at Northland Pines. That was not enough, however, to get the Hodags into the win column as they fell to the Eagles 7-1 in Eagle River.

Sophomore Owen Evers got the maiden tally, converting a penalty kick in the second half of the match. Though no official statistics were available as of press time, coach John Vojta said the Hodags had plenty of scoring opportunities in the match and it was a weight lifted from the team’s shoulders to finally get the ball past the keeper and into the net.

“That’s a big relief,” he said. “You know, to be honest, a couple bounces go our way, that game could have been 3-3 at one time. Charlie (Johnson) hit the post dead on in the first seven-ish minutes. And, I mean, he hit it solid. That ball’s two inches to the left, it’s 1-0 Rhinelander. Kam (Kostrova) hit the post late in the game. So, you know, the fact that we’re actually starting to build quality chances against a team that (is encouraging). You know, they’re a pretty good team.” 

Evers, who was one of five players to convert in a penalty kick shootout following a scoreless tie against Medford earlier this month, got the call and put the chance home from the spot to make it 5-1 at the time.

“I was of two minds about it because Charlie Johnson was coming back to Pines, but I stuck with my guns,” coach Vojta said. “I had made my decision that Owen was taking our penalties and he was smooth as silk and put it right in the corner.” 

Thursday’s game marked a homecoming for both Johnson, who played with the Eagles as a freshman before transferring to Rhinelander, and for Vojta, who was an assistant coach for the Eagles the past few years. 

Vojta’s son, Tyler, still plays on the Pines squad and scored the Eagles’ second goal of the match. Otherwise, the night belonged to Pines attackers Dechlan Favorite and Ryder Rydeski.

Favorite had the opener for the Eagles and Rydeski scored twice after Tyler Vojta’s goal to give Pines a 4-0 lead at halftime. Oliver DePuydt and Jackson Olejniczak added goals in the second half before Favorite provided the capper. 

“We’re creating chances. We just, somehow, I got to figure out how to get them to stop lunging,” coach Vojta said of a defense that struggled to contain the Eagles on Thursday. “I will tell you that there were segments of the game that we played on Pines half for quite a bit. You know, my son played in the back, he was pretty smooth with cleaning up the through balls. You know, No. 11, Dechlan Favorite for Pines is a highly-skilled player. He fed Rydeski and you know, Ryan’s a strong kid and he had his way with us just dribbling.”

Rhinelander fell to 0-8-1 with the loss and 0-4-1-0 in the GNC. The Hodags close out the first half of the conference season tonight at home against a much-improved Antigo squad that has already beaten Medford and Pines in GNC play.

“The thing that we got going for us is everybody’s going to underestimate us, and eventually we’re going to catch somebody,” coach Vojta said. “But at this point, we’re just still going to focus on our game and in our system and keep working on that. It may take time, it may click tomorrow, but it’s gonna happen.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].