RHS girls’ soccer beats Pines, 3-0 ahead of key Lakeland tilt

The Rhinelander High School girls’ soccer team remained unbeaten on the season Thursday as it defeated Northland Pines Thursday 3-1 in a Great Northern Conference contest at Mike Webster Stadium.

Kiley Pooch started the scoring for the Hodags (3-0-0, 2-0-0-0 Great Northern), followed by Ella Heck as Rhinelander was up 2-0 at the midway point.

Northland Pines (0-1-0, 0-1-0-0 Great Northern) came within a goal in the 53rd minute when Ryyn Darr scored a rainmaker over junior goalkeeper Rylee Mickevicius. 

    Rhinelander’s Ella Miljevich sends a shot ahead of Northland Pines’ Kylie Lester during the first half of a GNC girls’ soccer game at Mike Webster Stadium Thursday, April 9. Miljevich scored her fourth goal of the season in the Hodags’ 3-1 win. (Blake Richard/River News)
  

Ella Miljevich put the game away after she found the back of the net in the 60th. 

While the offense did its job, Hodag head coach Nathan Bates said his team’s stellar defensive play controlled the game. The Eagles managed only three shots during the game, and one shot on goals. 

“Our defensive players, we try our best, you know, to stack our defensive line, because if you don’t have a very strong defense, which we do with June (Chiamulera), Hayley (Schiek), Becca (Brost), and Kenzie (Paulson) back there. I mean, if you don’t have that, you don’t have anything on the field,” Bates said. “On top of that, you know, we try to look for our midfielders, which distribute the ball up to the offensive line as well.”

The Hodags will look to carry the momentum they’ve gained in this early season into one of the biggest games of the year against Lakeland this coming Thursday at Mike Webster. 

Bates said it’s business as usual as the Hodags prepare for their rivals, with whom they split the GNC title last year. Early in the year, there are still some things to clean up and there’s still room for improvement on the fundamentals. 

“We’re going to basically go into it like we have every game and we’re just going to try to continue to improve and, you know, day by day and game by game and practices, and we’re going to go out there and play them like any other team, and hopefully come away with the win,” Bates said. “We have to clean up some things on, you know, first touches, and just normal stuff, passing, et cetera, and playing as a team, but otherwise, right now, the girls are on fire. They’re playing really, really well together as a team. They’ve been playing together a long time, and, you know, nothing in particular or special.” 

The Hodags will have to face all-conference goalkeeper, Ava Evenhouse. Evenhouse has proven to be challenging to the Hodags, and every other team, but Bates knows there’s no secret formula. 

“We’re just going to continue what we’ve been doing. We put a lot of goals in the last four games, and we’re gonna hopefully continue to do that,” he said.

Lakeland currently sits 2-0-0 after shutout wins over Hayward and Mosinee last week, and will host Northland Pines tonight, prior to Thursday’s showdown with the Hodags. 

Blake Richard may be reached via email at [email protected].