Northland Pines defender Ryan Rydeski extends his body during a battle for the ball in a 2-0 win against Rhinelander in the final regular season game last Thursday in Eagle River.
Senior AJ Muench attempts a throw in during a Great Northern Conference match last week.
The Northland Pines boys soccer team got a “must-win” victory over Rhinelander to close out the regular season. Still, it wasn’t enough to win a Great Northern Conference (GNC) title as Lakeland also won its final game to clinch the championship.
Pines beat the Hodags 2-0 last Thursday to keep the Eagles alive in the battle for the conference championship, but Lakeland topped Antigo 4-0 to win the GNC title by one point over Pines.
Northland Pines, 12-2-3 overall, received the top seed in the WIAA Division 4 Regional in the upper bracket of Sectional #1. The Eagles will receive a first-round bye in the playoffs and will face the winner of the fourth-seeded Barron and fifth-seeded Three Lakes/Phelps game set for this Thursday, Oct. 24, at Barron at 4 p.m.
Pines, being the one seed, will host the Regional championship at Sam Larsen Field in Eagle River this Saturday, Oct. 26, at a time to be determined. The winner of that game will advance to the Sectional semifinal Oct. 31 at a site to be determined. The Sectional final will be at Arcadia High School Nov. 2 at 1 p.m.
Other games in the Regional this Thursday include second-seeded Washburn hosting seventh-seeded Regis/McDonnell Central Catholic and third-seeded Cumberland hosting sixth-seeded Amery. The top teams in the lower bracket of Sectional #1 include top-seeded Columbus Catholic, second-seeded Aquinas, third-seeded Arcadia and fourth-seeded Nekoosa.
Rhinelander victory
The Eagles went into the Rhinelander game with seven conference victories, but had concerns about the three-win Hodags.
“Rhinelander is always a battle and these games are unpredictable and typically go down to the wire,” said Pines coach Rodney Sternhagen. “Rhinelander is a perennial powerhouse in the conference. They are in a rebuilding year, but coach Bates and his team of coaches set a plan to shut us down. They had their top players across the back with five defenders and two midfielders dropping in defensively.”
Rhinelander did a great job with their offside trap, drawing 10 offsides against Northland Pines and foiling several offensive attacks by the Eagles. Senior captain Cody Vojta had a number of great looks early, but the Eagles’ offense couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net and the score was tied 0-0 at the half.
“If those first early looks would have converted, I think the game would have been much different,” said Sternhagen. “At half, we told our striker he had to move around and force their defenders to make tough decisions. We challenged the midfield to change the attack and become secondary attackers. The boys responded and it opened up opportunities for use.”
Just shy of 60 minutes into the game, Guilherme Amirez Fonseca found the open channel which had Vojta exploiting the offside trap. He beat the keeper for the first lead of the game. Six minutes later, Tyler Vojta took advantage of the wind and curled his corner kick into the back of the net off the keeper’s hands to button up the 2-0 victory. Pines had 20 shots, with 10 on goal, while the Hodags had eight with five on goal. The Eagles had five corner kicks, including the clinching goal by Tyler Vojta. Both teams were whistled for 10 fouls.
Lakeland won the GNC with 18 points, followed by Northland Pines with 17, Mosinee with nine, Rhinelander with eight, Antigo with five and Medford with three.
Three Lakes win
The Eagles also beat Three Lakes/Phelps 2-0 in a nonconference game last Monday.
In the 28th minute, Amirez Fonseca passed to Iland Sheperdson, who drilled a ball over the keeper’s hand from 30 yards out for his first varsity goal. The half ended with Pines on top 1-0.
“In the WIAA playoff seeding meeting, I voted them as the second best team in the Regional,” said Sternhagen. “They work hard and keep coming at you. In the second half, they stopped dribbling the ball and started passing and moving. It took a toll on Three Lakes’ defense and we started getting more quality opportunities.”
In the 57th minute, A.J. Muench played the ball to Cody Vojta, who passed it behind the defender to a moving Amirez Fonseca, who then tapped it by the outstretched keeper for the 2-0 victory.
Pines had 22 shots compared to five for Three Lakes/Phelps. Eagles’ goalkeeper Ryder Will made three saves. Pines had six corner kicks to just two for Three Lakes/Phelps.
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