Eagles make it 15 in a row with two road wins

The Northland Pines varsity boys’ soccer team continued its undefeated season last week after the team opened a four-game road trip with wins at Great Northern Conference opponents Medford and Merrill. Two victories pushed Pines to 15-0 this season.

Weather played a factor in the first game of the week in Medford, where consistent rain came down for much of the night, but the Eagles buried two second-half goals to win 3-1 and sweep the regular season against the Raiders. Pines later downed the Merrill Bluejays in a second game under the lights, 3-0.

The Eagles and the Raiders battled on a rain-soaked evening in central Wisconsin last Tuesday. Pines struck first and led 1-0 in the first two minutes.

After falling to the Eagles 6-1 earlier in the year, the Raiders stayed with the Eagles’ attack the second time around. Pines allowed a goal in the 35th minute to knot the game at 1-1. That was the score at the halftime whistle. The two sides came out of the break and traded scoreless possessions for nearly 20 minutes in the second half before senior Ryan Rydeski netted the eventual game-winner in the 60th minute to take a 2-1 lead. About four minutes later, Rydeski found the ball on his foot again and beat the Medford keeper to extend the lead to 3-1.

“The Medford game was challenging with the wind and rain. The rain really impacted the speed of play and how quickly the ball moved on the turf. We just needed to make a few adjustments due to the weather and play accordingly,” said Head Coach Jamie Remme.

The Eagles then moved on to face the Bluejays on the road last Thursday. Pines grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first 10 minutes before doubling it in the 19th minute. Senior Tyler Vojta found space near midfield and dribbled into the Eagles’ attacking third of the field. He played the ball off his right foot and fired a left-footed shot from about 20 yards out, which was saved by the Merrill keeper. Sophomore Simon Adamovich cleaned up the rebound and found the back of the net.

Royce Remme concluded the scoring in the 23rd minute after they were awarded a penalty kick.

Northland Pines moved forward in its schedule and played a game at Three Lakes-Phelps this past Tuesday. The score of that game was not available before the printing of this week’s publication. Pines ends the road trip at Antigo this Thursday, Oct. 8, at 4 p.m. The team returns home for a big nonconference game against a Kingsford team that is D2 in the Michigan High School Athletic Association. The defense has been a consistent force against opponents this season. With the Eagles now facing conference and regional opponents twice, it makes the performances all more impressive.

“We recognize that each team we play is different regardless if we have played them before. Most have played a bunch of games since we last played them, and they all are better teams than the first match. We don’t make any assumptions based on past matches,” mentioned Remme.

The regular season will conclude next week with a home game against Rhinelander on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and a road game at Lakeland on Thursday, Oct. 15.