The end of the regular season has come for the Northland Pines boys soccer team, as the Eagles wrapped up the week last week with two shutout victories over Merrill and Rhinelander early in the week. Pines finished with a home loss versus Lakeland Oct. 16 as the team moves to the postseason this week.

After the team carried momentum into last week with the PK win over Antigo back on Oct. 9, the team continued that with a 3-0 win over Merrill last Monday and a 2-0 victory at Rhinelander a day later.

“Not only winning back to back games, but both being shut-outs, two days in a row is a great confidence boost going as we move into the final stretch of the season,” said Northland Pines Head soccer coach Jamie Remme. “We will continue to fine tune some tactics and head to Barron Thursday for our first playoff game. I believe the team is gelling really well and we are peeking at the right time.”

Two early shutouts

Junior Ryan Rydeski got Pines rolling offensively against the Bluejays to open the week at home. He scored in the 15th minute off an assist by junior Tyler Vojta. Pines and Merrill would play to a 1-0 game after 40 minutes as both teams went into the halftime break looking to make adjustments.

Those adjustments came, and Rydeski scored a little under three minutes into the second half to give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage.

Dechlan Favorite scored the team’s final goal of the game, as the defense kept up with pressure to keep the shutout. Pines finished the game with 12 shots offensively, and goalkeeper Easton Otto had six saves in the win. The coaching staff was able to rotate everyone on the team into the game.

More offense came in a game under the lights in Rhinelander last Tuesday. Pines fired 23 shots and only two were needed to clinch the victory. The game sat in a 0-0 deadlock for the opening 30 minutes of game time before sophomore Ben Jastrow got his first goal of his high school career at the 30:45 mark to gain the 1-0 advantage.

Pines held a second consecutive 1-0 lead at the half and doubled the score 10 minutes into the second half, which held until the end.

Northland Pines finished the regular season at Sam Larsen Field last Thursday and fell 3-1 to the visiting Lakeland T-Birds.

The Eagles were awarded the five seed for the D4 playoffs and will travel to face four-seeded Barron in the regional semifinal this Thursday, Oct. 23, at 4 p.m. The winner will face either one-seed Columbus Catholic, eight-seed Amery or nine-seed Cumberland in the regional final on Saturday, Oct. 25.