Back-to-back regional champions

A win is a win. The Lakeland boys’ soccer team survived two tests to bring home a regional title for the second straight season.

“Every year you get through the season, you realize how hard it is to win a game period, just regular season game, and then when you come to the postseason, it becomes twice as hard because everyone comes in, brings their A-game, brings their strengths, and everyone understands if you lose, you’re out,” coach Ihor Myshchyshyn said. “Winning it, getting to it first was extremely exciting, and winning it second year in a row adds to the excitement, to the kids how much they work year in and year out to be at this point. It still takes a lot of effort, new kids, new groups, new adjustments and stuff like that.”

The Thunderbirds survived a scare from Medford, winning 2-0 in extra time in a WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal game in Minocqua on Thursday. Lakeland then beat fifth-seeded Seymour 2-1 in a regional final game Saturday in Minocqua.

“It’s just such a blessing,” Marshall Holmquist said. “We’ve been striving for this the entire season, and we got it, but we’re trying to look for some more because I think we have that potential to do that.”

Medford

The Raiders came into the game as the No. 9 seed in the bracket. They pushed the top-seeded Thunderbirds to their limits.

Medford played a defensive game in attempts to keep the game scoreless for as long as possible. Lakeland was unable to convert the chances they had.

Offensively, the Raiders were slowed down with just two shots in regulation.

“I give a lot of credit to Medford and their coaching staff,” Myshchyshyn said. “They came knowing their strength and knowing our strengths. We played them twice through the regular season. It was a pure example of postseason how different teams come out to play. They had no threats for us, but everything was built and committed to making sure they didn’t give us any clean chances, and it worked. They made us work for that game.”

The game went to extra time with the game scoreless after 80 minutes. There were two 10-minute overtime periods with no sudden death.

Holmquist came up clutch for the Thunderbirds with a goal early in the first overtime. He scored at 82:09 to get Lakeland the elusive goal they were looking for.

“It was a pretty big goal,” Holmquist said. “I saw Dom with the cross, and I knew we had to take some shots — I had passed up on a couple before that. I tried to take a shot and just went top right I guess.”

Lakeland got a bit more aggressive in overtime with a formation shift. The Thunderbirds led 1-0 after one overtime.

“I realized that right now, at the beginning of the first extra time, was ideal time to take a little bit (of) chances on the back so we switched our formation from 4-2-3-1 to 4-1-3-2 so we basically put an extra forward,” Myshchyshyn said. “Talking honestly here, the goal came in so fast it could have impacted it or not. It was just well-executed play on top with a beautiful shot by Marshall.”

Lakeland played a bit more defensive in the second overtime. Holmquist iced the game away with a goal 55 seconds into the second extra time with the assist to Dominic Gironella.

“That one Dom — he did most of the work,” Holmquist said. “He dribbled it all the way down, perfect pass to me where I tapped it in.”

“And after that first goal happened, we put everyone back because at this point, we knew we needed to keep the score, and they needed to take chances,” Myshchyshyn said. “As soon as they started coming out of (their) defensive formation, which they played a whole 80 minutes, there’s more space opened up for our forwards to take advantage of it, and so we scored second goal and at that point easy to tell that the game was done.”

The Thunderbirds ended up with 24 shots, 17 on goal in the game. 

Seymour

“This means the world to me,” Gironella said. “This year, I’m really hoping we can just power through, make it all the way to state which would just mean a lot.”

The Thunderbirds didn’t wait until extra time to score their first two goals. 

First, Gironella broke through and shot high for Lakeland’s first good look of the game in the fifth minute.

A pass from Gironella to Holmquist saw Holmquist just miss the post in the 14th minute.

Lakeland’s persistence paid off. A foul outside the box gave Gironella a free kick. He converted the free kick into a goal at 19:43. The Thunderbirds led 1-0.

“It was a free kick because someone had been tripped right outside the box,” Gironella said. “I just put it right in the bottom right corner, right around the wall.”

The Thunderbirds used their momentum for another goal. Holmquist got to a loose ball in the box before the Seymour goalie. Holmquist tapped it in for his third goal in two games. Lincoln Friedley was awarded the assist.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” Holmquist said. “I was in his face. I don’t know if I touched the ball or not. It bounced off his chest, and it was right there, and I just had the angle to tap it in.”

Lakeland goalie Talan Pockat made a couple of saves in the first half to shut out the Thunder. Two Seymour corner kicks resulted in no goals.

“Just staying consistent,” Holmquist said. “Our defense — they really (were) on lockdown except for that one penalty, and everyone just gave 110 percent.”

Lakeland’s defense of Brent Olson, Brett Peterson, Kaden Carlson and Sawyer Brown held strong in the first half.

“It means a lot because I can hang my hat on something that I’ve earned with a group of friends that have my back,” Olson said about the regional title.

The Thunderbirds led 2-0 at halftime.

“We probably could’ve won that game, set that game confidently ahead in the first half,” Myshchyshyn said. “A couple chances on top didn’t go our way. Boys came out ready to play so opened up their defense, made them chase the ball. This is what we try to do every single game — sometimes go smoother than others. We were playing well, we were forcing them to play our game in the first half.”

The flow of the game in the second half saw Lakeland play a little more defensive with less chances to score. 

The Thunder made it a one-score game in the 51st minute. A penalty in the box led to a penalty kick. Carson Johnson scored to make it 2-1, Lakeland’s lead.

“One thing we did right after is try to stay calm because if we panic, it just causes chaos so as long as we talk, it helps,” Olson said.

A shot by Seymour’s Marti Cutrina-Bach went off target.

“It’s not what we were predicting, but part of it we did expect a little bit shifting that way because at this point, saving the score as it was, was more important to us than scoring more goals,” Myshchyshyn said. “We had to hold a little bit back to make sure we didn’t give them too clean of a chances to score so that’s why eventually it actually played out as a typical soccer game with two teams that want it badly and played hard for it.”

Friedley passed the ball to Gironella that nearly resulted in a goal in the 63rd minute. Gironella had a clean look and fired on goal. Seymour’s goalie made a save and deflected the ball away. 

Lakeland got a look from Gironella after a pass from Holmquist. Gironella took a one-touch shot, saved again. The Thunderbirds ended with 13 shots, six on goal.

“We just kept being resilient,” Gironella said. “(We) kept up the attack, didn’t let anything through except for the one shot, and then yeah, just kept up the hard work and kept up the physicality.”

Seymour’s offense stayed active. They fired a shot that went straight to Pockat for a save. Pockat made six saves. Seymour totaled nine shots, seven on goal.

“It kind of flowed out that way,” Gironella said about the second half. “We also tried to play more defense, not let them get any shots on us even though we sacrificed a little bit of offense. We tried to keep the flow of the game going.”

The final chance for the Thunder came on a free kick from about midfield at 79:46. Lakeland cleared the free kick to become back-to-back regional champions.

Up next, the Thunderbirds (16-1-2, 8-0-1-1 GNC) stay at home with a sectional semifinal game against Shawano, the No. 2 seed, on Thursday, Oct. 31 beginning at 7 p.m.

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].