September 18, 2017 at 4:16 p.m.
BELL-ASTED
Red Robins rout Hodags 48-7 to take Bell for 11th straight year
BELL-ASTED
The Red Robins ran all over Rhinelander in the first half, racked up 435 yards of offense overall and blasted the Hodags 48-7 in the 83rd playing of the Bell Game at Mike Webster Stadium.
It was Antigo's 11th straight win in the series, and 54th overall. Not many were more lopsided than this one as the Robins rushed out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter and led 42-0 at the break before calling off the dogs in a second half that was played entirely under the running-clock rule.
"It's never sounded good yet for us," Rhinelander coach Chris Ferge said, referring to hearing the gut-wrenching chime of Antigo's players and students ringing Gene Shepard's Bell in the distance. "Our guys, it was a long night. We blew our assignments and we missed our assignments. It wasn't just one person. It was different people and we paid the price for it."
Antigo racked up 313 yards on the ground in the first half alone, including eight explosive plays of 15 yards or greater. The Robins consistently gashed Rhinelander with that familiar Antigo concoction of power running and misdirection.
"We weren't gap sound defensively at certain times and they found it," Ferge said. "They're an C-, B-gap team. When we missed that gap and weren't physical there, they got to the second level and our tackling wasn't very good. Our heads were down."
Not in the Hodags' scariest nightmares could they have dreamt of a worst start from all three phases of the game than what transpired Friday night. After Kelly's long run, Rhinelander went three-and-out offensively and Antigo's Thomas Nelson returned a punt 27 yards to the Hodag 39.
Four plays later, fullback Adam Schmidt burst through the line on fourth-and-1 from the 30, scoring to give Antigo a two-touchdown advantage. Rhinelander stalled on offense again, and Antigo then went 68 yards on two plays, with quarterback Matt Winter scoring on a 40-yard scamper.
Schmidt added a pair of one-yard scores in the second quarter and Winter scored again from two yards out with three seconds remaining in the first half to give Antigo a 42-0 lead.
It was like that all night for Antigo. Kelly finished with 181 yards rushing on only eight carries. Winter added 61 yards on the ground and Schmidt had 50. As a team, Antigo rushed for just over nine yards per carry.
Ferge said it was not a matter of his team lacking the energy to be ready for a rivalry game, rather the exact opposite. He said, if anything his team tried too hard, compromising its fundamentals and was burned because of it.
"Our kids, they wanted it more badly than they wanted to have technique there tonight. I think that's where we're going to see some things and some bad habits," he said. "We have to clean it up."
Rhinelander was able to move the ball more effectively on offense as the game progressed but missed on some opportunities. Reese Flores dropped a potential touchdown pass with the Hodags at the Antigo 40 late in the first quarter. The Hodags eventually went for it on fourth-and-11 only to have quarterback Logan Freund rush for 10 yards and be turned away on downs at the 30.
The Hodags were driving inside the 40 late in the second when Freund threw a pass in-and-out of the reach of Tyler Olson that was picked off by Deakin Czerneski.
Freund threw another pick in the second half that led to another Antigo touchdown a few plays later. Rhinelander finally got on the board in the fourth quarter as Freund found Flores for a 35-yard score with 4:03 remaining. That prevented what would have been the 15th shutout loss for the Hodags in the Bell Game series.
Drake Martin finished the night with 79 yards on 19 carries for Rhinelander. Freund added 12 carries for 58 yards. He was 5 of 15 through the air for 62 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.
"He was a lot more physical and taking the ball. He made some good reads tonight at times," Ferge said of Freund, who had a season-high rushing. "But we need to move the ball and we didn't convert on third downs. We needed to do that and move the ball and give our defense a break."
It all added up to another painful loss for the Hodags, who have not possessed the Bell since 2006.
"I have to move on very quickly as well. I can't feel sorry for myself at all and I told the kids they can't do that either," Ferge said. "It's a quick learn, quick preparation and then it's back at it. Our kids will not quit I know that."
The Hodags (1-4, 0-2 Great Northern) travel to Mosinee next Friday. The Indians come in off a 50-34 win over Lakeland in Week 5.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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