August 26, 2019 at 12:19 p.m.
A dream start
Hodags blank Prescott 21-0 in Kraemer's first game as head coach
A dream start
The Hodags' first offensive play worked to perfection and the Rhinelander defense was nearly flawless all night in a 21-0 shutout of Prescott Friday to open the 2019 season at Laney Field.
Quinn Lamers hit Jackson Labs for a 50-yard score on Rhinelander's first offensive snap. Standout senior tailback Drake Martin rushed for 101 yards and a score, and the Hodag defense turned in its first shutout since blanking Wittenberg-Birnamwood 36-0 in the second week of the 2015 season.
"It's surreal. I was talking to my mom yesterday on the phone and I was waiting for somebody to pinch me and wake me up," Kraemer said afterward. "It's like a dream that you have that you're going to have that last play of eligibility. That's what it's been since I got the job here, a lot of love for these kids. I can't even put it into words. It's unbelievable. I'm just so proud of them."
Game one went almost exactly how Kraemer drew it up. His first offensive play call of the year definitely went according to plan.
After forcing a punt on Prescott's opening possession, Kraemer dialed up a play action fake which left the junior Labs running wide open down the sideline. Lamers hit Labs in stride and Labs walked into the end zone to give the Hodags a 6-0 less than a minute and a half into the contest.
"That was a game plan play," Kraemer said. "I sat with Quinn and I said, 'This is going to be a touchdown on the first play.' They made it true. We saw that the corners in the scrimmage were trying to pass off their cover 2 (responsibilities) and that the safeties were coming up strong on the run plays. We knew if we called play action and the safeties bit on the play action - especially with Drake in the backfield you know that was their plan to stop him - we knew we could have something big."
After the teams traded a pair of punts, Prescott made its best offensive push early in the second half, hitting a long pass play to get inside the 30. But the Hodags came up with a sack on fourth and 4 to turn the Cardinals away and then went on a ground-pounding drive that took 7 minutes, 16 seconds off the clock, before Martin converted on fourth and goal from the 1.
Lamers found Lund on a two-point pass that put the Hodags up 14-0 heading into halftime.
Rhinelander continued to pound the rock early in the second half, driving 60 yards and four and a half minutes to open the third quarter, capped off by a Peyton Erikson one-yard plunge. Rhinelander's scoring drives on either side of halftime were achieved without the aid of a pass. Rhinelander rushed for 228 yards as a team, averaging roughly 4.7 yards per carry.
"I thought we'd be maybe a little more balanced in the passing game a little bit," Kraemer said. "When you can have you way offensively and just pound the ball down the field, that's what you want to stick with - and we have the guys who can do it."
Walker Hartman rushed for 54 yards on six carries for the Hodags while Erikson and 40 yards and a score on 10 carries.
Dominant D
Junior quarterback Kyle Holman was 8 of 15 through the air for 108 yards, which pretty much was the total of the Prescott offense. Aside from a 12-yard gain on the game's first play, the Hodag defense was airtight against Prescott's ground game, holding the Cardinals to a net eight yards rushing.
That's a vast improvement for a Hodag team that allowed more than five yards per carry on the ground a season ago.
"One of the things that we wanted to do defensively is we wanted to make sure we could stop the run early and put pressure on them to make them do something they're not comfortable doing. That's the game plan always. You want to make teams left-handed," Kraemer said. "(Defensive coordinator Gary) Zarda had a great game plan. We had to adjust a few things when they went to spread and they a few big plays out for spread but, otherwise, we shut everything else down and I was proud of the way that our Hodags set the edge, our safeties filled the gaps. Our defensive line, they were plugging holes all night long and spilling the play to our linebackers. I was proud of the way they reacted, too."
Lamers' night
Other than the big pass play at the beginning Lamers, who won a preseason battle with senior Nathan Kempf for the starting quarterback job, had a quiet night, completing only one other pass in the contest - a 28-yard connection to Labs in the third quarter. He finished the night 2 of 10 for 78 yards but, importantly, no turnovers.
"We asked him to do a couple of things. He has to protect the football. He did a good job of that tonight. He has to make the players around him better and he has to make good decisions and make plays," Kraemer said. "I thought he did that with his feet and his arm. When you have a backfield like we have, it just takes the pressure off a junior quarterback a little bit that he can turn and hand the ball and we can be successful."
Kempf, who lost the quarterback battle, started at an outside "Hodag" linebacker for the team and intercepted a Holman pass in the third quarter.
Keeping it fresh
With the Hodags up 21-0 in the fourth quarter, the team turned to some of its younger backs to help put the game out of reach. Junior Tim Fox and sophomore Caleb Olcikas each had five carries in the final quarter.
Rhinelander's last three possessions ended in turnovers on downs, but each drive milked precious clock.
"I told them before the game that life is about opportunities and seizing the opportunities that you are given," Kraemer said. "Not only did we play well with the kids considered to be our starters, but we got a lot of kids in the game offensively and defensively. Those kids stepped up, too."
Up next
Rhinelander (1-0, 0-0 Great Northern) has a short week as it takes on Tomahawk Thursday at Hatchet Field in Tomahawk. The Hodags have lost their last three meetings against the Hatchets, dating back to 2013.
"We're going to make sure we game plan Tomahawk, make sure we understand what they bring to the table, understand who their returning starters are and what they did this week," Kraemer said.
Tomahawk (0-1, 0-0 Marawood) was shutout 38-0 at Greenwood on Friday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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