September 23, 2019 at 11:28 a.m.
Not ready for primetime
No. 3 Medford routs No. 10 Rhinelander 39-14 in battle of undefeated teams
Not ready for primetime
Medford dominated a battle of unbeaten teams, defeating the Hodags 39-14 at Raider Field.
Friday night's game was billed as a showdown between the third-ranked Raiders and the 10th-ranked Hodags, potentially for GNC supremacy, but it quickly turned into a one-sided affair.
Medford scored 19 points in the first quarter, aided by two Rhinelander turnovers, led 27-0 at halftime and 33-0 after three quarters.
"It's a good, strong football team and a well-coached football team," Rhinelander coach Aaron Kraemer said of the Raiders following Friday's contest. "They earned it tonight."
Starting on defense for the fifth consecutive game, the Hodags once again responded, forcing Medford to a three-and-out. But disaster struck shortly thereafter.
Peyton Erikson muffed the ensuing punt, and Medford recovered at the Rhinelander 9. That set up Ean Wilson for the first of his four touchdown runs of the night on the next play.
Things did not go much better for Rhinelander the remainder of the quarter.
After being forced to punt on their next possession, the Hodags surrendered another touchdown run to Wilson to fall behind 13-0. Drake Martin then fumbled on the Hodags' next offensive play. Medford parlayed that miscue into an Emett Grunwald 11-yard score a short time later and Rhinelander was down 19 less than eight minutes into the contest.
"We gave them 14 points early and, unfortunately for us, we couldn't respond to those 14 points early," Kraemer said.
Wilson tacked on another scoring run in the second quarter to extend Medford's lead and the Raiders went up 33-0 on a Grunwald eight-yard run on the first possession of the third quarter.
The win moved Medford to 5-0 overall and made the Raiders playoff eligible for the eighth time in the last nine years. Rhinelander fell to 1-1 in the GNC with the loss and must win at least two of its final four games to make the playoffs for the first time since 2012.
If the Hodags get there, Kraemer said it's not out of the realm of possibility that Rhinelander may see Medford again.
"We probably will get a chance to see these guys again," he said. "That's what's got to be our mentality, get ourselves into the playoffs, and it starts next week with Antigo. I think, maybe the next time around we'll be a little better prepared and we'll understand how physical this team is. Hopefully we take the physicality of this game and take it to Antigo next week."
Wilson runs wild
The showdown between the GNC's top two backs - Wilson and Martin - was one-sided in Wilson's direction as he rushed 34 times for 215 yards.
Most of that running was done with Wilson taking the direct snap in a single wing formation, which Rhinelander had difficulty stopping all night.
Coming into the game having allowed only 103.5 rushing yards per game, the Hodags gave up 319 on the ground to the Raiders, who averaged 5.3 yards per carry.
"He's a great running back. He's a big, physical player and a wide player. I didn't realize how thick he was below his waist," Kraemer said of Wilson. "He's a real difficult player to take down. I thought we had him stuffed up at the line of scrimmage a couple times and we arm tackled, he came through. He's shifty and a big load so if you don't wrap up and drive your eyes through his thighs and squeeze his legs, it's tough to take him down. He's a heck of a player and he had a great game."
Grunwald added 67 yards and two scores on 14 carries for Medford.
Battered and bruised
On the other side of the coin, Martin was limited to only 16 yards on nine carries - a career low. His previous low-water mark was an eight-carry, 18-yard performance against Medford in 2017.
Martin also lost two fumbles in the contest, his first two turnovers of the season. He came out of the game late in the third quarter and did not return. Martin was seen with ice on his right wrist following the game, though Kraemer said the decision to pull Martin was precautionary with Rhinelander down 33 at that juncture of the game.
"Drake's the ultimate competitor and he wants to be in there but, ultimately what's best for him and the rest of the guys, they stood up and did what was asked of them in the second half," he said.
Lineman Tyler Olson and linebacker Nathan Kempf also left the game with injuries, though after the game Kraemer said he expected all three players to be ready for this Friday's contest against Antigo.
Fourth quarter fight
Despite the large deficit, the Hodags put up a fight late in the third quarter and early into the fourth. Quinn Lamers found Connor Lund on a 46-yard pass play that put Rhinelander deep in Medford territory. Walker Hartman scored from a yard out two plays later, on the opening snap of the fourth quarter. He ran in the subsequent two-point conversion to make the score 33-8.
After forcing Medford to turn it over on downs, the Hodags marched down the field against Medford's second-string defense, ending in a one-yard touchdown run by Erikson.
Rhinelander then recovered an onside kick before Medford marched its starters back on the field to finish the game.
"What I learned about them is they are willing to step up when I ask them to step up and finish the game the way that we did," Kraemer said. "I was proud of the way we responded.
"When I went into the locker room there was not a guy in there that was ready to quit. I've been down here three times and the last two times we were down here it was running clock in the second half (with Medford leading by 35 points or more). We didn't stand for that."
Hartman had 30 yards on the ground while Erikson added 28 yards rushing. Both had seven carries in the contest.
Airing it out
With the ground game halted, Rhinelander had some success in the air against the Raiders. Lamers finished the night 9 of 21 for 138 yards with no interceptions. Jackson Labs and Erikson each had three catches. The 46-yarder to Lund in the third quarter was Rhinelander's biggest gain of the night. Lamers also made a tight throw along the sideline to Martin in the first quarter for 21 yards.
Bell Game battle
Rhinelander will have an opportunity to quickly put the loss behind it as it hosts Antigo in the 85th playing of the Bell Game this Friday at Mike Webster Stadium. The Hodags have not won the Bell since 2006.
"I told them to lick our wounds a little bit. We're not invincible. That's something, now we've faced the adversity and we can put all our efforts into Antigo, fix the things we got wrong and do a lot of things right next week," Kraemer said.
Antigo comes into Friday's contest at 2-3 on the season following a 24-13 home loss to Lakeland this past Friday.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.