November 4, 2020 at 10:19 a.m.
A shot at history
Rhinelander and Medford clash tonight with GNC title in the balance
A shot at history
It's been that long since the Hodags have won a conference championship in football.
Standing in Rhinelander's way, a Medford team that's looking to repeat as Great Northern Conference champions and win the GNC for the sixth time in nine years.
It's all on the line as the two lone unbeaten teams in the conference meet on the final night of the 2020 regular season.
At the beginning of the season, second-year Rhinelander head coach Aaron Kraemer talked about how tonight could be the culminating event for the Hodags - a potential showdown of two 6-0 teams in conference play. That vision has become reality. It's a vision that formed in the minds of this year's seniors back in an offseason meeting in January - prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and the unusual circumstances it brought forth for the 2020 season.
"They said to be the best we have to beat the best," Kraemer said. "They didn't talk about anything else. They didn't talk about the Bell (trophy, for beating Antigo). They didn't talk about the Axe (trophy, for beating Lakeland). They talked about winning against Medford. They said we need to beat the conference champ. That's our goal.
"To be in this position, to be able to play this game with six wins and to play it the last game of the season as a de facto conference championship game, we're excited about that opportunity and the kids are ready."
Tonight's game marks the second straight year that Rhinelander and Medford will meet with unblemished marks. A year ago, it was a week 5 showdown at Raider Field that proved the Hodags weren't quite ready for primetime. The Hodags committed two first-quarter turnovers as Medford raced out to a 19-0 lead in a game it eventually won 39-14.
Kraemer admits feeling "sick" about the opportunities Rhinelander missed early in last year's meeting and has vowed he and his team have learned from the experience.
"If we can eliminate the early mistake, start fast and our guys can simply just play physically sound football against this team, and grow into the game, we will do just fine," he said. "That's the goal of our coaches this week. We don't want to press. We want to make sure our players are loose and happy and ready to play."
Kraemer admitted the Hodags pressed a little too much early last week, when it scuffled to a 7-6 early second-quarter lead at Hayward before taking control in a 42-6 victory that moved the Hodags to 6-0 in the GNC. Despite losing on the road 27-6 in a non-conference game at Rice Lake, Medford also improved to 6-0 in the GNC, as it received credit for a forfeit win over a Lakeland team that was forced to cancel last week due to COVID concerns.
That loss knocked Medford from the No. 2 spot in the WisSports.net D3 coaches poll and makes Rhinelander the higher ranked of the two teams coming into tonight. The Hodags took Medford's spot at No. 2 in this week's D3 survey, while Medford dropped to No. 4.
Regardless of the outcome of tonight's game, Kraemer said he will categorize this season as a success - and the Hodags will have an opportunity to improve on this year's legacy with the WIAA playoffs set to begin next Friday.
Still, if the Hodags win tonight, it would be only the seventh football conference title in school history and the first Rhinelander has won outright since 1938.
"It sure would be sweet to win it and it sure would be icing on the cake to finish it off with these guys, win a conference championship," he said.
Five storylines to follow ahead of tonight's championship tilt.
Start faster
Though Rhinelander has a plus-11 scoring differential in the first quarter, 21 of those points came in Week 3 when the Hodags raced out to a big lead and defeated Merrill 42-8.
Rhinelander spotted Mosinee a 14-0 lead in Week 2 and Stratford a 15-0 lead in Week 5 before rallying to win both games. Kraemer said the Hodags can't afford to give Medford that large of a head start.
"I think we've seen one game where we've played four full quarters of football and have had no mistakes," Kraemer said. "And it's really the first quarter. You look at quarters two, three and four, we've owned them all season long, but quarter one seems to be the issue for us. If we can play the first quarter and we can weather the storm early, it's going to be a fun night for us.
Medford offense
There aren't may secrets when it comes to Medford on either side of the football. Offensively, the Raiders will run primarily out of three different formations - a single wing featuring a direct snap to the running back, a triple I with three backs in the backfield and a spread.
Though the players are a little different this season - the Raiders graduated 2,000-yard rusher Ean Wilson from last year - the philosophies are the same.
"They want to put more guys to the point of attack, offensively, than you have defensively," Kraemer said. "Then, when you adjust, they want to counter punch you with going back the other side. Simply, what our guys have to do defensively to win this game is eye our guy and believe in our reads. If we eye our guy and believe in our reads, and we're not looking in the backfield at all the window dressing and stuff that's happening and guys going different ways, that's how you win this game. You play physical, you play through players, you don't play around them and that's how you're going to stop this team."
The two main backs to focus on are junior Aiden Gardner and senior Emett Grunwald. Gardner, the GNC's leading rusher, has 814 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season. Grunwald, who scored twice in last year's game against the Hodags, has 460 yards and seven scores.
In a different wrinkle this year, the Raiders are employing two quarterbacks in senior Nate Retterath and sophomore Logan Baumgartner, sometimes alternating between the two from play to play. Baumgartner is the greater passing threat of the two, throwing for 418 yards, six touchdowns and an interception on 57 attempts.
Medford defense
The Raiders' defense suffered a blow when it lost reigning GNC defensive player of the year Blaine Seidl to an injury after three weeks. He had already returned three interceptions for touchdowns at that point of the season, and still ranks third on Medford's team with 31 tackles despite missing the last three games.
Still the Raiders are an aggressive team with a 5-2 front that will often blitz opposing teams and is not afraid to leave its defensive backs out on an island in single coverage.
"It's simply putting bodies on bodies and allowing our athletes to make plays, and not making mistakes," Kraemer said. "Teams have gotten in position to score touchdowns on them, but they haven't finished the job."
The Raiders have allowed only 235 rushing yards in five conference games, by far the fewest of any conference team. Rhinelander (653 yards) is second in that category. Defensive linemen Brody Doberstein and Grunwald have been disruptive this season - combining for 13 tackles for loss and eight sacks, while linebacker Peyton Kuhn has five tackles for loss and pair of sacks.
Rice Lake blueprint
The Warriors stunned the Raiders last Friday night by scoring 27 unanswered second half points en route to a victory. To put that in perspective, Medford had allowed only 32 points in the 11 halves of football it played prior to that.
What's more, Rice Lake held Medford's vaunted offense - which averaged 42.6 points and 390.6 yards per game over the first five contests - to six points and 184 yards of offense.
Kraemer said there weren't any secrets as to how Rice Lake surged past the Raiders, they simply beat Medford at their own game.
"You want to know why Rice Lake was successful last week, it was simply being able to outlast them," he said. "They played well defensively. They wore down (Medford's) defensive front as the game went on. They were willing to take three, four yards a carry and sometimes even punt it away to allow their defense to hold serve. We have to do the same thing. We have to have a physical game up front. We have to allow our players on the edges to make plays when they can."
Trainer's room
Sophomore center Conner Jensen (hand) will miss a second straight week for Rhinelander. Junior Caleb Shefveland took Jensen's place on the offensive line last week at Hayward while the rest of the line remained unchanged. However, Kraemer hinted the team could move linemen around this week.
"We're going to look to try to find the best combination of five and that might mean moving a few people around this week and trying to find what works best," he said. "We're excited about the guys that we have and though Conner is gone, we feel really confident in the five that are going to start."
Meanwhile, junior running back Cayden Neri (ankle) was limited in practice this week and is questionable for tonight's game. Neri hasn't played since injuring his ankle in a Week 4 win over Ashland.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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