November 23, 2020 at 8:50 a.m.
Frozen in time
Rhinelander caps off historic season with 27-26 win over Mosinee
Frozen in time
The Hodag defense, led by Ben Sinclair and Joe Fugle, stopped Mosinee quarterback Michal Dul on a two-point conversion attempt with 1:31 remaining and Rhinelander capped its most successful season since 1989 with a 27-26 victory over the Indians in Level 2 of the WIAA football culminating event Thursday night at Mike Webster Stadium.
After Rhinelander failed to put Mosinee away, unable to convert on fourth-and-goal from the 5, Mosinee got the ball back without any timeouts and 2:18 on the clock. The Indians needed only five plays to find Drayton Lehman open over the middle for a 61-yard touchdown pass to set up the final lasting moment of the 2020 season.
Pass-happy Mosinee tried to break tendency and called a draw to Dul, the Great Northern Conference first-team quarterback who missed the regular season meeting between the teams due to health concerns.
The Hodags were ready.
"I knew the play call. I yelled it out to everybody and then our defensive line stood up and our linebackers filled," senior cornerback Jackson Labs said. "It was just a team play that stopped them."
When Jacksen Smith recovered the ensuing onside kick, the Hodags were able to run out the clock and celebrate their eighth win of the season - five of which came by seven points or less.
"I cannot be more proud of these guys and the way they've acted, responded to every single thing that's been thrown their way," coach Aaron Kraemer said. "All of the plays that we've had all season long led to that play at the end. We played against Stratford. We had that play (to stop a game-tying two-point conversion at the end). The game against Mosinee we had to come back. We had the game against Lakeland. All the games that we played so far this year set us up for the moment we needed it the most, and our guys came through."
Rhinelander controlled the game, racking up 489 yards of total offense, but failed to convert fourth downs in the red zone on three occasions in the second half. Meanwhile, three of Mosinee's four scores were from 59 yards or more in a game that came down to the bitter end.
"I just love these guys. No one on this team ever wants to quit," said Hodag quarterback Quinn Lamers who rushed for a career-high 129 yards and added 143 yards through the air. "It's just who these guys are, and I'm just so proud of every single guy on the field tonight."
Trailing 20-14 at halftime, it was a defensive spark that got Rhinelander going. Two plays after being stopped offensively on fourth down in the red zone, the Hodags flipped the field as linebacker Chad Hunt intercepted Dul and returned it to the 11-yard line. Three plays later Cayden Neri, who had a career-high 165 yards on the ground, scored from two yards out to give Rhinelander a 21-20 lead with 7:11 remaining in the third.
Rhinelander would get an insurance touchdown early in the fourth as Lamers went in untouched on a 31-yard run to give Rhinelander a seven-point lead.
The Hodags, who have had a habit of starting slowing this season, came out of the gates quickly Friday night. After stopping Mosinee on the first possession of the game, Rhinelander marched 81 yards on nine plays before Lamers hit Labs for a 38-yard catch and run down the far sideline to give Rhinelander an early 8-0 lead.
Mosinee answered, however, needing only three plays to march down the field as Dul found Davin Stoffel for an 18-yard score to cut the lead to 8-6.
Mosinee caught a break midway through the second quarter to take the lead. Labs undercut a route to the outside and appeared to have his second interception of the game, and eighth of the season. However, the ball bounced off Labs' hands and straight into the arms of Drake Grod who ran it the rest of the way for a 59-yard score.
The Hodags answered on the next drive with a nine-yard score by Neri to retake the lead, but it was short-lived as Lehman returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for a score to put Mosinee in front 20-14 with 2:40 remaining in the half.
"They got a couple of lucky plays," Labs said. "I missed an interception and that really helped them, but we knew that we'd come back in the second half. We had no doubt about it."
Lehman finished with 115 yards and a score on six catches, which gave him a state-best 101 receptions on the year. Dul was 10 of 24 passing for 212 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
The game brought to a close an amazing 2020 season that saw Rhinelander win eight games for only the third time in the last 46 years. That the Hodags got to play a complete nine-game season during the COVID-19 pandemic was in itself no small accomplishment. The season was delayed by five weeks over virus concerns and came to an end Thursday, on what would have normally been the first day of the state championships at Camp Randall Stadium.
"We sat up in these bleachers not knowing if we were going to have a season, not knowing whether we were going to see each other the next day, if we were going to be shut down, if we were going to have an opportunity to play," Kraemer said. "Every single one of these guys just believed in everything that we've done. They believed in the culture we're trying to build. They believed in the seniors, believed in everything we've asked them to believe in and done the things that needed to be done to play football in a pandemic."
Conversion consequences
In a game decided by a point, conversion tries loomed large in the final outcome -and not just the last one when the Hodags stopped Dul's bid to win the game.
The Hodags lined up for a kick following their first quarter score, but a high snap sent Lamers, also the team's place kicker, scrambling. Lamers recovered and was able to throw across the grain to Smith, his holder, for a two-point pass.
Dul, the conference's first-team kicker, missed wide right on a PAT attempt after Mosinee's first score after being forced to try again following an illegal procedure penalty. The Indians went for 2 following their second touchdown, but Cyle Kowalski was stopped inside the 1 on a pass play.
Lamers missed a PAT following the Hodags' second touchdown, but converted a kick following Neri's third quarter score.
Offensive domination
The Hodags did everything they could to keep the ball away from Mosinee's offense for as long as they could. Not only did the team rack up season highs in total yards (489) and rushing (346), they possessed the ball for a whopping 37 minutes, 47 seconds of a 48-minute game.
After two straight games without a 100-yard rusher, the Hodags had two on Thursday night with Neri and Lamers and dominated the ball control statistics, running 74 plays to Mosinee's 34.
"We had a game plan and we executed it to perfection," Lamers said. "We did exactly what our coaches asked of us and our guys played hard every single play."
"We controlled the football game," Kraemer added. "Our big fellas up front, they took care of everything up front for us tonight - pass protection, the run game. It's completely on them all game long. I tell you what, it was really nice this week talking to (offensive line) coach (Paul) Ellenbecker about how we could beat these guys. He knew we could beat these guys by just physically dominating them up front, and that's what we did."
Decisions, decisions
There were plenty of options on the table for the Hodags, leading by seven with roughly 2:30 to play and facing fourth and goal inside the Mosinee 5. A made field goal would have given Rhinelander a two-score lead. Instead the Hodags went for it and Labs was unable to come up with a catch at the goal line on a slant route.
Kraemer said he was all in on the decision to go for it, though the Hodags ended the night 0 for 5 on fourth down, especially considering some of the troubles they had with point-after kicks earlier in the contest.
"I'm not about to put the ball in a position where we could get it blocked and run back in a touchdown," he said. "I believe in our guys to score every single minute. We had a play call that wasn't necessarily run correctly. We had a guy on the wrong side that ran a guy across and clouded Jackson's vision, but it is what it is. I'm not ever going to second-guess that call. We wanted to win there. We wanted to keep it in our control."
Labs honored
Labs was selected Wednesday as one of five finalists for WisSports.net's Jim Leonhard Award presented to the state's top senior defensive back. He entered the week tied for the state lead with six interceptions, and added another to his tally on Thursday.
Perhaps as impressive is that Labs and the Hodag secondary shut down Kowalski, an Al Toon Award finalist for the state's top senior wide receiver. Kowalski was held to just one catch for 19 yards - coming on Mosinee's last possession - after torching Rhinelander for 13 catches, 276 yards and five scores in the teams' previous two meetings.
"Our defensive players are just better than he is," Labs said. "We showed that we can cover whoever we want."
Dul's three interceptions were only one fewer than his total in his six previous starts this season and the 212 passing yards were well below his season average. He came in as the state's second leading passer, averaging 306.2 yards per game.
Saying goodbye
The road ends here for the Hodags and its class of 10 seniors, who won 14 games over the past two seasons. To put it in perspective, Rhinelander won only 14 games total between 2011 and 2018.
"It's really bittersweet right now for me," Kraemer said, steam pouring off of him after being drenched by the team in a celebratory ice water bath. "We won, I'm doused, I'm cold, but I tell you what, I couldn't be more proud of these seniors, but at the same time I couldn't be more upset to let them go. We made a lot of memories together."
This Hodag team will be remember for winning the Bell Game over archrival Antigo in consecutive years for the first time since 2000, earning the program's first two wins over Mosinee as well as earning the program's first two postseason victories.
"It's something that I'll never forget," Lamers said. "It puts us in the history books. It really does."
The Hodags' only loss came to Medford in the Great Northern Conference championship game, but Kraemer was not about to let that fact spoil what was otherwise a perfect season.
"They're champions in my mind," he said. "Any time you're able to win your last game of the season, and for it to be meaningful for us, there will never be another season like this in Rhinelander Hodag football ever again."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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