September 9, 2021 at 7:49 a.m.
Pigskin Preview Week 4: Hayward at Rhinelander
Kraemer: Hodags 'aren't looking past' Hayward in Week 4 matchup
Pigskin Preview Week 4: Hayward at Rhinelander
The Hodags are flying high following last Friday night's 32-7 drubbing of Lakeland at home in the Northwoods Axe Game. Next Friday night, the Hodags are scheduled to travel to Medford for a battle of the teams the pundits believe are the best in the Great Northern Conference.
It would be easy for the Hodags to look past the Hurricanes tonight, who come in 0-3 off a 47-7 blowout loss at home to Mosinee last Friday night.
Rhinelander coach Aaron Kraemer said the key word for his team this week is "humility." To that end, he said the Hodags are taking a cue from Milwaukee Bucks' superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo - focusing on the present, rather than the past or the future.
"We have to prepare for an opponent that's going to create a different challenge for us than Lakeland last week and Medford the following," he said. "We can't focus on last week. We certainly can't look forward to next week. We have to live right in the middle of that, live where our feet are, enjoy the game of football and play the best we can on Friday."
Part of that, Kraemer said, is getting the notion of tonight's game being a potential trap out of his and the team's collective mindset. Last year's Hayward game fell in a similar spot - following a dramatic victory over ranked Stratford and ahead of the GNC title game against Medford. Though the Hodags won that game 42-6, Rhinelander struggled through the first quarter-plus of that game before finally putting away the Hurricanes.
"Because I felt it was a trap game, I coached pretty tight and the players were pretty tight too," Kraemer said, looking back on last year's contest. "The players won in spite of me. I didn't do anything to help them win. That's not going to be my mantra this week, and I certainly feel like our players aren't looking past this team."
Here are five storylines to following ahead of tonight's game.
Axe-clamation point
Though a 25-point margin of victory is Rhinelander's smallest so far, it's hard to argue that last Friday's victory over the Thunderbirds was not the Hodags' most dominant performance through the first third of the season.
Rhinelander outgained Lakeland 450-133 - including 436 yards on the ground - and had a nearly 2-to-1 edge in time of possession, holding the football for nearly 32 minutes in the contest.
Caleb Olcikas answered Lakeland's only score with a 56-yarder of his own late in the first quarter - the first of three scores for the senior on the night. From there, the only time Lakeland stopped Rhinelander offensively was when the Hodags kneeled down to end the game.
"It was a statement victory for us," said Kraemer as Rhinelander improved to 4-3 against Lakeland in the Axe Game series. "I was impressed by the way we played against Lakeland. We controlled the line of scrimmage. We were the more dominant of the two teams, more physical of the two teams and we did what we wanted to do offensively, for the most part, in that game."
Shouldering the load
Rhinelander's offense has run almost exclusively through two players the last two weeks - Olcikas and fellow tailback Cayden Neri.
Neri had his second straight 200-yard game last Friday night, rushing for a career-high 279 yards and two scores against the T-Birds, while Olcikas added 161 yards on 15 carries.
One of the two touched the ball on a whopping 87% of Rhinelander's offensive snaps last week (45 of 52 plays). Overall on the season, Neri and Olcikas account for 71% of the team's touches.
Neri had a season-high 30 touches last week and has handled the ball on 49% of Rhinelander's offensive plays overall on the season.
While Kraemer said he wouldn't mind expanding the playbook a little bit, he's OK with the workload placed on Neri and Olcikas so far.
"I'm comfortable with where they are at right now," he said. "Do I think we need to sprinkle a few more things in to keep defenses honest and get big plays? Yeah, absolutely, I feel like we do. Our receivers are waiting patiently, but they're blocking their butts off and they're doing everything we've asked them to do. I'd like to get them some love to keep defenses honest but last week we didn't need to."
Kraemer said the team did install some new wrinkles last week on offense, and has done so again this week. He hinted that some of those may be featured in tonight's gameplan to more involve quarterback Jacksen Smith and the passing game - especially after Hayward surrendered 317 yards and six touchdowns through the air last week against Mosinee.
"I'd like to factor in some of those other players," he said. "Yes, I'd like to get Jacksen throwing the football a little bit more - especially on play-action to get the ball down field - because he does have a good arm and he reads defenses pretty well for a first-year quarterback."
The young gunslinger
Rhinelander will be facing a version of the spread offense for the fourth time in as many weeks. Hayward's offense is keyed by senior quarterback Chase Briggs.
Though Briggs' numbers (43.7 completion percentage, 227 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs) are not eye-popping so far, Kraemer said he stood out on film as someone who can make plays with both his arms and legs, while improvising when he needs to.
"I kind of labeled him 'Brett Favre' earlier this week because he makes some unorthodox throws and he does throw off platform, and he runs quite a bit," Kraemer said. "That's really fun to see and our guys will have some challenges with that."
Isaac Hanson, who broke off a 60-yard run to open last Friday's game against Mosinee, is Hayward's leading rusher so far this season (9 car., 89 yards, 0 TD). Henry Schmitt (10 rec., 111 yards, 2 TDs) is the Hurricanes' top receiver.
More of the same?
Defensively, Hayward runs a 4-4 front under first-year head coach Noah Leblanc. Aside from some slight nuances with defensive lineman alignment, Kraemer said the Hurricanes should present a very similar look to what Lakeland did last week - with big defensive tackles and speed at the outside backers and in the secondary.
"It's a very similar defense, so the gameplan for us is to continue to run the football and run it effectively, continue to communicate," he said. "I was really, really proud of how our offensive line communicated. We didn't have any run-throughs on Friday other than one missed assignment, which was my fault, on the pass where we got sacked. We didn't miss any assignments. We worked together the whole night."
Ending the stand
Tonight wraps up a string of three straight home games for the Hodags. The next time they'll set foot on the Mike Webster turf for competition with be in two weeks' time for the 87th playing of the Bell Game against Antigo.
Kraemer said he has been pleased with the turnout over the last two weeks, despite less than ideal weather conditions, and that his team is eager to get one more in front of the home crowd ahead of next week's conference showdown at Medford.
"I'm grateful for everyone being back. I'm grateful for the band. They did a wonderful job last week, just the whole atmosphere of Friday night football is what it's all about," he said. "Without the fans, it's really, really difficult to have that. I'm really excited about what we have done over the last three weeks. Hopefully we get a third-straight home victory and we prepare ourselves to go on and face Medford."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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