September 16, 2021 at 7:14 a.m.
Pigskin Preview Week 5: Rhinelander at Medford
Hodags to face 'red storm' vs. Raiders
Pigskin Preview Week 5: Rhinelander at Medford
Those clouds come in the form of defending Great Northern Conference champion Medford, whom the Hodags take on tonight in a pivotal Week 5 matchup.
Rhinelander and Medford are two of the three remaining unbeaten teams in the GNC (along with Mosinee) and the winner of tonight's game could have the inside track to being crowned conference champion a month from now.
For Rhinelander, which seeks its first football conference title since 1989, it means getting past a Medford program that has been a thorn in the Hodags' side in a number of sports over the last two years.
The Raiders have dealt Rhinelander key losses in football, boys' basketball and baseball. Historically speaking, the Hodags' lone win against the Raiders on the gridiron came back in 2010.
Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said he knows no other way to beat Medford than tackling the challenge head-on.
"I gave (the players) a picture of a red storm and a green buffalo, kind of marching into the storm," he said. "I talked to them about being the buffalo this week and going toward this challenge. That challenge is not going to go away. If we lay down, it's going to roll over us, but if we go headlong into this storm, we're going to come out unscathed on the other side. That's our metaphor this week."
"We feel it's Medford's turn to say, 'Rhinelander's coming to play us,' rather than us looking and saying, 'man, it's Medford week.' We want to capitalize on the momentum we've had so far, utilize that buffalo mentality, go into the storm and realize that we know there's going to be adverse events, but our responses are going to be greater and allow us to have the best opportunity to win the football game."
The Hodags have not had much go wrong so far, as they've outscored their first four opponents by a combined 155-29. Rhinelander has racked up more than 400 yards of offense per game so far and senior tailback Cayden Neri currently ranks fifth overall in the state with 869 rushing yards.
But Neri was held to only 13 yards in last year's battle for the conference championship Nov. 6 - his first game back in the lineup after missing the better part of three weeks due to an ankle injury.
Kraemer said this week is going to be a grind.
"It's understanding that not every play against a great team is going to be a positive play, but understanding that a consistent offense is one, against a good team that you can rely upon and lean on," he said. "We're going to have to grind it against them and be patient."
Here are five storylines going into tonight's game.
Battle tested
While Rhinelander has cruised to a 4-0 start, Medford has run a gauntlet as it comes in 2-2 overall. The Raiders opened with back-to-back tough non-conference losses to Rice Lake and Amherst before jumping into GNC play.
Even within the conference, things have been no cakewalk. Ashland jumped out to a first-half lead on Medford, and was still within a score until Medford punched it in with 3:14 to play and won 30-14.
Lakeland scored first on Medford last week and was within 24-20 in the third quarter before the Raiders finished the game with three unanswered touchdowns.
"Regardless of who they've played, they've still played well," Kraemer said. "This is a quality outfit. They won the conference the last couple of years. They have tradition and they have a great running back, which is something that can allow some of the flaws to be covered."
Stopping Gardner
Junior quarterback Logan Baumgartner (knee) has missed the last two weeks and is not expected to play tonight against the Hodags. Ever since Baumgartner's injury, the Raiders have turned heavily to their bread-and-butter power running game with senior tailback Aiden Gardner.
Gardner comes in after rushing for a school-record 352 yards in last week's 45-20 win at Lakeland and is the focal point of the Medford offense.
Kraemer said there aren't many secrets to the Medford run game. The keys to stopping it include matching the Raiders' physicality at the point of attack, sound tackling and being alert for the plays when Medford breaks tendency.
"If you can tackle them, if you can get low and hit them low, especially Aiden Gardner, they can be neutralized," he said. "But it has to be a concerted effort to make the tackles, to drive the eyes through the thighs, to get the wrap-ups and get the guy to the ground. If you can do that, make contact at the line of scrimmage and make plays at the line of scrimmage, they can be neutralized."
Gardner has rushed for 648 yards and seven touchdowns so far this season while Tukker Schreiner has served as the counterpoint, averaging 5.0 yards per carry on only 39 rushing attempts. Tight end Caleb Guden has been the primary threat in the passing game, catching six passes for 160 yards and three scores.
Varied looks
Part of what makes Medford's offense difficult to stop is the number of looks it can throw at opposing teams. The Raiders primarily throw it back to the 1940s, operating out of the single wing - with a direct snap back to Gardner. But Medford can also run a four-man I, straight tee and many other looks that leave defenders scrambling to find their assignments.
Kraemer said the trick is realizing that Medford's play calling doesn't change much, despite what formation it is in.
"They like to run multiple formations with similar plays," he said. "They're not maybe exotic in terms of the plays that they run, but the dressing, the ways they formation you and show that play in certain different ways is definitely vast."
Beat the heat
Medford has a pressuring defense that has smothered Rhinelander over the past several years. The Raiders held Rhinelander to 63 yards on the ground last year with a defense that typically likes to send five or more rushers while playing tight man-to-man coverage on the outside.
But the Raiders' defense has not looked as daunting as it has in years past through the first four games of the season. Though Medford is allowing only 217.5 yards of total offense, teams have averaged 22.8 points per game, and 5.0 yards per carry against the Raiders so far.
While Rhinelander showcased some different looks last week against Hayward, Kraemer said to expect a game plan that leans heavily on the team's two tailbacks - Neri and Caleb Olcikas.
"It's been the same defense the last several years, we just have to figure out the answer to it," he said. "I think, this year, if we get over complicated and we try to do some crazy things we haven't done and show some crazy looks, I think that would be foolish. You can expect to see us do the things that we do, get the ball to Neri and Olcikas often, utilize our passing game in ways to try to beat their man coverage and take a lesson from ourselves and don't beat ourselves."
Avoid the miscues
Each of the last two years, Rhinelander has made at least one key special teams mistake early in the contest that has turned a defensive stop into a turnover and an eventual Medford touchdown.
Rhinelander responded last year to take a 7-6 lead on a 70-yard touchdown catch by Olcikas, but lost linebacker/H-back Walker Hartman to a knee injury on that play and the Raiders wore down a compromised Hodag defense en route to a 24-7 win.
Two years ago, Rhinelander found itself in a 19-0 hole in the first quarter after turnover trouble, was down 27-0 at the half and eventually lost to the Raiders 39-14.
"The last two years, I thought we've put ourselves in positions against this team that are almost impossible to climb out of," Kraemer said. "If we fix some of those mistakes early in the game, we'll give ourselves a better shot to win."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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