September 19, 2022 at 11:16 a.m.
Bell-shocked
Campbell grounded, Hodags stunned by Antigo in 88th Bell Game
Bell-shocked
The Hodags' bid to win a fourth straight Bell was foiled by a stubborn Antigo squad. Alec Knapkavage rushed for two long touchdowns and Mason Gray caught a pair of touchdown passes as the Red Robins stunned the Hodags 26-14 at Schofield Stadium.
Big plays defined the night for the Red Robins (2-3, 1-2 Great Northern), who were shut out in back-to-back games prior to Thursday's win. The Hodags (1-4, 1-2 Great Northern), meanwhile, were without their top offensive weapon as junior running back Payton Campbell did not play with what head coach Aaron Kraemer described as a thigh contusion.
Gray caught a 22-yard touchdown with 16 seconds remaining in the first half to break a 14-all tie and added one more score on a fourth-and-16 play in the fourth quarter as Antigo won for the 55th time in the trophy-trade series, and for the first time since 2018.
"I think we played against red and white tonight, unfortunately," Kraemer said. "The second half we kind of beat ourselves up and I'll take the blame for that. We've got to fix it this week."
Rhinelander had to adjust its offense on the fly without Campbell, who had 62 touches for 252 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the previous two games. Campbell was seen on the field in pads during pregame warmups but, by that point, it had already been determined that he would not play in the game.
During his postgame interview, Kraemer said doubts began to creep in about Campbell's status following Monday's practice.
"It hurts when your top back is not playing, but we were confident in the two guys that were spelling him this week," he said. "It happened earlier in the week, so we had plenty of time to plan for what we saw. We had plenty of time to plan."
Kraemer later added, "I can't say much more about it. I don't want to talk about it at all, because it frustrates me a little bit."
Early on, it seemed as though Rhinelander would ride recent momentum against an Antigo team whose only win in GNC play since the start of the 2021 season was a COVID forfeit victory over Ashland in Week 4 last year. Antigo went nowhere on its first possession, and Carter Krueger blocked the opening punt, returning it 12 yards for a score that put Rhinelander up 7-0 before its first offensive snap.
Antigo's Wing-T rushing attack found its legs though as Knapkavage snuck his way through the interior of the Hodag defense for a 48-yard score with 4:48 left in the opening quarter, and again for a 67-yard run on the Robins' next possession to give the Robins a 14-7 lead less than a minute into the second quarter.
"Tonight was about the big play. Again, that's on me," Kraemer said. "They had a plan for us and they executed on two big plays and one of them was because we weren't shifted. That's on me. That's the defensive coordinator's fault. I'll take the blame for that."
Rhinelander answered with its best drive of the night. Kaleb Winter, seemingly lost for the season with a knee injury suffered in a Week 2 loss at Denmark, was back in the lineup after a second opinion deemed the injury was not as significant as first feared. He was pressed into duty as the starting tailback with Campbell out and caught a 32-yard screen pass to get the Hodags down into the Antigo red zone. From there, the Hodags fought off a holding call and quarterback James Heck found Krueger in the flat for a 10-yard score on fourth-and-5.
Following a punt, Rhinelander found itself pinned deep in its own territory late in the first half. The Hodags went three and out on three straight running plays in an effort to take time off the clock with Antigo out of timeouts. However, a short punt was returned by Ethan Buchman to the 22 with 28 seconds left in the half and quarterback Jake Verhasselt hit the 6-foot-7 Gray on a fade route over the top of the Hodag coverage on the very next play.
Gray primarily lined up at tailback for the Robins, but split out at wide receiver on a number of occasions. He entered the game as Antigo's second leading receiver and hit another big play early in the fourth quarter as he won a jump ball over two Hodag defenders at the 15, broke a tackle and took it in the rest of the way for what proved to be a fate-sealing score.
"We thought we had the plan for him. We tried to double both of those guys by getting the safeties out. We just didn't get over there in time and that's on me," Kraemer said. "I'm the DBs coach. I should have had a better plan for those guys. I put them in a difficult position. I take that on me. We didn't plan for them to split out. We hadn't seen (Gray) split out much on film this year. We saw (the tight ends) split out, be we hadn't seen (Gray) split out and he took the game over. He played a really good game."
Meanwhile, Rhinelander sputtered offensively, with only two first downs in the second half. Twice the Hodags turned it over on downs in the fourth quarter and Heck threw an interception, taking a hard hit as he threw on a rollout pass to his left.
Heck finished as Rhinelander's leading rusher, with 34 yards on three carries, two of which were scrambles on what looked to be designed pass plays. Winter was held to 27 yards on 13 carries while Robert Schramke, in his first varsity action at tailback, had 26 yards on six carries. Heck finished the night 14 of 23 passing for 99 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
"They took the toss away right away in the game and when you can't run the toss originally then you can't run the fakes off of it," Kraemer said. "I thought our power passes were there. We overthrew three, four of them in the flat. That has to be adjusted. That's another thing we have to fix this week."
Knapkavage rushed for 145 yards on 16 carries in the contest while Gray had three catches for 55 yards. Verhasselt was 6 of 14 passing overall for 87 yards for the Robins.
Not only was the loss a bitter pill for the Hodags to swallow against their archrival, it leaves the team's hopes for a fourth-straight playoff appearance in serious jeopardy. Unless Rhinelander can somehow spring an upset against one of the consensus top two teams in the GNC - at home against Mosinee this Friday or at Medford the following Friday - the Hodags will have to win out against Merrill and Lakeland to get to 3-4 in GNC play and 3-6 overall. That would not guarantee playoff eligibility, but would gave the Hodags a chance to be one of the last teams in to the field of 224.
"It doesn't get any easier from here," Kraemer said. "We play Mosinee next week so our guys have to figure out how to lick their wounds and then come back next week and play a tough football team at home on homecoming.
"These next two games are culture games. They're heart games. We could go back to feeling the way we used to feel - in-fighting, taking each other down, playing against ourselves and everybody else - or we can decide to come together. As a team, I know that we can with the senior group that we have. We can pick each other up and continue to fight. This is one of those times we have to just continue to fight and do what we do."
Kraemer vowed that the team would do some soul-searching over the long weekend - with the Antigo game being played on a Thursday night due to an officials shortage.
"It starts with me. I'm going to figure out what we need to do, coaching staff-wise, where we need to be, how we need to fix what happened tonight," he said. "From there, personnel-wise, how do we make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity to score points and win games.
"I told the guys we've got two ways to go from here and they know what those two ways are and we start tomorrow. We're going to fix it."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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