Hodag football dominates Wausau East, improve to 2-0

The new-look Rhinelander High School football team continued to make waves on Friday and will enter the Great Northern Conference season with momentum on its side. 

James Heck rushed for 84 yards and two scores as the Hodags racked up nearly 400 yards of offenses and cruised to a 34-15 victory over Wausau East in the home opener at Mike Webster Stadium.

The Hodags won in front of the home crowd for the first time since October 2021, as they continued to show signs of putting last year’s 1-8 season in the rear view mirror. Two weeks into this season, Rhinelander has already doubled that win total.

“It feels good to win, but it feels even better to win at home,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. “We didn’t get a win at home all year last year and that really stuck in my craw. These kids, they come to support us, the community. They deserve to see us succeed.”

The Hodag defense put the clamps on East quarterback Pacey Weber, holding him under 100 combined yards rushing and passing. The senior had more than 300 total yards and accounted for three touchdowns in the Lumberjacks’ season opening 23-7 win at Lakeland. 

Rhinelander led 27-2 at one point in the third quarter — the two thanks a safety following a bad snap on a punt in the first quarter — before East rallied behind 13 unanswered points to get to within 27-15 with 6:37 remaining. 

After recovering an onside kick, the Hodags marched 60 yards on six plays, capped off by a 22-yard run by Heck to put the game out of reach. 

“We followed a game plan and did exactly what we said we were going to do defensively,” Kraemer said. “Offensively, we dictated the flow of the game. I was a little bit disappointed we weren’t able to finish some of the red zone trips that we had but, at the same time, the boys played a heck of a game and they worked their tails off on defense to stop Pacey, which is exactly what we wanted to do.”

    Rhinelander’s James Heck scores a touchdown during the first quarter of a non-conference game against Wausau East at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Aug. 25. Heck rushed for 84 yards and two scores, and the Hodags racked up 399 yards of offense in a 34-15 win. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Hodags took the opening drive 61 yards on 10 plays to get on the board first. The Hodags thought they had a 33-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Truman Lamers to wingback Payton Campbell, but that was nullified by a hold near the goal line. The Hodags eventually converted on fourth down with a jet sweep by Landon Bates before Heck plunged in from a yard to take the lead. 

East drove down inside the Rhinelander 15 following the safety and threatened to take the lead late in the first quarter, but Lamers intercepted Weber on a fourth-down pass to end the drive. Logan Schwinger flipped the field on a 74-yard run on the opening play of the second quarter and the Hodags pulled off some more fourth-down magic as Lamers hit Sam Schoppe on a rollout for a 12-yard score that made it 14-2.

Campbell trucked in from a yard out with 1:43 left in the half to put the Hodags up 20-2 at the break. Owen Kurtz added a seven-yard score late in the third quarter after Lamers returned a short punt to the 20.

East showed some signs of life after that. Weber hit Kayden Meverden for 35 yards on a rollout and then hit Brady Prihoda on a back-shoulder throw for 23 yards down to the 1 before punching it in himself on a sneak late in the third quarter.

The Hodags drove inside the Wausau East 10 in the following drive before being stopped on fourth down. Werth got loose on a jet sweep on the very next play to make it a two-score game following what Kraemer said was some defensive miscommunication. 

“We had 10 men on the long touchdown. That’s something we have to make sure we work on,” he said. “We had 10 last week a couple times too against Tomahawk. That’s on me as a head coach. If I’m not calling timeout and taking care of it, that’s on me. That’s just a stupid mistake. I’ve got to clean those things up.”

Regardless, things are looking much different for the Hodags this year than following Week 2 last year when they suffered a 42-0 loss at Denmark that featured a plethora of injuries that would linger throughout the season. 

The Hodags are showing some of the swagger that led to 22 wins over Kraemer’s first three season at the helm, though Kraemer said he’s still taking a game-by-game mentality.

“We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said. “This week was about being humble, living where our feet are, living in the moment and not worrying about the past or fearing the future.”

Off the Pace

Weber was held to 85 yards on 5 of 11 passing and threw his third interception in two games for Wausau East. He was sacked four times and held to a net 23 yards rushing. He also lost a fumble on a strip by sophomore defensive end Caden Sieker late in the first half.

Kraemer said the Hodags tweaked their defense slightly this week, making sure they had eyes on East’s quarterback all night.

“We needed to make sure he couldn’t get out and that he had to throw the ball to beat us. That’s what we wanted to work on the entire time, just making sure he couldn’t beat us with his legs,” he said. “We played a true quarterback spy on him. The outside backers, those guys did a great job. The defensive linemen they did their job. They didn’t get too deep. They didn’t penetrate. They didn’t shoot gaps or anything. The stayed, played through a man and then worked to the quarterback.”

Onside on point

After giving up back-to-back kickoff returns of more than 30 yards to Werth on the first two kickoff attempts, the Hodags made a point of kicking away from the speedy East senior and got the ball back twice because of it. 

Bates successfully executed an onside kick late in the first half as the ball bounced off a Wausau East up man and was recovered by sophomore Myles Eagleson. 

Bates pulled off another one in the fourth on a ball that took two hops over the front line and into the waiting arms of Kyrle Vanney. 

Kraemer said it was impressive execution on the second onside kick, though that was not what the coaching staff had dialed up, leading by three scores late in the fourth quarter. 

“We said squib kick. I love Landon and that was a heck of a play and Kyrle made a great play on it, but that’s supposed to be a squib kick,” he said. “As a coach it makes you feel bad because, on the other side of the ball, you’re losing big and they get an onside kick, which is kind of a kick in the teeth. I made sure their coaches knew that wasn’t something that was called, but it was well executed by Landon.”

Statbook

Lamers showed growth in his second game as starting quarterback for the Hodags, completing 9 of 15 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. 

“Last week we had some tough reads, maybe a little bit of hero ball early on in his first game. That’s normal. You want to try to make a play in your first game,” Kraemer said after Lamers threw two interceptions in a 22-21 win in the opener at Tomahawk. “Today he took the check downs, he read the field. He did everything exactly the way I wanted him to do it and he commanded the game as a captain and a leader.”

Heck ended with more than 100 yards of total offense as he added two receptions for 20 yards. The Hodags had four different players with at least 80 combined yards rushing and receiving — Heck (104), Schwinger (90), Bates (84) and Campbell (81).

Kraemer chalked much of that up to the Hodags’ misdirection game getting an aggressive East defense out of position. 

“The big plays that we had were counters and draws away from what they were doing,” he said. “Our jet was working pretty well and when they started to overcompensate outside, we hit them up the gut. I don’t know what the numbers were, but I think we were pretty well-balanced with our wings and our back. We got our receivers some catches and threw the ball a bit more.”

Money downs

Rhinelander finished the night 7 of 13 on third down and 2 of 5 on fourth down, while holding Wausau East to 2 of 7 on third down and 0 of 2 on fourth down.

Ashland ahead

The Hodags will travel to Weikal Field in Ashland to face the Oredockers in the GNC opener this coming Friday night. The Oredockers sit 0-2 after getting doubled up by Hurley 28-14 in Week 2. 

Kraemer said the Hodags will need to be ready for a physical brand of football against Ashland this week as the look to avenge a 7-6 loss to the Oredockers in last year’s conference opener.

“We felt like we left one out there in that game,” he said. “We want to go back up there, play on that field — we love that field — and take home a conference game and get us even closer to our goal, which is to make the playoffs. It starts next week and then picking our way to four (conference wins) and making sure we can get that automatic qualification.”

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].