No win, but still in

    Bo Stott (88), Landon Bates (5) and Landon Webster (73) react following a 32-6 loss to Lakeland in a GNC football game at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Oct. 13. The loss dropped the Hodags onto the bubble of making it into the WIAA tournament. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

    Members of the Rhinelander High School football team, including coach Aaron Kraemer pictured front right, celebrate as their name is revealed during the WIAA football playoff selection show Saturday, Oct. 14. The Hodags received a 6-seed in the D3 bracket and will travel to Onalaska this Friday. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

The Rhinelander High School football team dealt with a plethora of emotions in a roughly 15-hour stretch Friday night into Saturday. 

The Hodags went from hopeful that they would clinch an automatic berth in the playoffs, to frustrated as they faded following a late first-half turnover and lost to Lakeland 32-6 Friday on homecoming night in the Northwoods Axe Game at Mike Webster Stadium.

Following a bunch of hugs and tears after the final home game of the season — the Hodags (5-4, 3-4 Great Northern) spent the rest of Friday night anxious to see if they would still sneak in to the playoffs.

Ultimately, the Hodags felt relief as they earned a reprieve when the WIAA revealed Saturday morning that they were one of the final 40 teams to make the field of 224. Rhinelander drew a six-seed for the WIAA Division 3 playoffs and will to travel to third-seeded Onalaska, a suburb of La Crosse, this Friday. 

“The kids worked really hard this season to get the opportunity to get in and I’m just thankful we get another week together,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said Saturday. “It’s been a lot of fun this season and, as a coach, when you’ve had lots of fun, you don’t want it to end. I’m relieved for the guys, relieved that they get an opportunity to show what we truly are, get to represent our community and our school, and we get to take on a good Onalaska team.”

The Hodags didn’t seem to mind the nearly four-hour road trip ahead. Coaches and a handful of players gathered in the team room of the Hodag Dome Saturday morning to learn their postseason fate as the brackets were released in a statewide television program. Happiness and relief were the prevailing emotions of the day.

“It was one of those things there was an off chance you weren’t getting in, but you feel the whole lot better the rest of the day, going to homecoming and all of that knowing you’re playing one more week your senior year,” captain Kaeden Piller said. 

Axe Game loss

Rhinelander had control of the first half Friday night, leading 6-0 on a James Heck touchdown early in the second quarter. The complexion of the game did a 180 on back-to-back plays late in the first half, however. Lakeland rode its newfound momentum — and a slew of Rhinelander mistakes — to a second-half blowout.

The Hodags had the ball and were driving for more late in the first half when Logan Schwinger fumbled on third-and-2 from the Hodag 45 with 37 seconds remaining in the half. Lakeland, with all three timeouts remaining, took a shot on the next play and found an open Maccoy Holmquist behind the coverage of Owen Ives for a 39-yard completion down to the 8. The T-Birds scored two plays later on the first of three Noah Bruckner touchdown runs on the night with 12 seconds remaining in the half. Bruckner, the second-leading rusher in the GNC, also scored the two-point conversion to give Lakeland an 8-6 lead at the break.

“We had a couple mental mistakes that gave them an opportunity to score at the end of the second quarter but, for all intents and purposes, I thought we were the best team in the first half,” Kraemer said.

Unfortunately for the Hodags, Lakeland took that momentum and ran with it in the second half. After recovering an onside kick, the T-Birds marched eight plays and 59 yards, scoring on a three-yard run by quarterback Kort Meyer four minutes into the third that made it 16-6.

Rhinelander drove inside the Lakeland 40 on the next drive, before getting pushed back by a holding call. Disaster struck when Rhinelander was forced to punt and the snap went well over punter Tyler Chariton’s head. He chased it down inside the Rhinelander 30, but fumbled trying to save the play. Lakeland’s Tristan Rainey recovered, returning it to the Hodag 11. Bruckner scored from a yard out three plays later to extend the lead. 

Another bad snap on a punt at the end of the next drive gave Lakeland the ball at the 23, and Bruckner scored from 17 yards to round out the scoring with 8:35 to play. 

“In the second half, they came out with fire and desire,” Kraemer said. “They make their own luck. They do a good job as a coaching staff getting their kids fired up and the kids came out in the second half, drove down and scored. It just seemed like one thing after another for us.” 

    Rhinelander quarterback Truman Lamers attempts to recover a fumble following a missed handoff during the first quarter of a GNC football game against Lakeland at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Oct. 13. The Hodags fumbled seven times in rainy conditions Friday night, losing three of them in a 32-6 loss to the T-Birds. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

It was part of a sloppy night overall for the Hodags, who fumbled seven times in rainy conditions, losing three of them.

“Definitely self-inflicted wounds offensively. They had a lot of the ball offensively in the second half, which makes it hard on the defense in the rain and the wet and they’re running straight at you,” Kraemer said. “Unforced errors in the special teams game. I can’t fault our punt team for that. It’s terrible conditions, a lot of rain and, in the same game, we had two long snappers go down (Bo Stott and Reid Schultz against Medford). We’ve had a young man who stepped in last week and played a huge part in Dolan O’Malley. There’s no way I’m going to say anything negative about him. He’s just a heck of a kid, heck of an athlete and it was just something that hadn’t happened all week in practice and with the rain and stuff, sometimes it happens.”

Lakeland, which won the Axe in back-to-back years after losing three in a row to Rhinelander, won despite only 188 yards of total offense. Bruckner finished with 94 yards on 16 carries for the T-Birds. Heck had 53 yards on 16 carries for Rhinelander while Landon Bates added six carries for 35 yards. 

Rhinelander finished with 98 net yards of offense, but a pair of bad snaps — one on the first botched punt and another on a third-down play just before the second — cost the Hodags 50 yards on just two plays.

Math in their favor

Despite the loss, Rhinelander still had decent playoff odds going into Saturday’s selection show. After Friday night’s games, 184 teams had locked up playoff spots with records of .500 or better in their respective conferences. Rhinelander was among a pool of 52 teams vying for the final 40 spots in the field. 

Further helping the Hodags’ case — and the other bubble teams in the GNC for that matter — was the team’s strength of victory within the conference. Rhinelander, Antigo and Hayward all finished 3-4 in the conference with wins over Ashland (1-6) and Merrill (0-7), and a three-way split against each other. That gave all three teams a .1904 (4-17) strength of victory.

As the first tiebreaker among the 3-4 schools, that criteria helped all three GNC bubble teams get into the field. According to calculations done by the River News, the final 12 playoff spots were settled among teams with a .1429 (3-18) strength of victory.

“We kind of all slept on it and last night we knew we were 5-4, we had pretty good odds,” Piller said. “When we saw our names on there, I wouldn’t say we were expecting it, but we were ready for it. Now we know who we play, and that’s Onalaska.”

Bracket breakdown

Despite losing four of its final five games, the Hodags still ended up as a six seed in an eight-team Division 3 grouping that includes four GNC schools. Rice Lake, champions of the Middle Border Conference, earned the top spot, followed by GNC runners-up Medford. The Raiders got the 2-spot ahead of Onalaska thanks in part to a head-to-head victory over the Hilltoppers back in Week 2, and the fact that Onalaska (6-3, 6-1) dropped it regular season finale to Tomah on Friday night to share the Mississippi Valley title with La Crosse Central.

Rhinelander got the six seed, ahead of Hayward, in part due to a 13-7 victory over the Hurricanes back in Week 4. La Crosse Logan, which was a bubble team just like Rhinelander and Hayward, took the eight seed.

“I was thinking we’d be a seven or an eight seed, just considering where we ended up at the end of the season, but I’m thankful for it and I’m thankful for the opportunity to play somebody different,” Kraemer said. “We’re going to play somebody new, see a new part of the state and play somebody different. We’re excited for that.”

Lakeland, which won five straight games following an 0-4 start, received a 5-seed and will travel to Sparta on Friday. 

Antigo, which also snuck in on the bubble following a blowout loss to Medford on Friday, was sent east by the WIAA. The Robins received a six-seed and will open at Fox Valley Lutheran in Level 1. Conference champion Mosinee ended up as the second-largest school in Division 4 once the field was set. The Indians got a 2-seed in their bracket and will open the playoffs at home against Bloomer.

Onalaska look ahead

The Hodags will face off against a pass-happy Hilltoppers squad on Friday. Quarterback Adam Skifton has thrown for 1,910 yards with 25 touchdowns and four interceptions on the year. Brodie Mickschl has been his favorite target in the passing game with 57 catches for 728 yards and 14 scores.

“They have a really good coaching staff … They’re going to have the team prepared regardless of how they played last night,” Kraemer said. “The one thing we see against them is a spread team that likes to throw the football. The last few year’s we’ve been solid against the spread and able to shut teams down that throw it. That’s an exciting test and exciting task for us. When we look at the matchup, we’re excited.”

Friday’s game will mark the first time the Hodags have faced the Hilltoppers since playing a non-conference home-and-home series in 2003 and 2004. Onalaska won 28-17 in Rhinelander in 2003 and then beat the Hodags at home 7-0 the following year. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].