Pigskin Preview Level 1 playoffs: Rhinelander at Onalaska

      

A mistake-filled 32-6 loss to Lakeland last Friday night was not the way the Rhinelander High School football team wanted to end its 2023 season. Luckily for the Hodags, it won’t be. 

Rhinelander has a chance to rewrite the narrative to the end of its season as one of the final 40 teams into the WIAA playoffs. The Hodags will get that mulligan this evening at Onalaska in Level 1 of the Division 3 tournament.

“It’s an opportunity to celebrate what football’s all about and an opportunity to make a memory with your senior class and do the best you can to get to Level 2,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said on Tuesday.

It’s also a chance to clean up a lot of what went wrong on homecoming night last Friday against Lakeland. Leading 6-0 late in the first half, a fumble in the final minute led to a touchdown that triggered an avalanche of Lakeland momentum. The T-Birds closed the game with 32 unanswered points while the Hodags misfired in all three phases of the game. 

“It was frustration and fury on Friday night,” Kraemer said. “I honestly do think we gave a game away, when you look at the film and we felt the same way at the end of the game. I think there were so many unforced errors in that game and the luck was purely on Lakeland’s side all night. It made it difficult for us to win.

“The things about Friday is that it was all unforced. When things are unforced, that means there are things you can do to fix those problems, and that game should have been completely different. That’s what we’ve been talking about this week.”

While Onalaska won a share of the Mississippi Valley Conference title and was ranked in the top 10 of the WisSports.net D3 coaches poll for much of the regular season, the Hilltoppers are far from invincible. GNC runner-up Medford showed that by rushing for a school-record 562 yards in a 52-35 upset at Onalaska in Week 2. Though the Hilltoppers won six straight games after that, they backed into the playoffs with a 38-13 loss at Tomah last Friday night. 

In fact, Onalaska has not really blown out many teams out this year. The Hilltoppers’ most lopsided win was a 27-0 shutout of Sparta in Week 7, and Onalaska has three one-point victories on the year — over La Crosse Central, La Crosse Logan and Baraboo.

“When I look at them, I see someone similar to us,” Kraemer said. “They’ve struggled the last couple of weeks, defensively, to keep teams out and they’ve had close games. They lost this last week to Tomah. We have an opportunity to head to Onalaska and do the best we can to make our community and school and our parents and all the people that support us proud.”

Here are five storylines entering tonight game. 

Not just happy to be there

A few short years ago, simply making the playoffs was something to be celebrated in Rhinelander. The Hodags are making just their sixth postseason appearance in school history — including their fourth in the last five years under Kraemer. 

While Rhinelander won two postseason games in the COVID-shortened 2020 season, those came with a bit of an asterisk because there was no state championship that season. Kraemer said the next step for his program, underdog or not, is to break through and reach Level 2 in a full-blown WIAA tournament. 

“You’re thankful every time you get an opportunity to get in, but I think that the circumstances are a little bit different than they were that season,” he said, comparing it to his first trip to the playoffs in 2019 when the Hodags were outmatched by River Falls. “We play against a team that’s tough. They were state ranked and they’re playoff proven and they’ve been there before but, at the same time, we see a team we can match up with and play well against. That kind of makes it different.” 

To that end, Kraemer said this week’s preparation is all about being in love with the game of football as opposed to — as Colorado coach Deion Sanders said last week after his Buffaloes blew a 29-point lead to Stanford — being “in like” with the game of football.

“It starts with a process mindset,” Kraemer said. “This week they have to come into practice and say to themselves, ‘I have to do everything I can in every single moment of every single practice to prepare and make sure I’m ready for the game against Onalaska, so we don’t have those same mistakes.’”

High-flying passing game

Part of the reason Onalaska has caught the eye of many in the state this year is its high-octane offense. Senior quarterback Adam Skifton has thrown 26 touchdown passes — the most in the state during the regular season. He’s completing nearly 69% of his passes and has the fifth-most passing yards in the state at 2,057. 

Skifton’s No. 1 target is fellow senior Brodie Mickschl. He’s No. 2 in the state in both overall receptions (66) and touchdown grabs (14) while his 824 receiving yards rank 11th in the state. 

Onalaska has other targets in the passing game —Evan Anderson and Isaac Skemp have caught five touchdowns each — but the focal points off the offense are Skifton and Mickschl. Kraemer said the Onalaska pair reminds him of another combo that wears purple and white. 

“Skifton’s a good player. Their slot player (Mickschl) is very good player. The two of them remind me of the guys we play in Mosinee,” he said comparing them to quarterback Gavin Obremski and receiver Keagan Jirschele. “They’re very solid in the passing game. (Mickschl) is very shift and as soon as he gets the ball, he’s a game-breaker. It’s the same thing I said about Jirschele when he catches the football, it’s like a punt return. You have to get bodies on him. You have to corral him and get him down. One guy is not going to get the job done.”

Despite passing on roughly 52% of their downs, Onalaska has a decent running game led by running back Cameron Cornett, who’s carried for 504 yards and four scores on the year. Skifton has also rushed for four touchdowns. 

“They like to run the ball early but once that run game gets stopped, they like to throw it a ton. When we see a 65-70% passing team, that’s unlike anything you see in the GNC, even Mosinee. 

Struggles against the run

    Rhinelander’s James Heck carries the ball during the first half of a GNC football game against Lakeland at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Oct. 13. The Hodags will try to get their offense going tonight in Level 1 of the WIAA playoffs at Onalaska against a Hilltopper team that comes in allowing 274 yards per game on the ground. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

If there’s one Achilles heel for Onalaska, it’s run defense. Tomah’s Logan Rufeldt rushed for 297 yards and three scores against the Hilltoppers last week and overall on the season, Onalaska is given up 274 yards per game on the ground on 5.8 yards per carry. 

Rhinelander hopes that will bode in its favor tonight as it tries to record multiple touchdowns and more than 200 yards of offense for the first time since a Week 4 win over Hayward. 

“It kind of plays to our strengths a little bit,” Kraemer said. “We want to run the football and they haven’t seen a Wing-T team. It’s really hard, if you haven’t done it or coached it or seen it, to simulate that in practice. For us, our job is to control the football offensively and make sure we can keep their offense off the field. 

“We feel like we can match up with them up front. We’re going to have to move the ball through the ground early and make sure we are satisfied with four yards a carry and first downs and moving it. Then, once we get in the red zone, we have to finish with points.”

Onalaska connection

While Rhinelander has not played Onalaska since 2004 — a 7-0 loss at Hilltopper Stadium in Jim Moore’s first year at the helm — the Hodags and Kraemer are not completely unfamiliar with Onalaska. 

Kraemer said he has gotten to know Onalaska head coach Tom Yashinsky through their involvement in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association. Yashinsky currently serves on the WFCA board as a vice president while Kraemer serves as a representative for the large-school conferences in Region 1 of the WFCA.

“He’s someone I consider to be a mentor,” Kraemer said. “I’ve worked with him over the last couple years in the WFCA, seen him around and talked to him about things he’s done with his program. He’s given me ideas about how I can freshen things up and make things better as time goes on. I’ve utilized him as a resource like that. It’s cool to go up against him and go to Onalaska.”  

Middle of the road

Long road trips have become the norm for the Hodags in the WIAA tournament. Excluding 2020, the shortest trip in any of Rhinelander’s five other postseason appearance was a 2012 jaunt to Waupaca. 

After going to River Falls in 2019 and Baraboo in 2021, the Hodags are used to a long road trip. They will try to break up the more than 3 1/2-hour haul today by stopping halfway in Wisconsin Rapids and conducting a walkthrough at Lincoln High School’s South Wood County Field. 

Kraemer was able to arrange that by calling in a favor to another WFCA board member and RHS alum — Wisconsin Rapids head coach Tony Biolo.

“It’s things like that, that can break up the trip, break up the monotony, get kids moving, get the blood flowing, refuel them and refocus them to what the true goal and true job is tonight,” he said. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].