Hilltopped

ONALASKA — The Rhinelander High School football team was optimistic it could compete with reigning state semifinalist Onalaska Friday night in the first round of the WIAA Division 3 playoffs. Those hopes lasted only a handful of plays.

The Hilltoppers’ offense established dominance early and the Hodags made too many mistakes to fight back. It all added up to a 56-6 defeat following a long 3 1/2-hour road trip to the suburbs of La Crosse.

Onalaska roared out to a 27-0 lead after a quarter and had seven touchdowns in only 21 offensive plays as it led 49-0 at the half. Hilltopper senior quarterback Adam Skifton threw for 214 yards four touchdowns, bringing his state-leading total to 30 passing scores on the year. 

While the Hodags did find some traction against a struggling run defense, they stopped themselves by committing five turnovers and had six drive-halting penalties. 

“I think we got a little shell-shocked early in the game and then it was tough to fight back,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said. 

Onalaska needed just three plays to score on its opening drive, as Brady Kuhn bust through the middle for a 45-yard touchdown run. After a quick three-and-out the Hilltoppers only needed two plays to score again as Skifton bit Isaac Skemp over the top for a 41-yard score.

Cameron Cornett busted off a 40-yard score on his only carry of the game and Carter Gilhausen got behind the defense for a 31-yard touchdown from Skifton to make it 27-0 after a quarter.

Things didn’t get much better in the second. Kuhn added a 18-yard score midway through the quarter, setting up a string of three consecutive scoring plays for the Hilltopper offense. After a Hodag fumble deep in its own territory, Skifton hit Brodie Mickschl for a 15-yard score. A botched snap on a Rhinelander punt led to a safety before Skifton went over the top again to Gilhausen for 49 yards, making it 49-0 with 1:40 left in the half.

“Defensively, they’re fast. They really are,” Kraemer said. “We worked all week on one-on-one coverage and getting guys deep, doubling guys up and doing different things. They are a good team, and they know they can beat you with Mickschl and they can single up the other guys to get a post or a corner, get you deep on these pass plays. They’re a very good screen team. That’s just a really classy team over there.”

    Rhinelander’s Landon Bates stiff-arms Onalaska’s Jackson Hughes on a run during the third quarter of a WIAA Division 3 Level 1 playoff game in Onalaska Friday, Oct. 20. Bates led all rushers with 69 yards on Friday and scored the Hodags’ lone touchdown. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Rhinelander got on the board midway through the third quarter on a 17-yard run by senior Landon Bates, who led all players in rushing on Friday with 69 yards on nine carries. 

“Landon played a helluva game tonight I thought,” Kraemer said. “He had some great runs and got in the open field. He scored the touchdown down here at the end. He’s just a guy that never quits.”

The Hilltoppers primarily played their backups, especially on offense, in the second half, but still found the end zone late. After Phengsu Vang picked off a Lamers pass, sophomore quarterback Ian Kowal hit Luke Siegel for a 20-yard score with 3:09 to play.

The loss brought a season that started with a lot of promise to a disappointing end. Rhinelander began the year 4-0 and was ranked as high as No. 10 in the WisSports.net D3 coaches poll, but was never the same after getting shutout by Antigo 24-0 in the Bell Game during Week 5. The Hodags went 1-5 over their final six games, scoring just four total touchdowns in those contests.

Yet, it was an improvement over last year’s 1-8 campaign as the Hodags made the WIAA playoffs for just the sixth time in school history.

“I’m disappointed that this one didn’t end the way I wanted it to but I’m not disappointed in the season and I’ll never say that,” Kraemer said. “We had a great year. It was a lot of fun. These seniors brought everyone around and I’m proud to be their coach.” 

Self-inflicted

Not that the Hilltoppers needed a ton of help, but Rhinelander gave it to them anyway  with a litany of mistakes in the first half. The Hodags finally gained traction on their third drive, with Bates breaking off a 29-yard run down to the Hilltopper 15, but the Hodags fumbled on the next play as Truman Lamers and James Heck were unable to complete an exchange on a handoff.

The Hodags let a line drive kickoff go after that, but it stopped inside the 1-yard line. The Hodags began that drive from their own 2 before punting. Rhinelander’s next drive featured four penalties, including a false start on fourth-and-six that prevented the Hodags from going for it near midfield. Rhinelander had the ensuing punt blocked. Rhinelander’s final three drives of the first half ended with a fumble, a safety and an interception.

“We talked about it all week, not having those different things,” Kraemer said of what appeared to be a continuation of the self-inflicted second-half struggles Rhinelander had a week ago in a 32-6 loss to Lakeland. “Honestly, I think the penalties hurt us tonight. We had some really big plays and penalties brought us back and some of them were just not needed. We asked them to block to the whistle and our guys were doing that, but behind the play, five yards and wrestling a guy to the ground or behind the play and we hold and get outside the frame. That’s just technique stuff we’ve got to work on in the offseason.”

Thanks to the seniors

Regardless, Kraemer said he was proud of a senior class of 13 strong that helped bring Rhinelander back to .500 this season following a 2022 campaign that was Rhinelander’s only losing season since 2018.

“I couldn’t have asked them to leave it better,” he said. “They’ve worked really, really hard. We’ve had some tough defeats, but we’ve had some really, really close wins and had some thrillers, you think back to Week 1. It’s just been really great memories with these guys. I’m sad that it’s over because I think we’re capable of more but, at the same time, they did what I asked them to do. They left the program better than they found it.”

Other GNC results

In general, it was a rough night for the Great Northern Conference, which went 2-4 in Level 1 games.

Lakeland, which faced a similar road trip to fourth-seeded Sparta scored the opening touchdown but then allowed 43 unanswered points in a 43-8 defeat. Antigo, in the northeastern quadrant of the D3 tournament, lost as a six seed 42-14 at Fox Valley Lutheran. 

GNC runner-up Medford took care of conference foe Hayward 41-3 to set up a rematch with Onalaska next Friday night in Medford. The Raiders racked up a school-record 562 yards of rushing offense when they upset the Hilltoppers 52-35 back in Week 2. 

“If they stiffen up on defense, this Onalaska team, they’re going to be tough to hold out of the end zone,” Kraemer said. “They’re a very, very good team, talented and a team that can challenge Medford.” 

GNC champion Mosinee, a two-seed in Division 4, knocked off Bloomer 55-14 in its tournament opener.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at jeremy@rivernewsonline.com.