Hodags dominate Ashland 32-7, move to 3-0

ASHLAND — For a few, fleeting moments Friday night the Rhinelander High School football team felt a game it was dominating slipping from its control. Then the Hodags got back to what they do best and notched another win. 

Truman Lamers threw for 176 yards and three touchdowns, the Hodag defense held Ashland under 200 yards and Rhinelander wore down the Oredockers in a 32-7 win at Weikal Field.

“Offensively, I feel real good but, defensively, I tell you what, this defense is very, very good and when they do their jobs and they eye their guy, they’re one of the best defenses in the conference,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said after the game. 

The Hodags (3-0, 1-0 Great Northern) possessed the football for more than 30 minutes and were up 13-0 in the second quarter after touchdown passes to Bo Stott and Zach Germain. But a 66-yard score from Haydin LePlavy to Chris Craig, followed by a sack fumble of Lamers set up Ashland with first and goal from the 6 with a chance to take the lead.

Ashland (0-3, 0-1 Great Northern) actually thought it had taken the lead for a moment, but a Laken Villaverde touchdown run was wiped out due to a holding call and the Oredockers eventually came away empty as Owen Corbine-Nelis missed a 32-yard field goal. 

Ashland was turned away again on an interception by Lamers right at the end of the first half and the Hodags took over after halftime, scoring touchdowns on their next three possessions. 

“What I told them (at halftime) was simple,” Kraemer said. “I said, ‘We’ve controlled this game. We’re going to stop them here. We’re going to drive down and score and as soon as we score, that’s when they’re going to crumble.’”

That statement proved to be prophetic. The Hodags stopped Ashland on a fourth-and-2 run from the 44 to start the second half and then marched down the field 11 plays before rolling the dice again on fourth and 6 from the 9. Lamers rolled out and found Kyrle Vanney on a diving catch in the end zone to make it 19-7. 

After turning Ashland over on downs again, Payton Campbell put Rhinelander up 26-7 with a 12-yard on the first play of the fourth quarter and Logan Schwinger put the icing on the cake on a 13-yard score with 2:52 remaining. 

The Hodags were methodical in the ground game, rushing 49 times for 203 yards. Eight different players carried the ball, led by Owen Kurtz with 68 yards on six carries. Campbell added 48 yards on 11 carries. 

“I was really proud of the way we ran the football all night long but, late in the game, Owen and James (Heck) took over at the end of the second half,” Kramer said. “The wings blocked their tails off. Kyrle had a really great block on Payton’s touchdown after having a good game receiving.”

Aside from the big pass play to Craig, the Hodags had the Oredockers grounded most of the night. Ashland finished with only 191 yards of offense, had only eight first downs and was held to 0 of 7 on third down. Andy Brandis was Ashland’s leading rusher, but was limited to 29 yards on eight carries. 

“We talked about getting our eyes on the wings, making sure we knew where they were,” Kraemer said. “Those wings can take you to the play and can give you a picture of what’s going to happen. The safeties played really, really well tonight, getting to the football and then stuffing the counter when it came back. The linebackers scrapped and filled well and our defensive linemen — and I include our outside linebackers — those guys have been as solid as solid can be this year. I’m really proud of what they’ve been able to do.”

Empty early

The Hodags opened the game with a 20-play, 80-yard drive that took nearly 11 minutes off the clock, but came up empty as Lamers threw an interception on fourth-and-goal from the 2. 

“We drove all the way down the field. We just didn’t get the play that we needed to finish it,” Kraemer said. “I’m disappointed by that but I blame myself for that. I think there was one bad play call in there that set us back.”

Rhinelander held Ashland three-and-out, however, and scored on a short field on the subsequent drive.

Big time passes

Lamers hit Vanney for 34 yards to convert a third-and-14 on that opening drive and later hit Stott on a crossing route on a catch-and-run of 22 yards for the game’s first score. 

“Truman did a great job stepping up on the touchdown to Bo and Bo did a great job finishing that play,” Kraemer said. “I think you can get a little disillusioned as a tight end in this offense because you’ve got a lot of crossing routes, a lot of backside routes because we’re booting out to the side of the split end. Those plays end up counting though because teams are going to overplay on our split end and that Y is going to be wide open. He runs a beautiful crossing route. Well deserved touchdown.”

Lamers next pass was a big one as Germain got behind the coverage of Cooper DeBryin and was found in stride for a 68-yard score — the Hodags’ longest pass play so far this season. 

“You can’t match Zach Germain’s speed. He’s very, very quick,” Kraemer said, noting that the Hodags found a weakness in the secondary and were able to exploit it a few times on Friday. “That ball was in the air forever. It took forever to come back down. I was just crossing my fingers that it would come down and he’d have it. Once he’s got it, you’re not catching him. Great job by him.”  

Big plays

Craig found a big hole in the Hodags’ secondary for Ashland’s long touchdown. It was the third touchdown pass of 58 yards or more that Rhinelander has surrendered this season.

“One lapse in concentration, and you’ve seen it this season on the defense, we’ve been dominant, but one lapse in concentration leads to a big play and now we’ve given them a little bit of hope,” Kraemer said.

Welcoming Weikal

Friday’s game marked the fourth straight road victory for the Hodags over the Oredockers. Rhinelander improved to 6-1 overall at Ashland since the team’s annual series started back in 2011. The lone loss was a 46-32 defeat back in 2015.

Up next

Rhinelander faces Hayward this Friday night at Mike Webster Stadium. The Hurricanes also moved to 3-0 Friday with a 27-8 victory at Antigo. 

“They have a lot of seniors that are coming up and No. 5 (Alex Depew), their quarterback, is a quality player,” Kraemer said. “He likes to run the football and he’s going the be a challenge for us next week, much like Pacey Weber last week.” 

The two teams went a combined 2-16 last season, with Rhinelander shutting out the Hurricanes 14-0 in Week 4. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].