Banged up Hodags edged by Lakeland in Axe Game

MINOCQUA — Despite all the obstacles facing the Rhinelander High School football team from an injury standpoint, the Hodags were essentially one play away from knocking off their rivals to the north Friday night. 

Ultimately, the pivotal play never came and the Hodags’ comeback bid fell short in a 12-8 loss to the Lakeland T-Birds at IncredibleBank Field.

Backup quarterback Chandler Servent was sacked before he could launch a Hail Mary attempt as time expired and the Hodags dropped their third straight game to the T-Birds in the Axe Game series. Servent was in as starter Truman Lamers sat out with an eye injury sustained in a Week 2 win at Hayward. Lamers was one of four players out with injury for Rhinelander, accounting for eight starting positions between offense, defense and special teams.

“I think we played as well as we could have. We just didn’t finish when we needed to and, sometimes, that’s all,” Hodag coach Aaron Kraemer said afterward. “In the second half, you could tell they guys wanted it. It’s just unfortunate that we ended up short by a few points.”

The Hodags started slow offensively, going 3 and out on their first two possessions, as Lakeland got the upper hand.

The T-Birds capitalized on a short field to score on their opening possession, capped off by a two-yard run by Noah Bruckner. Rhinelander finally found some traction on its third drive and appeared to score on a 24-yard run by Sam Zwaard midway through the second quarter, only to see it nullified by an illegal motion penalty.

The Hodags failed to convert on fourth down and, three plays later, Lakeland quarterback Deklan McQuade hit receiver Evan Zoch in stride on a wheel route for an 82-yard score that made it 12-0 for the T-Birds. 

Rhinelander drove down to the Lakeland 4 in the final moments of the first half, but were turned away as Servent overthrew tight end Bo Stott in the end zone as time expired. 

“We did everything that we needed to do except for finish in the red zone tonight,” Kraemer said of the Hodags’ failed attempts to score in the second quarter.

    Rhinelander’s Cyrus Leisure breaks through for a 30-yard gain during the third quarter of a GNC football game against Lakeland in Minocqua Friday, Sept. 6. Leisure led the Hodags with 86 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

After turning Lakeland away on downs to start the second half, the Hodags put together their best drive of the night, going 73 yards on 10 plays, capped off by a Cyrus Leisure 8-yard score with 19 seconds remaining in the third quarter. 

Lakeland appeared to be salting the game away with a steady dose of Bruckner — who carried the ball 29 times for 148 yards — but the T-Bird back fumbled on a third-and-1 play from the Rhinelander 13 and the Hodags recovered with 5:57 to remaining.

Rhinelander drove to the Lakeland 48, but Servent misfired high to Rowan Wiczek on a fourth-and-11 pass near midfield, giving the ball back to Lakeland with 1:14 to play.

Rhinelander used both of its remaining timeouts and forced Lakeland into a fourth-down play with 16 seconds remaining. Rather than punting from their own 34, the T-Birds opted to run McQuade into his own end zone, taking an intentional safety with five seconds left. 

Needing a miracle, the Hodags got a second chance when Lakeland committed a facemask penalty with Servent scrambling as the clock expired. The defensive penalty gave Rhinelander an untimed down at the T-Bird 46, but Servent was sacked at midfield as time expired. 

Kraemer said some miscommunication on the motion on the final play caused some confusion.

“I thought we had the right play drawn up. Even after the play was botched, looking at what happened on the play, we were open,” he said. “Had we executed it properly, we might have been able to put one close or put one in.” 

Rhinelander lost despite outgaining Lakeland 296-185 in the contest. Leisure finished the night with 86 yards and a score on 13 carries while Sam Schoppe added 10 carries for 44 yards.

“This was a heck of a football game. It had everything you wanted — late drama, early drama, tough hitting, hard-nosed football. It’s just unfortunate that we just couldn’t get it done,” Kraemer said.

Servent’s night

    Rhinelander’s Chandler Servent takes a snap during the second quarter of a GNC football game against Lakeland in Minocqua Friday, Sept. 6. Servent, making his first start at quarterback in place of the injured Truman Lamers, finished the night 4 of 12 passing for 64 yards in the Hodags’ 12-8 loss. (Bob Mainhardt fot the River News)
  

Servent, a junior making his first varsity start at quarterback, was 4 of 12 passing for 64 yards — though those numbers were slightly skewed as he clocked the ball three times to stop the clock on the Hodags’ final drive of the first half. He added 19 yards on five carries.

Afterward, Kraemer could be seen on the field having a conversation with Servent.

“(I told him) that he’s going to continue to get opportunities and to not be disappointed in the way that he played,” Kraemer said. “You’ve got to command an offense and it takes a long time to get your feet underneath you. He played a really, really nice game tonight. He commanded the offense, had a couple of really good runs.”

Servent was also pressed into kicking and punting duties — the team’s fourth option at those positions due to multiple injuries. While he ended up averaging just over 30 yards per punt on the night, his first punt went off the side of his foot and traveled only 12 yards, giving Lakeland the ball at the Rhinelander 30 to start its opening possession.

“It wasn’t a great punt. Nothing against him, but sometimes you’re working on it and it takes a while to get the feel of doing that,” Kraemer said. “We’re down to our fourth punter now, thinking back to Week 1. We had some good punts later in the game and did what we needed to do, just unfortunate that that happened so early and they were able to capitalize on the momentum.” 

Penalty problems

The Hodags were uncharacteristically sloppy on Friday night, penalized 13 times for 90 yards. That was more penalties and penalty yardage than in the team’s first two games combined (12 for 80).

The vast majority of the penalties were procedural — either false starts, illegal shifts or delay of game. Rhinelander overcame three straight procedure penalties on their touchdown drive. 

In addition to the illegal motion that negated Zwaard’s first-half score, the Hodag defense committed a key roughing the passer infraction when it appeared to have Lakeland stopped on a third and long midway through the fourth quarter and had two potential first downs nullified by holding calls on their penultimate drive.

“With a new cadence, a new quarterback, sometimes it takes a little time to get used to that,” Kraemer said. “It’s tough, some of the procedure penalties were just small movements, but those weren’t the ones that really killed us. It was the holds. I’m not going to say anything about that. Sometimes, that’s just high school football. You end up on the wrong side of the calls, and that’s all I’ll say.”

Lakeland was not immune from the penalty bug either, racking up 80 penalty yards on 10 infractions.

Trainer’s room

In addition to Lamers, the Hodags were without Tyler Chariton (ankle) for a third straight week and Myles Eagleson (shoulder) for a second straight week. Lineman Travis Trickey also missed the game due to a hand injury.

Junior wingback Ben Olson left the game late in the first quarter with an apparent arm injury and did not return. 

While banged up, Kraemer was hopeful that the team would get at least a couple of starters back going into this Friday’s home contest against Wausau East. 

Up next

The Hodags (2-1, 0-1 Great Northern) will face the Lumberjacks at Mike Webster Stadium. East (2-1, 1-0 Great Northern) won its GNC debut 27-11 over Tomahawk this past Friday night at Thom Field. Quarterback Davis Winter threw for four touchdowns in the game while Tomahawk committed a whopping seven turnovers.

Lakeland (3-0, 1-0 Great Northern), the lone remaining unbeaten team in the conference, travels to Mosinee this Friday.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].