RHS Sports recap: Friday, Aug. 29

Football: Rhinelander 34, Hayward 22

The Rhinelander High School football team survived a fourth-quarter comeback and defeated the Hayward Hurricanes 34-22 Friday night at Mike Webster Stadium.

Leading 28-6 to start the fourth, the Hodags surrendered back-to-back touchdown runs to Hayward quarterback Keegan Walsh that cut the lead to six before responding with a six-play drive that ended with a zig-zagging 12-yard touchdown run by Cyrus Leisure to seal it. 

Junior quarterback Abe Gretzinger had a big game, completing 8 of 10 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. He hit Rowan Wiczek for a 17-yard score in the first quarter and then connected with Ben Olson for 84 yards on the opening play of the second half. Wiczek finished with 107 yards on six receptions for Rhinelander. 

Walsh was 19 of 33 passing for Hayward with a touchdown. Cade Schlapper caught 10 passes for 143 yards and a score.

Myles Eagleson had 75 yards on the ground and rushed for two touchdowns in the contest, but left the game in the fourth quarter with an apparent arm injury and did not return to the contest.

Rhinelander (1-1, 0-0 Great Northern) opens conference play at home against Lakeland next Friday night. The T-Birds improved to 2-0 with a 14-0 win over Ashland in Week 2. 

Volleyball: Rhinelander 1-3, Friendship Tournament

The RHS volleyball dropped its first three matches and picked up a close win in its nightcap on Friday as it went 1-3 in the first day of the Friendship Tournament in Wisconsin Dells.

The Hodags lost in straight sets to Dodgeland (11-25, 15-25), Sevastopol (23-25, 19-25), and Auburndale (18-25, 11-25) before beating Oshkosh North (25-21, 15-25, 15-12).

Ava Rathbun led the Hodags with 17 kills. Libbey Bachmann had 23 assists and nine service aces. Cassidy Lindner recorded a team-high 27 digs and Corynn Waksmonski had three blocks.

Rhinelander (1-7, 0-0 Great Northern) will wrap up tournament play on Saturday. 

Girls’ tennis: Rhinelander 3-0 Hodag Quad

The Rhinelander High School girls’ tennis team won all three of its games on Friday in a home quadrangular meet at the RHS tennis courts. 

Rhinelander downed Merrill 5-2, Ironwood (Mich.) 6-1 and Ashland 7-0.

The Hodags mixed and matched their lineup, with no combination playing more than two matches. Those who went 2-0 on the day included Annie Vander Galien, Taylor McKinney, Sam Aschenbrenner, Lucy Evers and Becca Brost in singles, and the doubles tandems of Teagan Turcotte/Maddie Legrey, Eva Heck/Willow VanDenHeuvel and Willow Mutter/Addy Currie.

Rhinelander (8-7, 1-1 Great Northern) travels to Phiilips on Tuesday.

Because of an early holiday deadline, full reports will be published in the Friday, Sept. 5 edition of the River News.