Mosinee motors past Hodag gridders 41-14

MOSINEE — The Rhinelander High School football team hung with Mosinee for two and a half quarters on Friday night but eventually ran out of gas against the GNC co-leaders.

Mosinee scored three times over the final 4 minutes of the third quarter and raced away for a 41-14 win over the Hodags. 

Three turnovers hindered Rhinelander’s chances, as did two missed scoring opportunities inside the red zone in the first half. Both of the Hodags’ returning all-conference players from last season — Cyrus Leisure and Caden Sieker — left the contest early due to injures, and Rhinelander had a hard time containing Mosinee dual-threat quarterback Treve Stoffel, who accounted for 303 total yards of offense and three touchdowns on the night. 

“I’m really proud of the way the guy stepped up, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough,” Hodag head coach Aaron Kraemer said. “They’re a really talented team. And they’re going to give the last two teams they play a run for their money to finish it, and they’ll do well in the D4 playoffs.”

Rhinelander scored on the opening drive of the second half on a one-yard run by Ben Olson that trimmed Mosinee’s lead to 14-7, but the Indians took over from there, scoring 27 unanswered points. 

Mosinee matched Rhinelander’s scoring drive with a nine-play 65-yard march that ended with a 19-yard catch and run by Omar Ingram on a swing pass from Stoffel. 

Mitchell Michlig jumped a passing route behind the line of scrimmage, intercepted Rhinelander quarterback Abe Gretzinger and returned it 33 yards for a score that made it 27-7, and Stoffel added a 48-yard run down the sideline that gave Mosinee a 35-7 advantage just before the end of the third quarter. 

    Rhinelander’s Ryley Hull (3) and Rowan Wiczek attempt to tackle Mosinee’s Mitchell Michlig during the third quarter of a GNC football game in Mosinee Friday, Oct. 3. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“It just seemed like, you know, one thing after another,” Kraemer said of Mosinee’s late third-quarter torrent.

Carter Fandrey added a 15-yard score midway through the fourth quarter for Mosinee. A missed extra point prevented a 35-point margin and the activation of the running-clock rule. Rhinelander was able to score late on a 15-yard run by sophomore Matthew Haselton. 

Mosinee led 14-0 at halftime, capitalizing on its chances after the Hodags squandered theirs. Rhinelander drove down inside the Mosinee 15 on its opening drive, but after a tackle for loss and a holding penalty, faced third-and-20 from the 24. Gretzinger threw a jump ball for Wiczek in the end zone that was intercepted by Mosinee Brayden Reinke. 

The Indians struck quickly off the turnover. Following a 19-yard completion to Ingram, Stoffel took it himself 61 yards around left end to give Mosinee the first touchdown. 

Sam Zwaard returned the ensuing kickoff 90 yards to the Mosinee 2 before getting tripped up from behind by Mosinee’s Zander Deininger. To make matters worse, Zwaard raised an arm in the air to celebrate, and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct as the result, backing the Hodags up 15 yards. 

Rhinelander essentially went 3-and-out on the drive, and had to abort a 31-yard field goal attempt due to a low snap.

Mosinee marched 79 yards on 13 plays, capped off by a Fandrey 3-yard run to make it 14-0 with 7:14 left in the opening half.

“Obviously, they are a good team, so they adjusted and did what they needed to do. But 14 points in the first half, that’s pretty good defensively,” Kraemer said. “It was just those opportunities. If you put those two opportunities away, it’s 14-14, and we’re going into halftime feeling really good about ourselves.”

Key injuries 

    Rhinelander’s Cyrus Leisure is helped off the field by trainer Ethan Willey, left, and coach Aaron Kraemer, right, after sustaining a knee injury during the first quarter of a GNC football game in Mosinee Friday, Oct. 3. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Right before the aborted field goal attempt, Leisure was stopped for no gain on third-and-7 and remained down on the ground. He appeared to reaggravate the same knee that forced him out of the previous week’s win against Antigo.

Sieker — one of the Hodags’ top defensive players — was taking some of his first reps of the year on offense when he appeared to injury his shoulder early in the fourth quarter. He was in at left tackle for Leander Sprecksel, who was subbed out after receiving an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Stoffel’s touchdown run late in the third quarter. 

Kraemer said after the game that Sieker injured the same shoulder that forced him to miss the final three games of last season, however said is was too early to tell if the injuries to either Sieker or Leisure would cause them to miss an extended period of time.

“We’ll have them evaluated. Cyrus, I think maybe it was a little bit of a residual from last week. He didn’t have anything in practice, so we thought he was pretty good. And then a hit to that knee today. So we’ll see. For Caden, it’s the same shoulder. I mean, it’s a slip in, slip out type of thing … I’m hoping that for him that it’s nothing major.”

Rhinelander was still without Myles Eagleson (wrist) and Travis Trickey (shoulder) for the contest, while Sam Zwaard was limited in the second half due to a groin injury he sustained during the week of practice. 

“It’s about just getting healthy. Unfortunately, the last two games of the season for us are meat grinders,” Kraemer said. “We’re going to see two teams that love to run the ball, and so we’re going to have to be physical. But that means guys just got to step up. I mean, it just has to happen. We have seniors on this team that can do that.”

Stoffel stands out

While the Hodags slowed down Stoffel at times, he made explosive plays, especially in the ground game, as he ran for 165 yards and two touchdowns. He added another 138 yards and a score through the air on 11 of 15 passing.

“He is a special player for them. He is a player of the year-type player. And he is, everything runs through him,” Kraemer said. “I thought their offensive line was physical, too, and they did their job, that they needed to do, but he is certainly is a good player.”

Statbook

Fandrey added 98 yards rushing and two scores for Mosinee, which outgained Rhinelander 422-261 on the night. 

Despite leaving the contest in the first quarter, Leisure was still Rhinelander’s second-leading rusher with 36 yards on five carries. Olson led the way with 11 rushes for 39 yards. 

Gretzinger went 9 of 16 for 102 yards and three interceptions on the night. Wiczek was Rhinelander’s top receiver, with five catches for 73 yards. 

Playoff implications

Though the official WIAA playoff rankings are not due out until Wednesday, Mosinee (5-2, 4-1) figures to move up in the D4 standings. They came into the night ranked fifth, and two teams ahead of them (No. 1 Evansville and No. 4 Lodi) lost on Friday. 

Rhinelander (3-4, 2-3) entered No. 28 in the D3 standings. While most of the teams around the D3 bubble lost, there were wins by No. 31 Port Washington, No. 32 Jefferson, No. 37 McFarland and No. 38 Waukesha North. The top 32 teams in the rankings at the end of the season in each division will make the postseason. 

Homecoming ahead

Rhinelander hosts Medford this coming Friday at Mike Webster Stadium. The Raiders (2-5, 2-3), like Rhinelander, are flirting with the D3 playoff bubble. They entered Week 7 26th in the rankings and lost at home to Tomahawk 24-14. 

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].