ROCKED THE ROBINS

The seniors of the Hodag football team had never delivered a rivalry trophy into the cases at Rhinelander High School — no Northwoods Axe, no Gene Shepard’s Bell. 

In their final chance to knock off an arch rival and win a coveted trophy, those seniors, and the rest of the Hodags, came through in a historic way. 

Rowan Wiczek scored twice and six different Hodags recorded rushing touchdowns as Rhinelander shellacked Antigo 54-8 in the 91st playing of the Bell Game Friday night at Mike Webster Stadium.

The 54 points were the most scored by a single team in series and, if not for a late Antigo touchdown against the Hodag reserves, would have gone down as the biggest blowout in Bell Game history. As it stands, the 46-point win ranks as Rhinelander’s biggest win in the series and the fourth-largest margin of victory all-time. 

Those were all footnotes for the Hodag seniors who were simply happy to get the Bell back to the Hodag city for the first time since 2021, when Rhinelander won 42-0. 

“I mean, it feels amazing, honestly,” said Cyrus Leisure, who rushed for 102 yards, scored a touchdown and had an interception in the contest. “I mean, I’ve never really got to experience this before, and, you know, this group, I think we’ve worked really hard, and we have a really good work ethic for it, and I’m really happy that we got this.”

Rhinelander dominated the game from start to finish. After falling 24-0 at home to the Robins in 2023, and suffering a tough 28-20 loss at Schofield Stadium last year, senior defensive end Caden Sieker said Friday’s win was sweet redemption.

    Rhinelander’s Caden Sieker wraps up Antigo’s Owen Medo for a loss during the third quarter of the 91st Bell Game against Antigo at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Sept. 26. Rhinelander held Antigo to just 10 yards rushing and 128 yards of offense overall on the night. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

“We never forgot how brutal that one was last year for us,” he said. “We just came back, and I know all the seniors, all the juniors wanted it. We all wanted it so bad, and we came out, and we showed how bad we wanted it.”

Head coach Aaron Kraemer, who improved to 4-3 in the Bell Game, said throughout the week simply beating Antigo was more significant to the narrative of the Hodags’ season than the trophy that came with it. Yet he couldn’t help but smile as his team surrounded the Bell — a relic that belonged to Shepard, the creator of the Hodag myth. The team took pictures and pulled its handle, letting the Bell ring out with a sweet, sweet chime. 

“When you have a trophy to win, and one that’s so historic, it means a lot to the boys,” Kraemer said. “It means a lot to our community. And that’s what it means to me. You know, I love Hodag football, and these types of moments are everything for us. The guys earned it, and they deserved it this year.”

    The Rhinelander High School football team celebrates with the student body after winning the 91st Bell Game over Antigo 54-8 at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Sept. 26. The win was Rhinelander first over Antigo since 2021. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Other than a fumble by Leisure inside the Antigo 5-yard line on the Hodags’ first possession, Rhinelander played a nearly perfect first half of football on Friday. Rhinelander scored on each of its next five drives, while Antigo failed to record a first down and turned the ball over twice as the Hodags took a 35-0 lead to the break. 

The Hodags scored three more times in the second half and forced two more Antigo turnovers. The last resulted in a 99-yard interception return by Rowan Wiczek for the record-breaking score as the Hodags eclipsed the 52 points scored by Antigo in 1992 for the most ever in a Bell Game.

“Everything was working tonight,” Kraemer said. “Special teams was great. We had a couple interceptions, one for a touchdown. And then offensively, we just executed and did exactly what we needed to do. We didn’t even have to get out of our base sets. We just ran our stuff and played our game.”

Rhinelander forced a 3-and-out after Leisure’s fumble and scored on its very next play as Sam Zwaard took a counter in from 47 yards. Gretzinger then found a wide open Wiczek in the end zone from 23 yards away on the opening play of the second quarter to give the Hodags a 14-0 advantage. 

Gretzinger later called his own number for his first rushing touchdown of the season and then, after miscommunication on a snap led to an Antigo turnover, Ben Olson punched it in from 17 yards to make it 28-0. Leisure put the exclamation point on the first half, scoring from 35 yards away on a fourth-and-6 draw play.

Austin Sparling scored from 28 yards on the opening drive of the second half and, after Sam Zwaard returned an interception to the Antigo 1, Trenton Smits found paydirt for his first touchdown of the year. 

Rhinelander further incorporated its varsity reserves at that point, and Antigo finally found some traction, converting twice on fourth down on a 12-play drive down to the Hodag 6, but Wiczek jumped a slant route, intercepted Max Kneeland and took it all the way, making it 54-0 with 6:16 remaining. 

Kneeland found Braydon Kielman for a 37-yard score with 2:53 to play to break up the shutout. 

Antigo finished the night with 128 yards of offense — 111 of which came on its last two possessions. Kneeland threw for 118 yards and a touchdown but had three interceptions. The Robins, without two of their leading rushers — Levi Binversie and Randy Quevedo — for the contest, lost another when Seth Medo left the game in the second quarter with an upper body injury following a tackle in the backfield by Sieker. Brad Spencer led Antigo with 13 yards on six carries and, as a team the Robins rushed for just 10 yards in the contest. 

“Defensively, they got after them all night long,” Kraemer said. “Sieker had a great game tonight. We were waiting on him to have a breakout game tonight was the night for him. And the rest of the guys, I mean, it’s unbelievable.” 

Four players rushed for at least 50 yards for the Hodags, led by Leisure. Olson finished with 64 yards, Sparling had 63 and Zwaard rushed for 55.

Antigo now holds a 57-32-2 lead in the Bell Game series. 

Senior’s shining moment

    Rhinelander’s Austin Sparling carries the ball during the third quarter of the 91st Bell Game against Antigo at Mike Webster Stadium Friday, Sept. 26. Sparling scored on the play, recording his first-career varsity touchdown. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Sparling’s 28-yard score in the third quarter marked the first career varsity touchdown for the senior. Behind the Hodags’ top three rushers — Leisure, Olson and Sam Zwaard — on the depth chart, Sparling has earned a few more reps the last couple of weeks and made the most of his opportunity Friday, rushing around left end on a jet sweep for the score.

“Austin is a guy that shows up every day, and you can see the joy on his face,” Kraemer said. “You can see how much he wants to work, how much he contributes to his team. He is the team guy. I mean, he’s when he scored the touchdown … I don’t know if there was a louder cheer from our guys because they love him and he loves us. So I’m just thankful that I have the opportunity to coach him. Great young man, and the touchdown tonight is everything that he deserves.”

Trainer’s room

The Hodags hope to have dodged a major injury bullet as Leisure appeared to hurt his knee on the opening play of the second half and did not return. Leisure left the field under his own power and, though he had ice on the knee later in the second half, was standing and celebrating with his team after the game.

“In the moment, didn’t feel so good. I think wait ‘til Monday, see how we’re doing, but feeling pretty good right now,” he said afterward.

The Hodags did lose two key defensive pieces during the week of practice as linebacker Kaleb Zwaard and tackle Travis Trickey were sidelined with shoulder injuries and did not play. Their status moving forward is uncertain. However, Kraemer sounded confident regarding his team’s overall health afterward. He noted the team hopes to have Myles Eagleson (wrist) back in at least a limited capacity, potentially as early as this coming week.

“We’re going into the rest of our season with the guys that you need,” Kraemer said. “We might even get a little bit more healthy as the season, continues to go on. We’re still looking forward. Hopefully we have an opportunity to get Myles back.”

Playoff implications

Rhinelander entered the night just outside the playoff cutline — 33rd in the unofficial Division 3 computer rankings. The win certainly helped the Hodags’ case in that regard. The Hodags were further aided by Wausau East’s 31-8 victory over Medford on Friday. That result will help the Rhinelander’s strength of victory metric — the Hodags defeated East 28-14 in Week 4 — and give the team more Tier 2 points as the WIAA uses a computer-based formula to determine the playoff field for the first time this season.

It’s possible the Hodags will still need to win at least once more to get into the playoffs. Rhinelander went 3-6 and would have been the first team out in Division 3 had the playoff formula been used last season.

“It puts us in a good position to make a run to the playoffs, and that’s what we need to do for the next three weeks,” Kraemer said. “And the guys know that when we were talking about this game, it was about the game we have to win to move forward to start the roll here.”

Up next

Rhinelander travels to Mosinee this coming Friday night in Mosinee’s homecoming game. The Indians (4-2, 3-1) moved into a first-place tie in the GNC after knocking off previously unbeaten Tomahawk 21-14 on Friday. 

“We have to have another (focused week) this week and play against a really tough team. Obviously they beat Tomahawk tonight. So we’re going to have to prepare for that,” Kraemer said.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].