against the Hodags on Friday. ….
against the Hodags on Friday.
“The athletes they try to get open in space between the Jirschele and the Stoffel kid and how good Garski has been playing will be tough,” Wilson said. “We’ll have to pressure the quarterback and try to cover as well as we can. We can’t give him all day to pass back there. If we do, he’s going to pick us apart.”
When Mosinee runs, Garski and Barnes Bunkelman do most of the work. Bunkelman has just 36 attempts, but he’s averaged 7 yards on those carries.
Medford is coming off two big offensive games in wins over Hayward and Antigo, two teams that will finish in the bottom half of the GNC standings. The Raiders will need to sustain and finish drives and avoid the turnover bug that hurt them dearly in the loss to Rhinelander to pull off a win on Friday.
_ The Gilman Pirates have one more hurdle to clear before setting up a potential winner-take-all showdown with McDonell for the Central Wisconsin West crown next Friday. First, Gilman needs to take care of host Alma Center Lincoln this Friday.
The Hornets have put up some points, but they have given up a ton of them recently, having been beaten 78-38 by Phillips, 56-0 by McDonell Central and 76-52 by Bruce in their last three outings. They are 0-3 in league play and 1-5 overall, including a non-conference forfeit to Newman Catholic. Lincoln beat Marion-Tigerton 36-8 in week one for its only win.
Lincoln is the most pass-oriented team in the CWWC. Jace Paul took over the quarterbacking duties following the graduation of one of the state’s better throwers of the past few years, Jack Anderson. He was 12 of 15 for 215 yards in the opening win and threw for 239 yards and six touchdowns against Bruce. He had a huge game on Sept. 17 against the solid Phillips team Gilman just beat, throwing for 388 yards and four scores.
Defensively though, Lincoln has allowed 608 yards to Phillips, 529 yards to Bruce and 404 yards to McDonell the past three weeks.
_ The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks head west –– way west –– for their firstever Lakeland Conference meeting with the Grantsburg Pirates, who are celebrating homecoming this week.
Grantsburg is on a mid-season roll, having won three straight games, including a 40-0 win at Marathon last week and a 42-0 blowout win over Webster in conference play two weeks ago. The Pirates’ hopes for the conference championship were likely crushed on Sept. 3 with a 48-14 home loss to Hurley in the league opener.
Offensively, Grantsburg runs primarily out of spread formations, but the Pirates will occasionally bring quarterback Aaron Burkman and run some power sets. Passing is their primary way of gaining yards. Burkman has completed 52% of his passes thus far for 908 yards and 11 touchdowns. Four Pirates have caught at least 10 passes, led by Zach Miller with 25 catches for 449 yards and three scores.
Aidan Burkman is the bigger of the two running backs and had a huge game at Marathon with 172 yards and two scores on just 10 carries. Isaac Quimby is the other main backfield option and he is a receiving threat as well.
