TWO REPEAT TOURNAMENT TITLES

MEDFORD CLUB SOCCER’S SUMMER SUCCESS

Club team builds fall momentum in summer tourneys

The Medford Youth Soccer Association’s high school club team capped a second straight highly-successful summer with repeat championships in tournaments played in Stevens Point and Appleton.

Medford also was a finalist in Eau Claire and a semifinalist in Wausau during its spring/summer run of 2022.

“Overall the lads had a very good summer,” coach Chris Reardon said. “We won tough games playing attractive soccer, but we also won tough games by scrapping it out which shows a lot of character. In my mind this is the most technical team we have ever had at Medford. All players are comfortable with the ball and we have the ability to work the ball from defense to attack. We have a good mix of technical skill, tactical knowledge and a real toughness that I have never seen before. With a team of mostly seniors in the fall who have played together for four years in high school, I believe this could be a very special fall in Medford.”

In their final tournament, the Summer Shootout 2022 Kickin For A Cure event in Appleton June 24-26, Medford’s boys made the 18U championship bracket by winning Pool A. They beat the Eau Claire Timbers 1-0 and then tied the Wisconsin United Football Club 2004 team from the Fox Cities 0-0. Eau Claire and Wisconsin United tied 1-1 in their game, meaning Medford’s 1-0-1 record was the best in the pool.

The offense busted out in the semifinals as Medford beat the Fox Cities U18 squad 3-0. Medford ended the Marshfi eld Inferno 1-0 in the championship, completing a four-game run where the team was not scored upon.

“Jake Dassow kept 10 clean sheets throughout the summer and made some great match-winning saves,” Reardon said of the team’s goalie. “Our back four, Nick Kowalski, Mason Gripentrog, Caden Tessmann and Vince Seidel, and supporting defenders Braeden Long and Spencer Rau, all performed excellently. They worked together really well against some top quality attacking teams and gave them very little to work with. Mason and Caden really held the middle together and Vince and Nick were always menacing with their attacking runs forward. Vince even grabbed goals and assists this year.”

The previous weekend, Medford went 4-0 to win the U18/U19 Division of the Portage County Youth Soccer Stevens Point Classic.

Medford opened on the morning of June 18 with a 1-0 win over the Hartford United Soccer Club’s U19 Gray squad and then routed the Wisconsin Rapids Kickers U18 team 4-0 to advance to Sunday’s championship bracket.

The offense kept rolling, outscoring the Portage County Youth Soccer team 3-0 in the semifinal and getting a 2-1 win over the Marathon County United U18B squad in the championship.

“Zach ‘Fresh’ Rudolph has taken a new role,” Reardon said. “He averaged a goal a game with 15 goals this summer. Not only is Fresh our captain and a great leader, he was also able to keep his cool and score some crucial goals this summer in a lot of tight games against quality teams.”

Reardon said Rudolph got plenty of help from the rest of the team’s attackers and midfielders.

“The midfield was commanded by Silas Wipf, who is our box-to-box midfi elder,” Reardon said. “Silas is relentless with his energy getting up and down the pitch for 90 minutes and has great technical ability on the ball. Yonathan ‘Jimmy’ Murillo who was our anchor in midfield. Jimmy is a real scrapper in the middle of the pitch. He does all the dirty work, but it’s very important work. Gerardo ‘Gerry’ Estrada, who went back to Mexico last week, will be missed in the fall. His creativity and movement in the final third was brilliant all summer. “Aaron Schield only played in the final two tournaments because of injury, but he made an immediate impact in the right midfi eld position,” he added. “Schield, like no other player, has the vision and range of passing to unlock any defense and he can stick one in the back of the net too. Adyn Gripentrog was magnificent all season scoring goals and assisting, and I’m sure he puts glue on his boots as his ability to bring down high balls is insane. Aidan Ball, Mike Meyers, Dom Fennell and Gage Ingersoll were also great contributors this summer all showing they have the potential to do awesome things this fall.”

Medford went 2-2 to place second in the Boys High School Red competition at the Eau Claire United Invitational June 10-12. In pool play, Medford had no trouble with the CRU/NLS U17 Gold squad from Andover, Minn., winning 4-0, but the boys got knocked off 2-0 by New Richmond’s U19 team. The second- place finish in the pool still put Medford in the championship bracket, where it knocked off the other pool champion, the Eau Claire Timbers, 2-0, to advance to the title game. There, New Richmond got them again in another 2-0 game to win the championship.

Medford opened the season at the May 13-15 Mountain Bay Cup in Wausau. A 1-1 record in pool play put Medford in the semifinals. The team beat the Marquette, Mich. United U18 team 3-1 in its first game and tied the Wisconsin United Fox Cities 2004 Select team 0-0. In the semifinals, Medford lost 2-0 to Marathon County United U19B, who went on to fall 3-1 in the championship to Marathon County United Invictus.