Raiders handle what Hayward throws at them, go to 5-1

MEDFORD 36, HAYWARD 7

Scoring touchdowns on their first four possessions offensively while overwhelming Hayward’s line defensively Friday, the Medford Raiders again took care of business early and rolled to a 36-7 win over the Hurricanes at Raider Field.

Paxton Rothmeier ran for four touchdowns while he and Carson Carbaugh combined for 155 yards and the Raiders passed for a season-high 137 yards. The defense hit Hayward with four tackles for losses on the Hurricanes’ first six snaps and limited them to minus-26 rushing yards due to a handful of sacks while winning their fifth straight game.

Now 5-1 overall and 4-0 in the Great Northern Conference, Medford clinched a playoff berth with the final third of the regular season still left to play.

Among the best things head coach Ted Wilson saw in Friday’s effort was Medford’s ability to make in-game adjustments as the Hurricanes did some things differently on both sides of the ball than the Raiders had seen from them on film.

“We took care of business,” Wilson said. “Honestly I don’t feel like we overly blocked that well offensively, but we made up for it with our passing game a little bit and we made up for it by getting better at what we needed to do in the second half, so that was a very positive thing. While they threw a little bit of a different defense at us than we were expecting, our kids were able to adapt to it and overcome and still have a good night running the ball, throwing the ball. Scoring 36 points is still pretty good.”

Normally a spread team offensively, Hayward played things differently Friday, going for more blocking and running out of an I-formation.

“That was a little surprising that was the route that they decided to go,” Wilson said. “I thought our kids on defense didn’t let that affect them. Most offenses are based on their plays more than their formations per se. Formations all lead to a certain set of plays. The keys of where guys are supposed to look and what they’re supposed to do pretty much stay the same whether teams are in the spread or double-tight.”

Medford’s first tackle for loss, shared by Carbaugh and Cory Lindahl for a second-down 8-yard loss on a jet sweep to Xzavier Stojek, combined with a short punt set up the Raiders’ first early score. The 43-yard, eight-play drive ended with Rothmeier’s 6-yard run and two-point conversion for a quick 8-0 lead 5:06 into the game.

The next Hayward possession may have offered insight as to why the Hurricanes thought twice about passing the ball from the spread. Cameron Bull first dropped Brock Chucka for a 7-yard loss on an outside pitch, then Max Dietzman sacked quarterback Alex Depew for a 14yard loss and Lindahl sacked him for a 10-yard loss to create fourth and 41 from the 10. After the punt, Medford went just 37 yards on seven plays to score again, this time on a 2-yard run by Rothmeier, for a 14-0 lead with 1:56 left in the first quarter.

“I thought the front seven played very well,” Wilson said of the defense. “Max Dietzman had a bunch of nice sacks. Cameron played really well on the edge. He had a couple tackles where it looked like maybe he was going to give up the edge and he didn’t. Our linebackers flowed and filled well.”

Medford opened up its offense in the second quarter, using an effective passing game to supplement the running attack. After a punt pinned Medford on its 17 to start the quarter, Hank Crass hit Rothmeier for 23 yards on a quick pass to the right side. Parker Lissner connected with Bull for 17 yards to set up a first down at Hayward’s 25 and Crass hit Charlie Gierl on a slant from the left side for an 11-yard touchdown that made it 20-0 with 7:25 left in the quarter.

After Medford got a fourth-down stop at its 36, aided by another sack from Dietzman, Crass hit Carbaugh for 9 yards and Lissner dropped a dime over the middle to Bull for 33 yards. Lissner hit Rothmeier for 8 more during a 64-yard drive that ended with Rothmeier’s 3-yard scoring run with 22 seconds left in the half. Lissner hit Carbaugh with the two-point pass for a 28-0 halftime lead.

Medford’s quarterbacks were a combined nine for 11 for 137 yards.

“I thought Hank and Parker executed the passing game that we have available to us very well,” Wilson said. They only missed two throws. As a team we were nine for 11, over 100 yards and a touchdown. That is the style of passing game that we expected to have this year and it’s nice to see it start to come about.”

The Raiders did not score on their first two drives of the second half with two sacks killing the first possession and a fumble inside Hayward’s five ending the next one. But, after Dietzman and Lindahl nearly had a combined sack on new quarterback Keegan Walsh for a safety –– the officials let a potential intentional grounding penalty from the end zone slide –– a 21-yard punt return by Carbaugh gave Medford just 15 yards to go for its fifth touchdown. Carbaugh’s 11yard run set up Rothmeier’s 1-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Hayward took 10 minutes off the running clock and scored its touchdown against Medford’s defensive reserves with 1:25 left on a 16-yard pass from Walsh to Micah Bacon. It came on third and long after a Charlie Gierl sack.

Rothmeier ran for 80 yards on 14 carries and Carbaugh gained 75 yards on 13 carries. Crass was six of seven through the air for 80 yards, while Lissner was three of four for 57.

“People pack the box one of two ways,” Wilson said. “They either try to pack everybody in between the tackles to stop us from running inside or they put lots of people outside the tackles to try to stop us from running outside. Neither of those should stop us. But you do have to adjust. If a kid lines up in a spot that our kids need some time to try to figure it out and adjust and coaches need to see it and try to get them to adjust.

“There’s a process of feeling out when you play the style of offense that we play that nobody else really plays in our conference,” he added. “People throw stuff at us to where you won’t have seen stuff like that from them all year. All of a sudden they’ll try to do it to us. We did end up adjusting and things got better as the game went on.”

Hodags are next

This Friday, Medford is back on the road to face rival Rhinelander at Mike Webster Stadium at 7 p.m.

Head coach Aaron Kraemer’s crew got off to a 4-0 start, but the Hodags have come to an offensive standstill the last three weeks, starting with a 13-7 win over Hayward and then gaining just 66 yards and three first downs in a 24-0 home loss to Antigo and gaining just 59 total yards in a 42-0 loss at GNC co-leader Mosinee this past Friday.

“They’ve switched offenses a little bit going to what (Kraemer) is calling the pistol Wing-T so a lot of pulling guards, a lot of trapping, a lot of sweeps,” Wilson said. “They’re running a little bit of option out of it and they’re throwing a lot of the waggles and bootlegs that Wing-T teams are known for. We’re going to have to make sure our eye discipline is correct and where it belongs. When two guards pull the other way and you let that rocket motion influence you that’s a bad thing. Those are things we have to make sure we’re disciplined about and read the keys we’re supposed to.

“Also, they really try to hide the ball and fake it well so our defensive backs really have to make sure they are doing the same thing. We can’t let some of that window dressing mess them up. They have to make sure their eyes stay where they belong.”

James Heck is Rhinelander’s leading rusher with 308 yards through six games. Owen Kurtz had 207 yards through five games and did not play at Mosinee due to injury. Quarterback Truman Lamers has completed 33 of 71 passes for 466 yards and four touchdowns with seven interceptions.

Parker Lissner looks for an open receiver during an unsuccessful two-point conversion attempt Friday.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS