MEDFORD 40, LAKELAND 8 - Raiders keep rolling through GNC

MEDFORD 40, LAKELAND 8

With six touchdowns on their first six offensive possessions Friday, the outcome was never in doubt for the Medford Raiders, who rolled to a 40-8 Great Northern Conference football win at Lakeland.

Early on, the Raiders rode their ground game with Paxton Rothmeier scoring the game’s first three touchdowns. Opportunities opened up in the passing game in the second and third quarters, allowing senior quarterback Parker Lissner to throw a career-high three touchdown passes to three different receivers. He had another scoring pass in the first half wiped out by a penalty, but Rothmeier took care of that with a 39-yard score on the next play.

Passing the midway point of the regular season, Medford now sits at 4-1 overall and is the only undefeated team left in the GNC at 3-0.

“I think our execution is starting to come along fairly well,” head coach Ted Wilson said. “For the most part offensively we’re starting to have less mistakes, which is good. Obviously the other team is trying to make plays also, but you have to worry about your execution and we’re getting there. We’re making fewer mistakes than we have made in the last few games.”

Defensively, Medford knew it would need to contain Lakeland’s All-GNC running back Noah Bruckner. They did that, holding Lakeland to just 109 total rushing yards, 93 of which came on the TBirds’ fourth-quarter, running-clock scoring drive.

“I thought defensively we played really well,” Wilson said. “I think they ended up with just over 100 rushing yards but most of that was in the fourth quarter against our twos. I thought the defensive line and the front seven and (safety) Evan Wilkins played very well against their running game.”

Lakeland lost starting quarterback Deklan McQuade to an injury in practice during the week. Sophomore Brooks Lenz completed four of seven passes for just 6 yards.

Medford also got pieces of two Lakeland punts during the game to set itself up with great field position. The first of those on the game’s opening possession, creating a short 25-yard scoring drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run for Rothmeier.

Medford started its second drive on its 25 and was knocked backward by a Carmelo Roche-Vetterneck sack of Lissner. On third and 19, Rothmeier took a pitch to his left and had plenty of space behind a wall of blocking. Wilkins got one last block on the edge, Rothmeier ran by one last defender and scored from 84 yards out. Evan Paul’s two-point run made it 14-0 with 3:32 left in the first quarter.

“We do need to shore up our pass blocking a little bit more,” Wilson said. “That’s something we’re going to continue to work on and get our kids to understand our gap pass blocking scheme a little bit better. But when you go for an 84-yard touchdown run on third and 20, that’s a pretty nice swing. It was really well blocked. (Rothmeier) was going to have the first down whether their kid touched him or not when someone finally had a small angle on him. Really well blocked by the kids there. To be third and 20 and to come out of it with an 84-yard touchdown, that is a big swing in a game for everybody.”

Lakeland got one first down, but its ensuing drive stalled after that. A short punt gave Medford the ball on its 44. Again, a 12-yard loss on a sack put Medford in a down and distance hole, but Lissner’s swing pass to Rothmeier went for 32 yards. A penalty nullified Lissner’s 29-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Gierl, but Rothmeier, going to his right, left at least two would-be tacklers grasping air on a shifty touchdown run that opened up a 20-0 lead.

“He’s hard to take down in the open field,” Wilson said. “Not only has he done a much better job since midway through his junior year to finish runs and lower his shoulder pads when the time comes. But also he is capable of making people miss in the open field. He definitely showed that on that 39-yard touchdown run where he definitely made two or three kids stand still and ran away from them.”

Rothmeier now has 964 yards on just 95 carries this year after gaining 209 yards on 13 attempts Friday.

Medford went 52 yards on four plays on its next drive. Wilkins made a diving catch to haul in Lissner’s 21-yard scoring strike for a 26-0 lead with 6:45 still left in the half. Lakeland killed off the rest of the clock with its next drive, with help from two defensive penalties, but never came close to scoring.

The second half started with the Raiders going 73 yards on seven plays. On a pass similar to the score to Wilkins, Lissner led Gierl perfectly for another 21yard touchdown pass to the left side of the end zone. The second partially-blocked punt of the game led to a 12-play, 60-yard drive that was capped by Lissner’s 1-yard touchdown toss to Evan Czarnezki.

“I thought Parker threw the ball very efficiently in the opportunities that were afforded him,” Wilson said. “He did a good job throwing the ball. It’s always nice to get three touchdowns out of the passing game and complete six of eight.”

Lissner’s six completions went for 98 yards.

Medford finished with 269 rushing yards and 367 total yards. “Overall I thought good effort and it was a good team win,” Wilson said.

Medford is back at Raider Field this Friday for its homecoming game against new GNC opponent Wausau East. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.