WIAA DIV. 3 SECTIONAL FOOTBALL - Logan Rangers will bring offensive momentum to Raider Field Friday
WIAA DIV. 3 SECTIONAL FOOTBALL
You could say the Medford Raiders made a bit of a playoff breakthrough with Friday’s 42-22 win over Fox Valley Lutheran, advancing to the third round of the WIAA Division 3 football bracket for the first time since 2019.
Winning this Friday in that third round would truly be a major moment in program history.
Just once since divisions went to 32 teams in 1996 has Medford won three playoff games and reached a state semifinal. That was in 2003 when the Raiders marched through Ellsworth, Mosinee and Waupaca before a secondhalf rally fell short against Green Bay Notre Dame in a 27-22 loss at Wausau.
Owning a number-one seed has allowed 10-1 Medford to play its first three games in the 2024 playoffs at home. The Raiders hope to use the home-field advantage one more time Friday when they host third-seeded and 9-2 La Crosse Logan at 7 p.m. in what the WIAA is now calling the sectional round of the playoffs.
Friday’s winner will meet the winner of a heavyweight sectional matchup between Notre Dame (11-0) and Grafton (10-1) in a state semifinal next week at a site to be determined.
La Crosse Logan was part of a five-way tie atop the Mississippi Valley Conference at 5-2. During the regular season, the Rangers beat Onalaska 36-35 and lost to Holmen 17-14. Conversely, Medford beat Holmen 26-13 in its season opener and lost 33-18 to Onalaska in week two before running the table in the Great Northern Conference. In its season opener, Logan needed a last-second touchdown to beat Ellsworth 22-21. Ellsworth beat GNC runner-up Mosinee 28-21 in Level 1 of Division 4. In week two, Logan pounded Wausau East of the GNC 42-13 in a game shortened by weather.
Logan left no doubt in a rematch with Onalaska this past Friday in Level 2 of the playoffs, overpowering the host Hilltoppers 42-6. The third-seeded Rangers also outscored sixth-seeded Waupaca 42-28 in Level 1.
As it should be at this time of year, Medford head coach Ted Wilson said the film on Logan shows a team that could be the best the Raiders have seen all season. It’s a team that is rolling offensively in the second half of the season, having scored more than 40 points in four of its last six games.
“They’re right up there with Holmen and Onalaska that we saw in week one and two,” Wilson said. “Mosinee was a pretty good team too. Fox Valley Lutheran is a good team. But (Logan is) probably the most physical team we’ve seen in a while. It’s going to be important for us to understand that as we go everything gets a little harder. You have to do everything a little more succinct and you have to be on your game doing things correctly. All the little things that we teach and that we do have to be done correctly. You can’t really worry about if we win the game. You have to worry about controlling the things you can control which is our kids doing things right.”
While opponents of Medford square their defensive focus on Paxton Rothmeier, the state’s leading rusher with a school-record 2,440 yards and who is also tied for third in the state with 33 rushing touchdowns, the focal point of Logan’s team is senior quarterback Bradley Check.
The 5-10, 210-pound Check is a true dual-threat quarterback, similar to Mosinee’s Treve Stoffel. What sets Check apart is that he’s not just shifty. He brings some physicality to his running game. He’s up to 1,759 yards for the season per WisSports.net statistics with 29 rushing touchdowns. He had 126 yards on 24 carries and four touchdowns in last week’s win over Onalaska. He had a season-high 301 yards on 36 carries and scored three times the previous week against Waupaca.
“The quarterback is the guy,” Wilson said, adding the Rangers will scheme to allow him to use his talents in a variety of ways. “They run a little bit of power with him, they’ll run a little bit of counter trey with him, they’ll run a little bit of blast game with him. They’ll run some rocket with their other guys. He’ll pull it out of the rocket and run it. He looks like he reads a little bit. They’ll run a little runpass option with him. All kinds of those things.”
What makes this a challenging opponent for Medford’s defense is the Raiders can’t just focus on Check. He throws the ball well too, compiling 1,221 yards and 13 touchdowns through the air. Jacob Hackbarth is a big 6-6 target who’s averaging 26 yards per catch with five touchdowns. Check’s freshman brother, Thomas Check, has a team-high 30 catches for 418 yards.
Maxim Roberts will join Bradley Check in the backfield. He’s capable as well, having gained 781 yards this year, including 188 on just 18 carries in last week’s win. After one game in the regular season with 100 yards, he’s gained 134 and 188 in the Rangers’ playoff wins.
On both the offensive and defensive lines, the Rangers possess above-average size and strength, led by two-way All-MVC senior Christian Parcher. Bradley Check is also a first-team All-MVC linebacker.
The Rangers won the field position battle against Onalaska last week, started the scoring with a safety and the defense dominated, other than one second-quarter drive. Waupaca was able to move the ball well in Level 1, running for 244 yards.
But the Rangers statistically don’t give up the points and yards Medford’s last opponent did. Logan’s opponents have averaged 19 points and, per WisSports. net, 159 rushing yards and 72 passing yards per game.
The Raiders obviously aren’t going to change who they are offensively. Wilson said it comes down to execution and taking care of the football.
“We’ll throw in a couple wrinkles in here or there that people haven’t seen,” Wilson said. “But that’s not how you’re going to win a lot of playoff games. You’re throwing in a few wrinkles to try to get a couple big plays out of it. We’ll definitely do that. But you gotta do what you can do.
“They have a lot of good players. We’re going to have our work cut out for us. But this is the nature of the beast.”
Medford and La Crosse Logan have not met on the gridiron since 2010. Medford won 15-9 in La Crosse. The previous year in Medford, the Rangers won 24-21 while filling a GNC forfeit hole left by Northland Pines that the Raiders had on their schedule.
The two schools just met in June in the 2024 WIAA Division 2 baseball sectional final with Logan winning 7-5 to qualify for state.
This is the second time Medford will have hosted three playoff games in one year. In 2015, the Raiders beat Merrill and Mosinee before falling 21-7 to New Richmond in Level 3. Medford lost to Menomonie 34-8 in Level 3 in 2019 and 20-6 to Waupaca in Level 3 in 2012.
