Hawks get tough test with Abby; Raiders, Pirates hit the road

Week four of the local high school football season gets off to an early start with a Thursday non-conference game in Rib Lake, while Medford hits the road in Great Northern Conference play and the Gilman Pirates aim to go 3-0 before they jump into their Central Wisconsin West schedule.

_ The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks have been close in two losses to start the season. They’ll face their toughest challenge so far when they host the Abbotsford Falcons tonight, Thursday, at 6 p.m.

It’s all about ground and pound with the Falcons, who have been led by Ty Falteisek, a 5-10, 180-pound senior, who’s gained 566 yards on 58 carries (9.8 yards per carry). According to WisSports.net stats, he gained 222 yards on 18 carries and scored three times in a 47-12 win over Loyal on Aug. 20 and 202 yards on 22 carries with four scores Friday in a 4212 rout of host Marathon in Abbotsford’s Marawood Conference opener.

JV Castillo has 338 yards and three scores on 46 carries for a hefty 7.3 yards per carry average.

The Falcons’ offensive line has size, much like Rib Lake-Prentice’s first opponent Kingdom Prep Lutheran, but is probably more athletic.

“They’re wearing down opponents,” Hawks’ co-head coach Jonah Campbell said. “They’re able to score with a lot of big plays leading them down the field. It’ll be a challenge to play them. I know they have a lot of athletic kids. They have a lot of pretty big kids too.”

Defensively, the Falcons haven’t allowed much, just 240 rushing yards and 252 passing yards, 130 of which came in Friday’s win at Marathon.

The matchup came together with both teams needing to fill the week-four date because teams in their respective conferences (Athens and Lake Holcombe-Cornell) moved to eight-man football this fall.

The game was moved up a day as an officiating crew couldn’t be found for the original Friday game date.

_ The Medford Raiders will look to extend the program’s Great Northern Conference winning streak when it visits Lakeland for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday.

The Thunderbirds come in at 1-2 overall, having beaten Tomahawk 21-6 in week two. They lost their GNC opener Friday 32-7 to Rhinelander, the GNC’s only 3-0 team.

It’s been two years since Medford and Lakeland met. The Raiders were credited with a GNC win over the T-Birds last fall when Lakeland had to cancel due to COVID protocols. The T-Birds still run a spread offensive scheme under head coach Dan Barutha to try to get the ball to their best athletes with room to work. They are young with only a handful of seniors listed on the roster.

“They have a nice running back (Rocky Wagoner), a young quarterback (Brayden Wiczek) and a young set of wide receivers,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They’re still running their spread system. We’ll have to make sure we’re good in coverage and make sure we know who we’re covering and if we’re in a zone, what zone we’re covering and play good run defense. I always believe you have to stop teams from running the ball and see if we can get a turnover or two. Offensively we have to take care of the ball and execute.”

Wagoner scored a 20-yard touchdown to tie Friday’s game with Rhinelander at 7-7 but the Hodags dominated from there, piling up 436 rushing yards and averaging 8.7 yards per carry.

Wagoner has rushed for 196 yards and three touchdowns in three outings, including 97 yards and two scores in the win at Tomahawk. Wiczek has already thrown 53 passes with 25 completions and three interceptions.

Counting last year’s forfeit win over Lakeland, Medford has won three straight and 10 of the last 11 in the series and owns 14 consecutive GNC wins.

_ In eight-man football, the 2-0 Gilman Pirates will make a long trip east Friday to take on 0-2 Bowler-Gresham in a 7 p.m. game at Bowler.

Bowler-Gresham allowed 38 points in the first quarters of each of their opening losses to McDonell Central (54-14) and Phillips (58-0). The team has a handful of seniors on its roster, but it is coming off a lost 2020 season, for all intents and purposes, when it only got two games in.

Quarterback Emmitt Kietlinski is a junior and a returning starter at the position. He did complete 11 of 21 passes for 110 yards against McDonell. Beau Brunner, another junior, had two touchdown