ONE FOR THE WIN COLUMN

MEDFORD 30, ASHLAND 14

Raiders pull together, pull away for first win

Unlike the past two regular seasons, nothing has come easily for the Medford Raiders one-third of the way through the 2021 football season.

But they are hoping Friday’s 30-14 win over Ashland gets them back on the right track as they dig into Great Northern Conference competition.

The Raiders were hit with injury adversity during the week and during the game, and they got off to a shaky start, falling behind 8-0, but a big special teams play changed the momentum and Medford controlled the last twoplus quarters to notch the season’s first W on a cool, misty night at Raider Field.

“It’s nice to get a win,” head coach Ted Wilson said. “Winning helps cure some ills. We still have a lot of things that we have to clear up and clean up and keep moving forward. But it’s always nice to be able to feel good for the weekend that you got a win.”

Medford had a modest 260 yards of total offense –– equaling Ashland’s total –– but 182 of those came on the ground in the second half as some of the holes that weren’t there in the first two and a half games started to show up for Aiden Gardner, who ran for 179 yards on 29 carries, and Tukker Schreiner, who added 56 yards on nine carries.

“Our lead blocking is doing great. I’m just not seeing what I used to see last year,” Gardner said after the win. “But tonight, this was just momentum. Going forward after this game, the line is going to get more confidence, our lead blockers and me especially, we’re going to get more confidence and I think we’re going to run the ball a lot harder and better.”

“I think we started wearing them down a little bit,” Wilson said. “Part of our issue in the first half was just some missed blocks, running by blocks again, so we have to get that cleaned up yet and be able to move forward. We have plays that are real close to being there. It’s just a matter of everybody doing their job at the right time and the same time.”

Just as the Raiders started building momentum and took the lead right before halftime, they lost junior receiver/ defensive back Cole Dassow to a serious leg injury on the ensuing kickoff. While that created some somber moments on the sideline, the Raiders, who found out earlier in the week they will be without quarterback Logan Baumgartner for the foreseeable future, didn’t let the energy die in the second half.

“We wanted the first win bad. When Cole went down we wanted it even more, do it for him.” Charlie Kleist said. “That was sad for him. We hope for a speedy recovery. That really pushed us to get the win.”

“It’s a good experience in life,” Wilson said, adding the family had informed him the surgery on Dassow’s broken leg went as well as could be expected. “Sometimes kids get hurt and we have to learn to focus in and keep moving forward while also maintaining them as part of the team and showing that we care about them and what’s best for them.”

Kleist scored Medford’s first touchdown on the play that shifted the momentum. Ashland took an 8-0 lead with 10:09 left in the second quarter when Marcus Kruzan jumped over a well-positioned Seth Mudgett and hauled in a 28-yard touchdown pass from Kade Jolma. Kruzan also caught the two-point pass that Jolma salvaged off a bad snap on the extra-point kick attempt. The Oredockers stopped Medford and forced a punt, which Caleb Guden drilled 53 yards to pin Ashland on its 12.

Ashland had to punt after gaining one first down. Cody Lustig dropped the snap, giving Peyton Gilles time to get into the backfield and drill him just as he was trying to get the kick off. Kleist scooped up the loose ball and waltzed 18 yards into the end zone. Gardner’s twopoint run tied the game with 4:56 left in the half.

“The play was designed for my friend Gilbert to block it and it didn’t really matter who scooped it and scored it,” Kleist said. “We just wanted good field position and we got a touchdown out of it.”

“In the last five or six years we’ve decided to get more aggressive to try to block punts and see if we can’t get something big out of that,” Wilson said. “We’ve scouted that and planned for it. Of course their guy fumbled the snap a little bit, but Peyton Gilles did a good job to tackle him and not let him get it off and Charlie did an excellent job to get the scoop and score. It’s always nice to have big plays like that.”

Two plays later, Jolma fumbled a snap and Guden recovered on Ashland’s 38. The Raiders turned that opportunity into the go-ahead points. On fourth and one from the 19, junior Ty Metz got his first opportunity to throw, and a play-action fake got tight end Brigham Kelley wide open for an easy score and 14-8 lead with 1:03 left in the half.

“We run the ball a lot on short yardage, so we just thought it was that time after three weeks if that happened that we could throw over the top of them and it worked out for us,” Wilson said.

Another key special teams play set the tone for the second half. Gardner’s 43-yard punt return put Medford on the Ashland 41. Schreiner rumbled for 27 yards on the first play of the drive and Gardner ran through a couple of tacklers to score from 14 yards out on the second play. Guden’s two-point run made it 22-8.

Ashland got out of a third-and-long hole on a 24-yard completion to Lustig and running back Parker Goodreau went 56 yards on the next snap to set up Goodreau’s 6-yard touchdown run that pulled the Oredockers within 22-14.

Medford had a long drive end at the one when Gardner’s halfback option pass was picked off. But after a short punt gave Medford the ball back at the 30, Gardner capped a short four-play drive with a 6-yard touchdown and two-point conversion with 3:23 left.

Medford had 233 rushing yards, 182 of which came after halftime. Ashland had 162 rushing yards, including 99 from Goodreau on 15 carries, and 98 passing yards as Jolma was seven of 22.

“I think we learned pretty well,” Wilson said of Medford’s defensive effort. “They got the early pass play. They trapped us early a little bit so we need to get a little better defending that. I think as we went we got better at doing things. We’re going to really have to work on how to stop trap because Lakeland traps and Rhinelander traps. There’s a bunch of trap coming yet. It’s good for us to see it and keep working toward getting better at it.”

“They had a good rocket jet sweep play that we scouted for all week,” Kleist said. “We did pretty good against that. We knew they’d throw the ball around a little bit in spread, which they did. I think we handled that OK.”

Medford is at Lakeland this Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff against the T-Birds, who lost 32-7 to undefeated Rhinelander in their GNC opener.