goals came on a bit ….

goals came on a bit of a fluke. A corner kick simply deflected off a Raider defender and into the net for an own goal.

“That stuff happens. It’s unlucky,” Bilodeau said.

The second goal came off a direct kick from just outside the 18-yard goalie box. Goal keeper Jake Dassow made a nice play by deflecting the initial shot. The ball, however, bounced off a post and the Indians were simply quicker to the rebound with Garret Donohue getting the goal.

“We were all just standing and watching and they ran in and kicked it in,” Bilodeau said.

The conference leading scorer, Toren Holtz put in the third goal off a direct kick before the Raiders broke the shutout at about the 60-minute mark when Zach Rudolph was able to break through and put a shot on goal that was initially saved by Keaton Wieloch, but Gage Neubauer was in the right spot to punch in the rebound.

The Raiders will wrap up their regular season and try to clean up the set-play errors with four games in eight days starting with a trip to Antigo today, Thursday. Game time is 4 p.m. The Red Robins are again winless in league play, but they do have five non-conference wins, which is the most they’ve had quite some time.

Next week brings back-to-back 7 p.m. non-conference games at Raider Field against Merrill and Marshfield on Monday and Tuesday. The GNC, home and regular-season finale is Thursday, Oct. 14 against Northland Pines.

“On paper we don’t look hot, but I know we’re a top contending team,” Bilodeau said. “We just need to button up a few things and hope that we learn from these mistakes and not let them happen, but that’s kind of been the story of the year. Set plays, corner kicks, free kicks, penalty kicks –– all of the aspects of the game where they score when the ball isn’t moving or not in play. This is what’s costing us games. Our play is there. We’re playing well. We have to figure that part of it out.”

Lakeland 1, Medford 0

A well-played, defensive battle at GNC-leading Lakeland Thursday turned on one quick moment in the second half.

In a scoreless tie, a foul was called just outside the 18-yard goalie box and Lakeland was awarded a free kick. As Medford was scrambling to get in place to defend it, Lakeland’s top goal scorer, Yaroslav Myshchyshyn, alertly put the ball down, shot and scored what wound up being the game’s only goal.

“At Lakeland we actually played really well,” Bilodeau said. “They’re obviously the team to beat in the conference right now. The goal that they scored was a set play right in front of the 18, so they were about 20 yards out. We were trying to figure out who was going to be on the wall, Jake was trying to direct where the wall was going to be. Guys weren’t set and ready to go and Myshchyshyn just set the ball down and kicked it when we were not paying attention.”

At the time, Lakeland remained unbeaten and unscored upon in seven GNC games. The unscored upon streak ended in a surprising 4-4 tie with Rhinelander Tuesday. Lakeland can clinch the outright GNC title today, Thursday, with a win at Northland Pines. The T-Birds beat Medford 2-0 in the teams’ first meeting back on Sept. 2 and figure to be the top seed in the nine-team regional.

“It was a disappointing loss, but that’s our story this year,” Bilodeau said.