Raiders blow out Red Robins to remain in GNC title chase

Once the Medford Raiders found the end zone for the first time Friday, they went on a two-quarter scoring spree and spoiled the homecoming festivities in Antigo with a 40-0 win over the host Red Robins.

The victory clinched Medford’s seventh straight WIAA post-season berth and, combined with Mosinee’s 14-7 win over Rhinelander, gives the Raiders a shot to gain a piece of the Great Northern Conference if they can knock off the Indians in this Friday’s homecoming game at Raider Field.

Medford, now 4-1 in the GNC and 4-3 overall, earned the lopsided win behind 444 yards of total offense, including 354 on the ground, and the defense’s first shutout of the season, which included four forced turnovers. The Raiders never punted during the game.

“Overall our execution was OK,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said of the offensive effort. “We just needed to buckle down and finish drives. Once we started doing that, the scores started coming along. Offensively, you play well if you never punt.”

The first forced turnover came early, but it also came at a critical point. Antigo opened the game with a nice drive that started at its 30 and had gotten inside Medford’s 30 when the ball was knocked away from Brady Vandeweerd and recovered by Tukker Schreiner at the 22. The Raiders countered with a drive that stalled on downs at Antigo’s 8-yard line after nine plays.

A second drive died at the 26 after starting in Antigo territory after a short punt. The third drive, however, proved to be the charm that got the Raiders going.

Medford went 70 yards in 14 plays and scored on the first of Schreiner’s three touchdowns. This one covered 5 yards. Aiden Gardner added the two-point conversion to put Medford up 8-0 The Raiders’ next possession started with a 31-yard catch and run by receiver Seth Mudgett, continued with a 24-yard run by Aiden Gardner and ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Schreiner late in the second quarter. Gardner’s twopoint run made it 16-0.

The Raiders successfully used more short passing Friday, gaining 90 yards through the air with junior quarterback Ty Metz completing six of 11 attempts.

“It was a run-pass option type thing,” Wilson said. “We had a running play called with Ty under center. If the cornerback is more than 5 yards off, he’s at liberty to throw slants to either (Mudgett or Caleb Guden). We’re just kind of letting him make some decisions there. We had that in with Logan (Baumgartner). It just took us a couple of weeks to get comfortable with Ty making the right decisions.

“I thought (Metz) did a good job there,” Wilson added. “He’s gotten better week by week. We need him to be better week by week. Hopefully we’ll be able to open that up more and use that passing game a little bit more.”

The Raiders struck early and often to put the game away in the third quarter. They quickly wiped out a holding penalty on their first possession when Gardner started to his right, sidestepped multiple tacklers and burst through a hole to his left for a 60-yard touchdown that extended the lead to 22-0 just 69 seconds into the quarter.

Max Dietzman recovered a fumble on Antigo’s next offensive snap at the 18-yard line and, one snap after Guden couldn’t haul in an on-target pass by Metz in the end zone, Alex Kraegenbrink and Riley Brandner caved in the right side of Antigo’s defensive line, Schreiner kicked out his man and Guden had wide open space on the left side to score from 15 yards out on a counter play to put Medford up 28-0 at the 9:57 mark.

“The play is actually meant to go inside a little bit more but we crushed it down pretty well and the kids adjusted,” Wilson said. “That’s something that we’ve talked about quite a bit, taking what the defense is going to give you. Sometimes if you have to bounce it out, it’s OK to bounce it as long as that’s the right read on the play. He did a good job getting to the edge and the kids did a nice job blocking there.”

Runs of 27 yards by Gardner and 13 yards from Schreiner set up Gardner’s 6-yard touchdown run that put Medford up 34-0 with 3:27 to go in the quarter. Charlie Kleist tipped a pass by Antigo quarterback Zach Zupon that Guden picked off, giving the Raiders another shot from Antigo’s 40. On third and three from the 33, Schreiner cut through a hole at the line of scrimmage, broke a tackle at the 20 and outran everyone to the right pylon to close the scoring with 10 seconds left in the quarter.

Schreiner made the most of his seven carries with 71 yards and three scores.

“He did a good job,” Wilson said. “He broke the one 33-yarder there and otherwise had a few solid carries and allaround played pretty well.”

Gardner had another big game with 195 yards on 19 carries. Mudgett caught two passes for 42 yards and Guden caught three for 35.

Antigo was limited to 115 rushing yards, including 57 yards on nine carries for Ben Beattie, and 34 passing yards.

“It’s Antigo. They’re going to do what they want to do, which is run the ball, so we needed to stop the run,” Wilson said. “We tried to play our two better tackling safeties, which ended up being Chubs Guden and Charlie Kleist, up toward the line so we had a little more run support. We were just trying to get a couple of extra guys in the box and force them to throw the ball to get first downs.”

Now, in a season that’s had some ups and downs, the Raiders have their chance to get back into first place.

“It’s what you want,” Wilson said. “First you try to make the playoffs and we’ve qualified for the playoffs now. Mosinee won a big game against Rhinelander so we have a shot here to get a piece of the conference championship. We’ll prepare, get ready to go and do everything we can to put our best foot forward.”