Gilman looks to secure outright CWWC title

WEEK 9 FOOTBALL

Believe it or not, the high school football regular season ends Friday, with one local team looking to seal a second consecutive conference championship, another looking for post-season momentum and one more just wanting to find the win column.

_ What looked like it could be a season- ending battle between unbeaten teams for a conference championship lost a little luster in some peoples’ eyes when McDonell Central lost 46-44 at Phillips last Friday. But as far as the Gilman Pirates are concerned, there is still plenty riding on this Friday’s matchup with McDonell in Chippewa Falls.

The Pirates (4-0, 7-0) remain the state’s top-ranked team and look to clinch the outright Central Wisconsin West Conference championship and solidify their post-season standing with a potential 8-0 regular-season record. The Macks (3-1, 6-1) can clinch a share of the conference title with a win and could be facing a must-win situation to get into the WIAA’s 16-team playoff field for eight-player football.

McDonell seemingly had Friday’s game with the Loggers in hand when Ben Biskupski returned a fumbled snap 96 yards for a touchdown that gave the Macks a 44-34 lead with 6:18 left. But Phillips quickly answered with a touchdown two minutes later, got a huge stop on fourth and one on its own 40 and then drove 60 yards for the winning touchdown with 37 seconds left.

After relying heavily on the legs of Tanner Opsal and, occasionally, his downfield arm strength last year, the Macks have been more balanced on offense this year. Landon Moulton and Xayvion Matthews are bigger backs who can shed tackles. Freshman Grant Smiskey has been solid at quarterback, completing 66% of his passes for 13 touchdowns and five interceptions in 108 attempts. However, he did not play in Friday’s loss to Phillips. Ethan Goulet was 11 of 16 for 103 yards and two scores in his place.

“They had the quarterback, Opsal, last year that ran a lot,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “They can’t rely on him anymore, so they are a little bit more balanced or maybe even throw a little bit more than run. They’re going to run the ball, but they also show different alignments where they’re going to throw out of those alignments. We have to prepare for different formations, people in different spots just to cover the field, but also be strong against the run. It’s a little different prep this week, but hopefully our athleticism will allow us to make some changes where hopefully we can cover the field pretty well.

“We don’t know who to expect at quarterback. It really doesn’t change their scheme at all.”

McDonell’s defense has given up points and yards to the better opponents it has faced. The 7-1 Macks survived two home games that went right down to the wire in September, beating Greenwood 32-28 on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Smiskey to Biskupski on the last play of the game and came back from a 30-14 deficit to beat Northwood-Solon Springs 36-30 on a Matthews touchdown with 1:54 left and a game-saving interception by Biskupski.

Gilman played McDonell twice last year and won both games, 44-8 and 53-14.

_ The Medford Raiders will be playing for momentum, while the Merrill Blue Jays will still be thinking playoffs when the two teams square off Friday at Jay Stadium to close the regular season.

While Medford has its playoff ticket punched with a 4-2 Great Northern Conference record, Merrill is 2-4 and is hoping to push itself into a pool of 3-4 teams that will be in the mix late Friday night to fill the 224-team WIAA playoff field.

“I’m sure they’ll be raring to go,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “With a win, they have a shot to get in. If they beat us, they get to three wins and with us having four conference wins that would put them toward the top of the tiebreakers so I’m sure they’ll be all juiced up and ready to go.”

The Blue Jays are 2-6 overall, having beaten Antigo 15-12 after trailing 12-0 at halftime in week three and Lakeland 14-12 in week seven behind an 80-yard touchdown run by quarterback Brian Ball and a late safety that broke a 12-12 tie.

Merrill was beaten Friday 42-0 by Rhinelander and has lost 13-12 to Hayward and 41-6 to Ashland in recent weeks.

“It looks like they’re trying to run the ball more,” Wilson said. They’re still in the shotgun a bunch but it looks like they’ve gone back to trying to be a more straightforward, physical football team.”

_ The Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks and Ladysmith Lumberjacks both show they are 2-4 in the Lakeland Conference, but those wins are forfeits for both teams. Friday’s winner in Rib Lake will get its first actual win on the field.

The Hawks have had a tough last two weeks with lopsided losses to Hurley and Grantsburg, while Ladysmith lost a close one, 16-8, at Webster two weeks ago and was throttled by highly-ranked Colby 62-6 last week in a game that filled Ladysmith’s forfeit week with Lake Holcombe- Cornell.

Rib Lake-Prentice won last year’s matchup 24-22, the Hawks’ last on-field win, behind 122 yards rushing from Sam Gumz, who the Hawks hope can return from an injury suffered against Hurley. Rib Lake-Prentice should get quarterback Michael Borchardt, fullback Ty Heikkinen and lineman Grant Cravaack back too after they were out last week.

Ladysmith hasn’t had great luck in establishing a run game or stopping people. But, junior running back Brady Ingersoll had a big game last year against the Hawks running for 199 yards on 26 carries. Quarterback Logan Alberson is also back from last year and completes nearly half of his passes. Grant Rydlund is a rushing and receiving threat.