Raiders win another shootout to advance from regional semifinal

WIAA DIV. 3 SOCCER REGIONAL SEMIFINAL

Penalty kick shootouts have become a WIAA soccer tournament trend for the Medford Raiders, which may be fraying their fans’ nerves, but they’re also situations the Raiders are starting to thrive in.

Fifty-one weeks after they won a sectional championship shootout on Raider Field’s west end over Rice Lake, the Raiders found themselves locked in a shootout with rival Rhinelander at same end of the field in Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal. The teams finished 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime play in a 1-1 deadlock.

The initial five-round shootout extended to the seventh round when foreign exchange student Gerardo Estrada Rodriguez put in the go-ahead goal and junior goal keeper Jake Dassow rejected the final shot by Hodag Will Quinn to give the Raiders the 5-4 shootout win and a spot in Saturday’s regional final at topseeded Lakeland, which they lost 2-1.

“I honestly believe it’s all about who can remain calm under pressure,” Medford head coach Nathan Bilodeau said. “Like I tell these boys all the time, it’s accuracy and then power. There were shots tonight that they scored on that weren’t very powerful, but they were dang accurate.”

“We’ve been through it more than once,” senior defender Sam Blair said. “There’s nerves going into it, of course, but we go into it knowing we’re going to win. We’re confident.”

“We have our guys and we pick them out,” senior wing Quinton Tlusty said. “We really don’t even practice them. We just go out there composed, pick a side and stay there.”

“It’s about confidence and composure,” senior wing Kale Klussendorf said.

While the Raiders were confident in their scoring ability in the shootout, it also takes at least one save from your goal keeper to win one and the Raiders got three big ones out of Dassow, including two in a row at the end of it.

Dassow noted this was the second shootout he’s been involved with as a keeper with the first one being with Medford’s club team this past summer in a tournament championship game in Appleton. Medford also won that one.

“There were way more nerves in this one,” Dassow said. “You have to pick one side. You kinda look at their body language, see what they’re doing. That’s about it. It’s a guessing game.”

Rhinelander won the coin toss and shot second in each round. The best of five ended in a 4-4 tie. Aaron Schield pulled his shot wide left, while Hodag Shane Petrick was good going right in round one. Tlusty buried his shot to the left, while Rhinelander’s Tucker Fredrickson had a tough break in round two. Dassow dove low to his right, while Fredrickson took a chance and aimed high. The net was wide open for Fredrickson, but this shot was denied by the crossbar, tying the shootout at 1-1.

Raider Zach Rudolph went right down the middle, guessing right that Hodag keeper Gavin Osterman would dive one way or the other, but Rhinelander’s Charlie Heck guessed right as well, going to his right, while Dassow dove the other way. Gage Neubauer went to his right and scored in round four, while Braden Mork did the same for Rhinelander.

Klussendorf led off the fifth round by tucking his shot inside the right post. Hodag Mason Shinners also went right with Dassow getting an arm on it, but he was unable to stop it enough.

From that point on, it was sudden death. Gabe Felix’s miss to the left gave Rhinelander’s Kyle Wiese a shot to win it, but he missed the upper right corner.

Medford then sent Estrada Rodriguez to kick in round seven.

“I was very confident actually,” Estrada Rodriguez said. “I’ve always taken those kicks in Mexico.”

That confidence showed as he calmly banged his shot off the left post and in.

“The guys were really excited,” Bilodeau said. “Gerry brings a lot of positivity and a lot of intensity to the game. He’s our foreign exchange student. He shares a soccer background but a completely different version of soccer. So it’s really cool to play with Gerry. He’s an asset to our team. The boys really like playing with him because he’s so knowledgable. He understands how the game plays. He’s got a great shot for the penalty kicks.”

That left it up to Quinn and Dassow. Quinn went right and Dassow got both arms on it, giving the shot no chance.

“I was always going (to my right) and I was thinking they have to shoot one (left),” Dassow said.

“I couldn’t be more proud of Jake,” Bilodeau said. “I think he got his hand on three of those PKs. The last one, if he saves it, we win and he did. He came through clutch for us and just made a great save. That was a pretty cool moment.”

“Jake’s a great keeper,” Estrada Rodriguez said. “I knew he was going to save that one.”

“I told (Dassow) I think he had a really great game and Sam Blair also really stepped up,” Bilodeau said. “As a leader, as a captain he really vocally stepped up and was supportive of the team and directing traffic out there. But then physically he just played well. He didn’t allow goals to happen easily.”

Dassow also had a great save as time expired in regulation, getting a hand at the crossbar to deflect a knuckling 35yard free kick by Petrick. That capped 80 minutes of soccer that featured lots of end-to-end play and scoring chances, yet each team only converted on one.

“That’s Medford versus Rhinelander,” Bilodeau said. “That’s the rivalry. There are just teams in the conference that have a rivalry. Medford and Rhinelander, that’s how it is for soccer. They’re always a great team. We’re always a close matchup and I think tonight showcased that. It was back and forth and both teams had plenty of scoring chances. Both teams played great. I felt like they won the first half and we won the second half. The overtime felt really cautious by both teams. Nobody really wanted to stick their neck out there.”

That, according to Medford’s seniors, might have been by design.

“I think in a way we were almost try- ing to get to PKs,” Tlusty said.

Rhinelander’s goal came 18:22 into the first half. A communication breakdown between Dassow and defender Brayden Machon resulted in Dassow coming out of his box and Shinners basically getting an open net to shoot at from 20 yards.

That wound up being the only goal of the first half.

“We weren’t happy going down one in the beginning, but we didn’t drop our heads at all,” Blair said. “We knew we were going to come back. We weren’t losing this game.”

Medford’s play was noticeably sharper to start the second half and it didn’t take long for the Raiders to even the score. At 44:31, Neubauer sent a long pass along the right sidelines to Tlusty, who beat defender Matthew King to it and drew a penalty in the box. Tlusty went low left corner to tie it.

“That was a great ball to me,” Tlusty said. “I was just a little faster than the guy. I got the ball out in front of me and he just kind of hit me in the back and I just fell.”

“I knew when I played it, I was like Q’s either going to score on this or we’re going to have a PK,” Neubauer said. “I was like, it’s one or the other. This is going to end up good either way.

“We got our goal and I think we really just put the foot on the gas in the last 20 minutes that we had there,” Neubauer added. “We knew that even if we had to go into PKs, we’d win.”

Medford won last year’s sectional final shootout with Rice Lake 6-5 in nine rounds and lost a regional final shootout with Fox Valley Lutheran, also on Raider Field’s west end, in 2019.

Medford’s Jake Dassow makes the clinching save on Rhinelander’s Will Quinn that seals the Raiders shootout win in Thursday’s WIAA Div. 3 regional semifi nal.

Raider Quinton Tlusty drives home a second-half penalty kick that ties Thursday’s WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal with Rhinelander at 1-1.