Field tilts bigtime in Warriors’ favor
MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER
With the game almost entirely being played in their defensive end, the Medford Raiders were overpowered on their home turf by Rice Lake 8-0 in a Saturday girls soccer matinee.
According to Medford’s stats book, the Warriors took an incredible 71 shots, putting 38 on goal. Raider goalie Sophia Brunner did well to stop 30 of them. But Rice Lake put five in the back of the net in the first period to take command. Medford kept Rice Lake to one goal in the second half until the Warriors got a quick two-goal flurry late.
Rice Lake improved to 3-0 on the year, while the Raiders slid to 0-3.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “They’ve been a state contender for the last few years. They’re always tough.”
Five different Warriors found the back of the net with Alexi MacDonald, Kallahan Bowman and Callie Karstens all scoring twice.
While no team wants to give up eight goals, Tessmann said she was actually impressed with how many stops the defense got, considering the pressure the Warriors put on it throughout the contest.
“All things considered I thought our defense did a good job,” she said. “I thought Sophia Brunner did a really good job. She had 30 saves. She’s not afraid to dive or jump to make that save. On their first and last goals, she made the initial saves and got her hands on the first shots. Rice Lake was just able to get to the rebounds and find the net.”
The first one came just over seven minutes in when Brunner made a diving save on a tough shot by Natalie Nolin, but MacDonald charged in from the left side of Rice Lake’s formation and punched in the rebound. It stayed 1-0 over the next 12 minutes with Brunner making a couple of nice saves, a shot hitting the crossbar and others going wide or high. But Karstens started the flurry that broke the game open by burying a shot into the upper left corner at the 19-minute mark. Just under 23 minutes in, the Raiders stopped a breakaway chance for Rice Lake’s Lexi Berger, but Medford’s clearing kick went right to Jordan Roethel who drilled a long shot to make it 3-0.
The Raiders’ best chance of the half came just over 27 minutes in when Sierra Tessmann sent a pass to Gabby Brunner, who barely put the shot wide of the net.
Two Warrior shots hit posts and a third hit the crossbar and ricocheted off a Raider for a handball in the box that resulted in a successful penalty kick for Kim Fries in the 36th minute. Just 25 seconds later, Bowman carried the ball up the right sideline and hit Karstens with a beautiful crossing pass to make it 5-0.
Bowman was the recipient of a nice crossing pass from Addie Leaf to start the second-half scoring just 3:29 in. The Warriors were kept off the board for nearly 25 minutes before Bowman got her second goal at 67:56 and MacDonald got the rebound on a Bowman shot at 69:06.
The Raiders played without senior defender Caitlin Doyle, which allowed them to try some different combinations, particularly along the backline. Tessmann said she saw several positive plays in the game, including a big effort by Madison Clarkson to fight through some bodies to make a save, some good throwins by Talyn Peterson and goal kicks by Megan Schaefer and solid leadership by senior defender Kelsey Jascor. Brunner had a couple of scoring chances and Lydia Pernsteiner put a kick on goalie Faith Forsberg as well.
Rice Lake won the JV game 7-0. The Raiders’ games Thursday against Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia and Tuesday against New Richmond were postponed. The Amherst game has been rescheduled for Friday, May 6 and the New Richmond game is now set for May 20. The Raiders are scheduled to host Rhinelander tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m. in the Great Northern Conference opener, weather permitting.
“Hopefully we can have three good practices before that game since we lost a couple of games this week,” Tessmann said.
Medford is at Ashland Tuesday and at Mosinee on April 21. In another schedule change, an April 26 game at Lakeland has been moved up a day to April 25.
