After beating Antigo, back of net eludes Raiders in loss, tie

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

The Medford Raiders have put an emphasis on offense recently and it’s showing in the higher numbers of shots. But, so far this week, those shots aren’t getting past opposing goal tenders.

On Tuesday, Northland Pines handed Medford its second shutout in two days in a 3-0 decision played in Eagle River. The Eagles scored twice in a two-minute span more than halfway through the first half to take control and tacked on another in the 70th minute to put it away.

The loss put Medford at 2-3 in the Great Northern Conference and 2-7-1 overall as the Raiders hit the halfway point of their regular season as five GNC games and five non-conference games remain on the schedule.

Medford put six of 10 shots on goal, but all were stopped by the Eagles’ goalie. According to head coach Tanya Tessmann, Lydia Pernsteiner put three of her four shots on goal, Sierra Tessmann put both of her shots on goal and Kayla Szydel got one on goal. Emma Eckert, Gabby Brunner and Maddie Williams added shots.

Northland Pines put 11 shots on goal with Medford’s Sophia Brunner stopping eight. The Eagles’ first goal, which came in the 28th minute, was recorded as an own goal. Brunner made the initial save on the play, but after bouncing off her hands the ball had some back spin on it and rolled over the goal line. About two minutes later, the Eagles scored off a rebound on a corner kick.

“In the second half we had four corner kicks and Sierra Tessmann had great placement on hers. One of them made contact with a defender and was so hard it went right to the goalie who was at the opposite post.”

Tessmann noted that another of her junior’s corner kicks appeared to have possibly gone into the net but the officials did not agree.

“Pines was good at keeping the ball at their feet and with going to the ball,” Tessmann said. “We’re working on keeping our passes down on the ground.”

Northland Pines collected its first GNC win and improved to 1-3 in league play and 2-5 overall.

Medford steps out of the GNC for its next two games, hosting Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia Friday in the make-up date of an early-season postponement and then going to Wausau West Monday for a 5 p.m. start. Medford starts round two of conference play at first-place Rhinelander Tuesday. The Hodags have won 10 straight games. Medford hosts Mosinee on May 12 at 7 p.m.

Waupaca 0, Medford 0

said.

“That was fun for the players just to get that experience,” she said.

Medford dominated the possession and shot statistics Monday, but the Raiders never found the back of the net and settled for a 0-0 non-conference tie with Waupaca at Raider Field.

“In the Antigo game (Thursday), we had a lot of shots but not as many of them were on target as we would’ve liked,” Tessmann said. “That’s what we’ve been working on, getting shots on target. We dominated most of the game, but we just couldn’t get one of those to go in.”

Medford held the Comets to one shot on goal in the first half and three in the second half. Sophia Brunner stopped all four. Medford put 10 of its 22 shots on the Comets’ goal keeper. Lydia put six of 10 on net. Gabby Brunner put two of three on net. Kayla Szydel, Emma Eckert, Nikki Poetzl, Megan Schaefer, Tessmann and Alexis Szydel were among the Raiders who had good scoring opportunities.

The Raiders had eight corner kicks compared to Waupaca’s one.

“One thing Waupaca did a really good job of was catching us offsides,” Tessmann said. “They pushed up and caught us. A few times it seemed like we were just inches offside.”

The teams did hold an unofficial justfor- fun shootout afterwards which Medford won in three rounds, Tessmann

Medford 4, Antigo 1

With nine players being honored on Senior Night Thursday, the Raiders got three first-half goals and coasted to a 4-1 win over winless Antigo at Raider Field.

One of those seniors, Pernsteiner, got the last two goals and led the Raiders with 17 shots in, by far, their most offensive- minded game of the season. Junior Sierra Tessmann connected on the first two goals as the Raiders set an early tone while collecting their second win of the spring in GNC play and overall.

“We had good communication and we had some pretty good passing,” Pernsteiner said after the win. “I liked how we were going toward the ball more. We had more ambition toward that. It was a fun game.”

“We had nine different players take shots, so we finally had a game where we were getting shots off,” Tanya Tessmann said. “We just have to get them on goal. There were enough that were close.”

Sierra Tessmann got the first goal 7:49 into the game. She was the first one to get to a goal kick and lobbed a shot from 20 yards out that floated over goalie Emma Lenzner and under the crossbar. That came not long after she had hit the crossbar on a similar shot.

Playing with another stiff easterly breeze at their backs, the Raiders kept the ball in their west offensive end of the field for most of the half. On Tessmann’s second goal, which came at the 27:59 mark, Pernsteiner won control again off a corner kick and centered the ball to Alexis Szydel in front of the net. The ball caromed backward to Tessmann who perfectly connected on a high bounce and tucked the ball inside the left post.

At 37:59, wing Gabby Brunner stole the ball from a Red Robin in the left corner. She centered it to Pernsteiner, whose first attempt was deflected by Lenzner, but she got her foot on the rebound and tapped it in.

“I didn’t expect it,” Pernsteiner said. “Gabby crossed it over to me and I just tried to get a foot in there and it went in thankfully. The goalie hit it and I just got one last kick on it.”

Pernsteiner worked alone on the final goal at 69:15. She intercepted a goal kick and weaved her way through a trio of Red Robins and buried a low shot to make it 4-0 late in a low-scoring second half where the Raiders mixed and matchup the players on the field, making sure the seniors got their deserved time on the field and working three JV players in for a few minutes after they did not have a game in the afternoon.

“It was Senior Night,” coach Tessmann said. “We got all of our seniors more playing time. We had three JV players play up, so we got them some playing time. We wanted to give them an opportunity to see what it’s like to play varsity. It was nice to give others more playing time.”

“We have a lot of pretty new seniors, whether it’s their first or second year and it’s nice to have those girls,” Pernsteiner said. “We have a really good team dynamic.

We do have a pretty young team, which is good for the upcoming years. It’s cool to see us build and work together and figure it out. We have room for improvement, we have things to do, but it’s going to be good.”

Antigo, who fell to 0-3 in the GNC and 0-6 overall at the time, got its first goal of the season with 6:58 left when Jesse Hernandez pushed a pass to Margo Kelly for a breakaway chance. She hooked a 12-yard shot from a tough angle between goalie Sophia Brunner and the right post. Brunner had two saves. Antigo put three of eight shots on goal.

“We worked this past week on wanting to look before we pass,” Tessmann said. “We were improved on that tonight, but there’s still room for improvement there. We want to look to our wings more. We have to use Gabby outside, along with Maddie (Williams) and Kayla (Szydel).