Raiders win 3-0 in the mud to finish regular season

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

Kicked off the Raider Field turf to allow graduation preparations to begin, the Medford girls soccer team instead ended their regular season Thursday on a much different surface.

And did the Raiders have some fun with it.

Steady rain Wednesday into Thursday turned the field behind Stetsonville Elementary School into mush, but for a team that’s played in cold, snow, galeforce winds and rain this spring, the conditions they played in during their 3-0 win over Altoona-Fall Creek was just one more thing to remember about their crazy 2022 season.

“It’s fun but it’s challenging,” senior Caitlin Doyle said of playing in soft grass and mud.

“We’ve played in every possible condition there is, so I think we’re just used to anything and can play in anything at this point because we’ve played in everything,” senior Gabby Brunner said. “It’s really not that big of a deal.”

“It was a debate this morning about whether we should play,” head coach Tanya Tessmann said after the Raiders improved to 4-14-1. “We looked at the field at 1 p.m., when it was still raining. But it was the girls’ last home game. The weather itself was better than half of our other games. It was a wet field, but it is what it is. We were back to basic soccer. It kind of took them back to their younger years being able to play in the mud.”

“We make the best of it,” senior Lydia Pernsteiner said. “We always have fun in anything.”

Medford dominated possession of the ball through much of the game and outshot Altoona-Fall Creek 32-4. The Raiders put 13 shots on goal with sisters Alexis and Kayla Szydel scoring along with Sierra Tessmann.

“With the unconventional field we did a good job talking and communicating,” Pernsteiner said. “We did a good job passing the ball I thought and spreading out.”

The Raiders first got on the board at the 28:48 mark of the first half with the left-footed Brunner sending a crossing pass to Alexis Szydel, who was in possession on the opposite post for the tap-in.

They doubled their lead in the second half at the 52-minute mark with an unassisted goal from Tessmann. The sophomore connected on a well-placed lob shot, getting it over goal keeper Amelia Pederson and under the crossbar.

Mixing and matching players throughout the second half, Doyle made several runs through Altoona-Fall Creek’s defense in the game’s last 20 minutes. At 70:05, she found herself with room to work from about 15 yards out and sent a shot across the goalie box toward the left post, which the ball hit softly. Kayla Szydel, a senior, was there to clean up the rebound and put the game out of reach.

“We had eight seniors playing tonight and we wanted to let them play, especially that last half,” coach Tessmann said. “Cait Doyle was really going after a goal. We had fun switching things around, giving other people opportunities to score. Kayla did come away with one. Cait and Kayla were both hungry for goals. Cait’s shot went off the post and Kayla was there to get it in. It was nice to see Kayla get a goal in her senior year.”

With the loss, Altoona-Fall Creek finished the regular season at 1-19.

Medford, meanwhile, closed with two wins in its last three games and has played solid defensive soccer for the past few weeks. With some offensive luck, they like their chances to be competitive in the WIAA Division 3 tournament, which starts tonight, Thursday, with a 5 p.m. regional semifinal at third-seeded Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia (14-6), who beat the Raiders 3-0 back on May 6. The Raiders are the third seed in their side of the sectional. Tonight’s winner plays either seventh-seeded New London (2-11) or second-seeded Ashland (14-3-1) in a regional final Saturday.

The regional champion will play in a June 11 sectional semifinal.