NOT QUITE ENOUGH BIG PLAYS

MOSINEE 42, MEDFORD 28

Mosinee claims GNC, Cheese Grater trophies

As expected, Friday’s football championship battle was, for the most part, a showcase for the offenses with Mosinee’s turning out to be just a little bit better in a 42-28 win over the visiting Medford Raiders.

Both teams piled up more than 400 yards of total offense against defenses that came into the games playing quite well over the last month and made their fair share of big plays the entertaining contest played on the first cold Friday night of the fall.

Mosinee quarterback Gavin Obremski and tight end Davin Stoffel made a couple more of those big plays to send the Indians to 6-0 in the GNC and give them a chance to hoist the championship trophy afterwards, while Medford fell to 5-1 in league play while seeing its six-game winning streak end.

“We just didn’t make enough plays to be able to overcome some of the plays that they made,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “We got the ball down inside the 20 a couple of times there and didn’t come away with anything. Against a team that’s as explosive as they are, every opportunity that presents itself to score points, you have to score points. We struggled a little bit on third down getting off the field. They got us in a couple of those. The touchdown right at the end of the half was a little bit of a back breaker there. Instead of us scoring and being up 21-14 at the half, suddenly they are. At worst, I figured it would be 14-14 and we were getting the ball coming out of the half. While it’s not a deal breaker because it’s in the first half, it hurts to have that happen.”

The play Wilson referenced, most would agree, was the turning point in the game.

Medford’s defense got a stop late in the first half with the game tied 14-14 and, after a punt, took possession of the ball with good field position at its 42 with 1:31 left in the first half. But the Raiders also went three and out and punted, giving Mosinee the ball at its 17 with 29 seconds left. On second down, Obremski ran a simple quarterback draw up the middle, bounced it outside to the right sideline and turned it into a stunning 83-yard touchdown run with 10 seconds left that gave Mosinee a lead that Medford chased the rest of the way.

“We blitzed to the side he was going to run to,” Wilson said. “We didn’t get home on that, slash, didn’t see the run coming. But we did miss two or three tackles there when he was 10-15 yards past the line of scrimmage. That’s a killer. You have to make those tackles right there.”

Medford muffed Mosinee’s bouncing kickoff to start the second half and give the Indians the ball just 17 yards from another touchdown, but the defense came up with its biggest stand of the night, stuffing Barnes Bunkelman for no gain and then forcing three incompletions. The Raiders then steadily drove deep into Mosinee territory with the potential to retake the lead, but the drive died on downs at Mosinee’s 8 with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

The Indians then went 92 yards in nine plays to take a 28-14 lead. The drive was highlighted by a 57-yard screen pass to Wyatt Harris in a third-and-seven situation that put the ball at Medford’s 19. Two plays later, Bunkelman ran for a 15yard touchdown.

Medford’s offense did what it needed to do, scoring quickly. A 25-yard pass from Logan Baumgartner to Ty Metz sparked a three-play, 58-yard drive that ended with Baumgartner’s 29-yard burst to the right side and a two-point pass to Tucker Kraemer, who held on to the ball just long enough as he crossed the goal line and got popped by a Mosinee defender to make it 28-22 with plenty of time, 11:53, remaining.

But Obremski started Mosinee’s next drive by dropping a perfect over-theshoulder throw along the right sideline to Stoffel for 33 yards, then he scrambled for 46 yards, though the gain was reduced by 15 yards by a penalty. But the drive ended with Obremski, as Cameron Bull was tackling him, unleashing a 17-yard touchdown to Stoffel to push Mosinee’s lead to 36-22 with 9:56 left.

Obremski was 15 of 26 through the air for 321 yards, while Stoffel’s five catches went for 125 yards. Most of his catches were actually well defended.

“The coverage was excellent,” Wilson said. “We didn’t have hardly any blown coverages. We were in the area on almost everything. The Stoffel kid made two spectacular catches. They might have got us on a screen or two that maybe we could’ve done a little bit better job on there. But for the most part, I thought our kids covered well. Mosinee just made the plays when they needed to make them.”

The Raiders didn’t quit, marching 73 yards in eight plays to make it a onescore game again. They got a spectacular play of their own to end the drive as Logan Baumgartner, rolling to his left while avoiding a sack, stopped, planted and threw a beautiful pass all the way across the field that dropped over a defender and hit Kraemer in stride for a 36-yard touchdown. The two-point pass was incomplete, but Medford was within striking distance at 36-28 with 7:21 to go.

Medford’s onside kick attempt failed and Mosinee took advantage of the good field position. A debatable pass interference call aided the 51-yard drive, which ended with a 5-yard scoring pass to Keagan Jirschele with 3:13 left. Medford again threatened to make it a one-score game, but its ended at the 3-yard line when Stoffel made a diving interception in the end zone with 1:51 left to seal it.

“Effort-wise I thought our kids played hard and had a never-say-die attitude,” Wilson said. “That was all great. Stoffel made an unbelievable interception in the end zone. If we get that one in there, get an onside kick, maybe we can go down there and score and tie it up or possibly go for two points both times and win. They’re a really nice team. They’re a good team and we just didn’t make enough plays to be able to get them.”

The teams traded punts on their first possessions before Mosinee scored the game’s first points at the end of a 76-yard, seven-play drive. Stoffel made his first impact play, catching a 33-yard touchdown pass that was perfectly placed by Obremski just over the reach of Medford safety Charlie Kleist.

The Raiders had a good drive going, but penalties killed it. Jirschele, however, fumbled at the end of a punt return and Medford pounced on it at Mosinee’s 45. The Raiders turned it into a grinding 55-yard touchdown drive. The score came on fourth and inches from the 12 as the Indians sold out on the run and Braxton Weissmiller slipped out into the left flat to catch the touchdown pass from Baumgartner. Baumgartner ran in the two-point try to give Medford an 8-7 lead with 7:34 left in the second quarter.

Stoffel’s 33-yard catch sparked a quick 65-yard drive by the Indians that ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Bunkelman. Medford’s next drive died on downs at Mosinee’s 12, but Obremski’s fumble on the next play was recovered at the 4 by Raider Max Dietzman. Peyton Gilles scored on the next play to tie it at 14.

Medford finished with 427 yards of total offense. Baumgartner had a big night, going 13 of 17 for 211 yards and two scores. He also ran for 66 scores on seven carries. Gilles and Tukker Schreiner both ran for 73 yards. Penalties were a factor in the game. Medford was penalized seven times for 52 yards, while Mosinee (6-1-1 overall) was flagged just three times for 40 yards.

“We racked up 400 yards of offense, but we obviously didn’t get enough points in the barn,” Wilson said. “But I thought as a whole we played OK. Teamwise our effort was good. We were just back to making a few mistakes again that I felt were going away. They have a tendency to pop up when you play better competition.

“We were close to breaking a couple of runs,” he added. “That just goes back to that whole thing. Once you get up against better teams, the creases become smaller. The fact of getting your head on the correct side and stepping with the correct foot and taking better angles and keeping our feet going and all of those things, they really pop up when you face better teams.”

Defensively, the Raiders bottled up the speedy Jirschele, holding him to 35 yards on three catches. But they had to sacrifice some pass rushing to do it.

“(Obremski) did a great job of getting the ball out on rhythm at times,” Wilson said. “When he needed to extend plays he did. He’s a good athlete. We didn’t get to him as much as we thought we could. We knew we’d probably have to double-team Jirschele most of the game just because of his quickness and ability to get in and out of breaks. That hurt a little bit on our pass rush also when you take another guy out of the box to be able to rush the quarterback.”

Medford (6-2 overall) will look to regain momentum heading into the postseason when it hosts Antigo (1-5, 2-6) Friday at 7 p.m. at Raider Field. WIAA playoff brackets will be announced on Saturday.

Medford’s Max Dietzman and Will Haavisto let everyone know whose ball it is after Dietzman recovers a fumble by Mosinee’s Gavin Obremski at the Indians’ 4-yard line. Peyton Gilles scored on the next play to tie Friday’s game at 14-14 in the second quarter.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS