T-Birds, Blue Jays fly in for playoff openers

WIAA LEVEL 1 FOOTBALL

The WIAA football playoffs have arrived, bringing a familiar foe to Medford and an unfamiliar one to Gilman Friday for Level 1 with winners in each game likely facing daunting challenges in Level 2.

In Division 3, the Medford Raiders drew a four-seed in Saturday’s WIAA bracket reveal after a 7-2 regular season that included a 6-1 second-place finish in the Great Northern Conference and will host their GNC rival, fifth-seeded Lakeland (5-2, 5-4).

In eight-player football, Gilman drew a two-seed in the 16-team tournament and will host third-seeded Three Lakes-Phelps, who went 5-3 during the regular season including a 3-2 mark in the Northern Border Conference. The Pirates capped off a 6-2 regular season Friday with a 54-16 win over Athens that clinched a 3-2 mark in the Central Wisconsin East Conference.

Gilman’s losses were to excellent teams from Owen-Withee (8-0) and Thorp (7-1), who were ineligible for the playoffs this year.

The Medford/Lakeland winner is staring at a Level 2 trip to top-seeded Onalaska (9-0), who is ranked second in the state in Division 3 after winning the Mississippi Valley Conference and figures to have little trouble with eighth-seeded Ashland, who through the tiebreaker process became the GNC’s fifth playoff team despite going 3-4, 3-6 this fall.

The winner in Gilman likely will get top-ranked and defending WIAA champion Newman Catholic (8-0) next Friday. The Cardinals have an interesting Level 1 matchup with fourth-seeded McDonell Central (5-0 Central Wisconsin West, 6-2 overall). The Macks’ losses also were to Owen-Withee and Thorp in crossover games.

T-Birds/Raiders

The Lakeland/Medford rivalry has been one-sided over the past decade or so with the Raiders taking 11 of 12 on-field matchups since 2010. The Raiders also own a Covid forfeit from 2020.

This year’s matchup was relatively tight through one half, but Medford broke it open in the second half and won 38-14 on a rainy night in Minocqua Sept. 9.

The key takeaway from that game –– and other recent matchups with the T-Birds –– was that Medford was able to run the ball extremely well against Lakeland’s defense, gaining 457 yards and averaging 8.8 yards on its 52 attempts. Last year, Medford piled up 463 rushing yards, including a schoolrecord 352 from Aiden Gardner, in a 45-20 win at Lakeland.

Without question, Lakeland will be intent on getting that fixed coming into Friday’s game, though it will be a challenge against Medford’s experienced and sizable offensive line and blocking backs.

“They’ve definitely improved,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said Monday. “They’ve definitely gotten better. That’s what you want. You want to be playing your best football going into the playoffs. I think they are. I think they’re fairly healthy, so I think they have a lot of motivation and I think they’ll play well.”

Lakeland is dangerous because its top three skill players on offense can make plays. Running back Rocky Wagoner was second in the Great Northern Conference in rushing yards with 838 and scored 13 touchdowns in seven league games. Max Masayesva caught 25 passes during the regular season for 364 yards and three touchdowns. He returned a kickoff 81 yards for a touchdown in the loss to Medford in week four. Quarterback Brayden Wiczek is a multi-year starter, who completed 48% of his regular-season passes.

“That’s their big three,” Wilson said. “Those are their best players. They have some good complementary players in their tight end (Maccoy Holmquist) and their fullback (Leonard Chosa) has been doing a nice job the last few weeks. You have to control those big players and tackle well. That’s what we’re going to have to do, tackle well and keep our eyes where they belong. Stay disciplined and get everybody to the ball.”

The T-Birds are more of a straightahead running team this year under head coach Dan Barutha, getting away from their four-wide, spread formations of past years and it has helped them.

They’ve won five straight games since the loss to Medford put them at 0-4. Their last two wins were 21-7 at Hayward and 49-0 this past Friday over Rhinelander.

Medford’s Tukker Schreiner finished third in the GNC rushing race with 743 yards and 11 touchdowns, but his yardage came on nearly half the carries (88) that Wagoner had. Peyton Gilles was right behind him with 668 yards and eight touchdowns on 75 carries. Schreiner is just shy of 1,000 yards for the season and Gilles is over 800. Against Lakeland on Sept. 9, Schreiner broke two long scoring runs and finished with 217 yards on 20 carries. Gilles had 125 yards on just 14 carries.

“We’re going to be a run-first team,” Wilson said. That’s the identity here and I think it’s going to maintain that identity but we still have to complement with the other things.”

The pass game continues to be more than complementary this fall for Medford, a big reason why the Raiders average 43 points per game. Senior Logan Baumgartner is at 1,000 yards for the season and has 16 touchdown passes with just four picks.

In the first meeting, Medford held Lakeland to 143 total yards with the TBirds’ lone offensive touchdown drive coming after a Raider fumble deep in Lakeland territory.

“You can’t look past them since we already beat them,” Wilson said. “Obviously it’s the playoffs and you have to really focus in and try to play your best football.”

The only time the teams have met in the post season was 2008 when Lakeland won a Level 2 game 42-7.

Jays/Pirates

Friday’s game in Gilman will be the first-ever meeting between the Blue Jays and host Pirates, whether you’re talking 11-player or 8-player football.

Gilman’s defense will focus on Three Lakes-Phelps quarterback Jared Kaufman. The left-handed junior completed 55% of his passes during the regular season, according to statistics compiled on WisSports.net, for 1,541 yards and 20 touchdowns. Just five of his 153 attempts were intercepted.

Kaufman lines up in the shotgun and is counted on to make plays with his arm or legs. He’s rushed for 659 yards and 11 touchdowns.

“They just kind of put you in some bad spots with how they make plays and score points with different formations,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “Their quarterback is a very good scrambler. He has quite a few yards rushing. Some of it is by design but a lot of it is him just getting out of the pocket and just running. So he has to be accounted for on every play.”

He gets a lot of help from junior Josh Cogar, a small but quick back who has rushed for 790 yards and six touchdowns while averaging 7.4 yards per carry. The stats also show he’s caught 24 passes for 476 yards and seven more touchdowns. McCain Graff and Brandon Baumann are also key targets for Kaufman.

Rosemeyer said game film shows Three Lakes-Phelps likes to keep defenses guessing by using multiple formations, including some unbalanced looks. Gilman hopes to be able to counter by keeping the defensive calls simple and letting its athletes go make plays.

Many of the same names lead the defense for Three Lakes-Phelps, but the leading tackler is LJ Terlizi, a 6-2, 220-pound junior who fills a defensive end/outside linebacker position. He piled up double-digit tackle totals in all but two games. He had 17 against Florence. He also has three interceptions this year.

Rosemeyer said in a win over Niagara, who runs a similar offense to Gilman, the Blue Jays showed a tendency to blitz a lot, which is something the Pirates must be prepared for.

“Their blitzing can hurt you but it obviously can help you if you block it right and there aren’t many guys left to make tackles,” Rosemeyer said.

Gilman’s offense has been slowed down by only one opponent this season. That was Owen-Withee in a 30-14 loss on Sept. 23. The Pirates scored touchdowns on all seven of their possessions against Athens Friday. For them the key is eliminating penalties and turnovers, which they did Friday but didn’t do the previous week in a heartbreaking 31-30 loss at Thorp.