Tigers pounce on Raiders early, roll to 20-point win in opener

NEW RICHMOND 44, MEDFORD 24

The Medford Raiders trailed one offensive play into the game and, other than a promising first drive that stalled in the red zone, didn’t put much pressure on a solid New Richmond squad in a 4424 loss to the visiting Tigers in Friday’s football season opener.

The Tigers scored touchdowns on five of their seven first-half possessions and got a 27-yard field goal from Bjorn Bahneman to start the second half and put the running clock into effect with a 37-0 lead before the Raiders did some damage against New Richmond’s defensive reserves, scoring on their last three possessions.

“They’re an extremely athletic, wellcoached team,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They gave us fits from the start in our defensive backfield trying to stay with them, stay on them, break down and make tackles on them. They’re really well-coached. They have a lot of kids and don’t have a lot of kids playing both ways so, when you have kids only playing one way, you get even more reps at your positions and it’s easier to be more prepared for week one when you can play ones on ones and get a little more competition in practice.

“You can tell that they’ve transitioned well into the Big Rivers Conference and the fact that they’re going to be in Division 2 for the foreseeable future. They’re a nice Division 2 program.”

As for his team that entered the year with little varsity experience, Wilson said there was plenty to learn from in game one during Sunday’s film session.

“We’re really not that far away from being a pretty decent team,” he said. “It’s things like block a little longer, move our feet a little better. One of our biggest issues was communication. We saw that on defense and on the offensive line. So we really need to start narrowing down our communication. That’s something with having young kids or kids that don’t have a ton of varsity experience that they have to learn. It’s really OK to talk to each other and point to the guy you’re going to cover or block or whatever. You’re not keeping secrets from the other team.”

The inexperience showed immediately when Medford mistakenly chose to kick off rather than defer after winning the coin toss, giving New Richmond the chance to receive the kickoffs to both halves. The Tigers went right to work against Medford’s completely new defensive backfield when quarterback Reis Hidde looked to his left and hit Catcher Langeness with a slant pass. Langeness did the rest, outrunning the Raiders for a 65-yard touchdown that made it 7-0 just 16 seconds into the game.

The Raiders tried to respond, using two rushing first downs, a 13-yard completion from Hank Crass to Evan Wilkins and a facemask penalty on the Tigers to get to New Richmond’s 17 before the drive stalled on downs. Unfortunately, the Raiders only got two more first downs in the half. The defense got a stop and then had a chance to get another one, but a Tiger fumble eluded a trio of Raiders and was recovered by New Richmond lineman Connor Castro. Two plays later, on fourth and five, Hidde hit George Schroeder in the back of the end zone for a 21-yard score with 1:03 left in the first quarter that made it 14-0. The teams traded punts, then New Richmond went on a fiveplay, 61-yard scoring drive that ended with Schroeder’s 36-yard touchdown on Hidde’s third touchdown pass of the half. New Richmond stuffed Medford’s Evan Wilkins for no gain on fourth and one, leading to a short 39-yard scoring drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Miles Burke. Abraham Monson intercepted a throwback pass by Raider Carson Carbaugh at the 12-yard line and Hidde ran it in on the next play to make it 34-0 with 1:04 left in the half. Charlie Gierl’s 27-yard kickoff return to the 50 set the Raiders up for their first score of the season. Gierl’s 17-yard run was the big play in a seven-play drive that ended with Braxton Weissmiller’s 2-yard touchdown run and Paxton Rothmeier’s twopoint conversion run with 3:16 left in the third. New Richmond’s starting offense added one more score on a 19-yard run by Joe Hoeppner with 8:56 left. Gierl got another big kickoff return of 33 yards to put the ball at New Richmond’s 45. Two plays later, Wilkins bounced out the left side for a 36-yard score. He also caught the two-point pass from Crass. Gierl’s 23-yard run set up Carbaugh’s 18yard touchdown run with 1:01 left. Crass added the two-point run.

“You definitely want, even if it’s against their JV team, to be able to move the ball,” Wilson said. “It would be fairly disheartening if you go out there and can’t move the ball against their JV team and put together some drives. That was good and it proves we’re really not that far away. We can do it if we get our minds to it and set to work.”

The Raiders finished with 229 rushing yards on 38 attempts. Carbaugh led the way with 75 yards on 12 carries. Gierl had 49 yards on six attempts and Rothmeier had 47 yards on eight carries. Crass completed two of five passes for 28 yards. One went to Alex Faude for 15 yards on the last play of the first half.

Hidde was outstanding, completing seven of nine passes for 180 yards and three touchdowns. Sophomore Nick Stellrecht completed five of seven passes for 69 more yards. Schroeder led the Tigers’ receivers with four catches for 96 yards.

Medford’s defense will get tested again this Friday when the Raiders travel to Onalaska for a 7 p.m. non-conference kickoff. The Hilltoppers have some key players back from last year’s team that ended Medford’s season in a WIAA Division 3 Level 2 playoff, including senior quarterback Adam Skifton, who threw for 232 yards in last year’s playoff game and 255 yards and two touchdowns while completing 21 of 31 passes Friday in a thrilling 35-28 overtime loss at West Salem. He did throw three interceptions, including one in the end zone on the last play of the game.

Evan Anderson is a big receiving target, who caught seven passes for 121 yards last week and running back Brady Kuhn is also back from last year.

“They’re very similar to what they were last year and they look very similar to New Richmond,” Wilson said. “They’re a spread team. They’re going to run some zone-read. They’re going to run some pass option and throw the ball out of the backfield. Even though it will look like a running play, they’ll throw a quick slant if we’re not closer and don’t get up on them.”

Wilson said the Hilltoppers did graduate most of their defensive starters from a year ago.

“Again, they’re very well coached,” he said. “There’s 900-some kids in that school, so it’s a bigger school, but it’s a Division 3 school. These are the kind of teams we need to learn to play with.”