Punishing ground game, just enough stops get impressive win

MEDFORD 52, ONALASKA 35

There is a danger in putting too much stock into pre-season or early-season rankings because they can be heavilybased on the previous year.

That’s why the Medford Raiders are more excited about the improvement they made in Friday’s 52-35 win at Onalaska than they are about the accolades they got for beating the supposed fourth-ranked team in the state in Division 3.

The Raiders took lessons learned from week one’s loss to New Richmond and clearly improved in Friday’s win, particularly offensively. Medford never punted, didn’t turn the ball over, was only stopped by the clock at the ends of each half, tied a school-record with 566 rushing yards and were one off the school record for rushing attempts with 71.

That was the perfect recipe to offset Onalaska’s explosive but also pass-oriented and often quick-strike offense. Defensively, the Raiders got a stop late in the second quarter, which allowed them to open up a two-score lead and then got three stops in a row in the third quarter, allowing the offense to blow the game open at 52-21.

“All around a very good team effort,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “I think we got better from week one to week two. Now it’s just a matter of we have to keep getting better going forward. One week at a time. I think we’re learning as we go on the fly, which is what young teams do. It’s good to see that we actually are improving and learning as we go.”

The win puts Medford at 1-1 heading into this Friday’s Great Northern Conference opener at Merrill (0-2). Onalaska, a semifinalist in Division 3 last fall, fell to 0-2, coming off a 35-28 overtime loss to West Salem in week one. West Salem, a state finalist who also beat Onalaska in last year’s semifinal, was ranked second in the first in-season Division 3 poll last week, but the Panthers also got tripped up Friday, losing 27-13 at Tomah.

And for what it’s worth, Medford’s week-one opponent New Richmond handled Marshfield 31-10 in its second game.

“Is it a big win for us? Yes,” Wilson said. “Are we very happy to have won and played much better than we did in week one? Yes. But does it mean we’re world beaters, no, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

Offense clicks from start

The Raiders wasted no time establishing the run game, going 79 yards on 13 plays on the game’s opening possession with five different backs getting carries. They converted on three third downs on the drive, got big runs of 15 and 30 yards from Charlie Gierl and ate up half the quarter before scoring on Paxton Rothmeier’s 1-yard run with 5:59 left. Gierl caught the two-point pass from Hank Crass for an 8-0 lead.

Onalaska came right back as Brodie Mickschl got behind the Medford defense for a 65-yard touchdown pass from Adam Skifton on the Hilltoppers’ first offensive play, but a high snap foiled the extra point try.

The Raiders responded with a 56-yard drive that started with seven running plays. A penalty created a second-andnine situation where Medford finally went to a pass. The play-action fake did exactly what it was intended to do and tight end Cameron Bull got wide open in the back of the end zone for a 17-yard scoring strike from Crass that made it 14-6 with 2:16 left in the quarter.

Skifton overthrew Mickschl for a potential big gain on third down, forcing an Onalaska punt and the Raiders went right back to work, going 90 yards in 15 plays, 14 of them runs, and capping the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run by Evan Wilkins, who also ran in the twopoint conversion for a 22-6 lead. “Our juniors in our offensive line, and even our seniors on our offensive line, really took a step forward and really are starting to understand how to block, how to play the game and how to communicate,” Wilson said. “Our communication level was much better.

“Getting to the right spots was much better,” Wilson said of the starting offensive line, consisting of Bull, Max Dietzman, Logan Kawa, Colton Dassow, Tripp Reamer and Erich Mortz. “Sticking to blocks was better but not good enough quite yet. We still have some work to do there with moving our feet and blocking with our feet after we make contact. As a whole, I think, with understanding the scheme and the way things work, we were better.”

The teams continued to trade touchdowns to end the half, which ended with Medford holding a 28-21 lead. Onalaska’s Cameron Cornett ripped off a 27-yard run on the first play of the second half, but Skifton threw four straight incompletions, the last of which was a breakup by Jack Wojcik on a pass over the middle, and Medford took advantage.

A 60-yard, 10-play drive included a fourth-and-one conversion on a 6-yard run by Braxton Weissmiller and ended with Carbaugh’s extra effort that produced a 9-yard touchdown, making it 3621. The defense came up with arguably its biggest play when Cory Lindahl knocked the ball away from Skifton at the end of a 9-yard run and Jack Wojcik pounced on the fumble at Medford’s 21. Three plays later, Gierl got through a big hole opened up by Bull, Dietzman and Weissmiller and outran Onalaska’s secondary for a 61-yard touchdown that made it 44-21.

Gierl had a huge night, going for 199 yards on just 11 carries. Counter runs to Gierl and Wilkins gave Onalaska’s inexperienced defense fits, but as Medford’s confidence grew, the Hilltoppers seemed powerless to stop anything.

“You could definitely feel that the kids were portraying that,” Wilson said. “They knew if they kept going offensively, because we had a lead, we could keep the lead and that would mean good things would happen.”

A three-and-out gave Medford the ball back at its 46 and the Raiders put it away with Rothmeier’s 25-yard scoring run off the left side with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.

Onalaska got two more touchdown throws from Skifton, who completed 19 of 31 passes for 314 yards and five touchdowns. The last touchdown came after a successful onside kick and the Hilltoppers had another onside recovery wiped out by a penalty. After that, the Raiders ran out the last 7:50.

“They’re extremely explosive,” Wilson said. “At no point in time during that game did I feel comfortable with our lead because they can score. And they showed that. They scored 35 points against us. Their kids threw for five touchdowns and 300-some yards. They have a very explosive offense.

“We started to do a little bit more with bumping their two best wide receivers, Mickschl and Evan Anderson, and daring them a little bit more, kinda saying, ‘hey we hardly have anyone in the box, go ahead and run at us.’ They did, they started running a little bit better and then they fumbled. That was a big stop.”

Wilkins ran for 119 yards on 15 carries, Rothmeier had 119 yards on 18 carries, Carbaugh ran for 93 yards on 16 carries and Weissmiller added 34 yards on eight carries. Add 28 passing yards and Medford finished with 594 total yards to Onalaska’s 392.

With over 70 running plays and nearly 80 snaps for the game, Medford was called for just one holding penalty.

GNC play begins

Conference play starts Friday against a Merrill team that was blown out 41-0 by Osceola in week one and then got tripped up 14-7 at Crandon Friday night. Merrill controlled that game most of the way, but didn’t take full advantage of the field position it had and then gave up a 7-0 lead on a long touchdown run late in the third quarter that made it 7-6 and a short touchdown pass by the Cardinals in the final seconds after Crandon came down with a 50-50 ball on a long pass a few plays before.

Medford owns an eight-game winning streak in the annual series and hasn’t lost since a 19-12 loss in the regularseason game of 2015. Medford started its streak against the Blue Jays by winning a playoff matchup between the teams that year.

“They have really big kids,” Wilson said. They’re kinda playing the same scheme last year. It’s a pistol-type set with a lot of downhill running. They’ll spread you out at times and throw the ball around a little bit. Every team is dangerous in high school. You have to be ready to play. You can’t just roll into a Friday thinking you’re going to walk over a team because as soon as you do you get smacked in the mouth and you end up with a result that you don’t want.”

Paxton Rothmeier 119 yards

Evan Wilkins 119 yards

Carson Carbaugh 93 yards