took the ball to the ….

took the ball to the two and Rothmeier finished the drive there for a 20-0 lead with 53 seconds left.

Medford’s longest offensive play of the game was a 53-yard run by Carbaugh on the first play of the second half and advanced the ball to Rhinelander’s 9. On fourth and goal from the one, Crass pushed over the goal line on a quarterback sneak and a 26-0 lead.

“That’s pretty much a backbreaker for anybody,” Wilson said of the bookend touchdowns. “You’re thinking you’re in the game at 14-0, all of a sudden it’s 20-0 at the very end and it’s 26-0 right away on the other side. Four scores is a lot different than two. That’s where the trend has gone. That’s why people try to defer to try to get those two scores back to back.”

Wilkins scored on another counter play, this one from 13 yards out and Crass hit Bull over the middle in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion to make it 34-0 with 5:18 left in the third quarter. A juggling, one-handed interception by Rhinelander’s Zach Germain gave the Hodags the ball at their own nine with a minute to go in the quarter, but Paul’s leaping grab of a Lamers pass along the left sideline and his 10-yard return ended any hope Rhinelander had of a comeback.

“That was a great play by Evan Paul,” Wilson said. “First he had very good coverage. Secondly he went up and got the ball and third he had a nice return. A very good job all around by him. He actually covered very well the entire game. I thought the D-backs as a whole did very well in coverage.”

Rothmeier finished with 153 yards on 20 carries to get up to 946 yards and 16 touchdowns for the season. Carbaugh had a season-high 117 yards on 12 carries.

“We made a few adjustments to our blocking scheme a little bit, and that’s where we had a couple of big plays,” Wilson said. “Carbs broke that real big one at the beginning of the third quarter. We made a few adjustments and just had to clean up a little bit of blocking. The kids had to see exactly where they needed to go. Then it started to flow a little better in the third quarter.”