MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER - All positives for Raiders in 0-0 tie with Rice Lake

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

In the books, Thursday’s frigid girls soccer season opener at Raider Field finished as a tie, but the Raiders felt differently about their 0-0 draw with the Rice Lake Warriors.

It was dicey most of the night as the Warriors clearly had the edge in pressure, scoring chances and shots on goal. But senior goal keeper Sophia Brunner and her teammates were determined to keep the ball out of the net and they did.

“It means a lot because we’re used to losing to them by a lot,” Brunner said afterward. “I was just hoping for a tie. It’s the first time we haven’t lost to them, so it’s a win for us. We’re starting off the season strong.”

Medford had played Rice Lake just four times in program history prior to Thursday. The Warriors won 6-0 last year, 8-0 the previous two seasons and 7-0 in WIAA Division 3 tournament play back in 2010.

“That’s a win for us,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “We will take that as a win in our first game. It was their first game too. They’ve always been a tough team. I think, looking at the roster from last year, they only lost two seniors. So we knew they were going to be strong again. We were looking forward to having tough competition in the first game and what it was going to show us. It showed us a lot. It gave us hope, it gave us confidence especially going into next week when we have three games. There is stuff obviously that we can work on, but our defense did amazing. Not just our back four but our midfield, our wings when they were back on defense. They held strong and the score shows that.”

Brunner, voted the Great Northern Conference’s top goalie last spring, was outstanding, correctly deciding when to come out and challenge shooters and anticipating angles and always being in the right spot.

“I knew coming into it they’d be good and that I’d have a lot of shots on goal,” Brunner said. “We’ve all been working hard in the off-season. I played club this fall and that helped a lot playing against more experienced girls. I was just trying not to let them in. Go for everything.”

The first standout play came a little more than 13 minutes in. Warrior Ella Clark centered to Julia Holthaus who sent a twisting shot toward the post. Brunner dove and knocked it down with her right arm, then quickly got up and got the attempted point-blank rebound by Rice Lake’s Addison Leaf with her left arm.

Nikki Poetzl made a non-goalie save off a corner kick 34:20 in and Brunner had a nice sliding interception of a centering pass at 36:25 to keep the game scoreless at the half.

Rice Lake goalie Ayla Zuzek made one key stop, smothering an Alexis Szydel touch off Mallory Richter’s centering pass just under eight minutes into the second half. Medford got another big non-goalie stop from Hannah Fleegel off a shot from the center of the field by Audriana Schultz at 49:15. Warrior Maddie Gilbert pulled a direct kick, taken about one yard outside the penalty area, wide left at 51:40.

“I think we had a good second half, a better second half than the first half,” Brunner said. “But the whole game I would say we played good team defense all together. We were just happy to come back kind of how we ended last year. We ended last year with a close game against Rhinelander so it’s good to come back and have a tie game against Rice Lake.”

Brunner plucked a corner kick out of the air at the 61-minute mark, stopped a hard shot directly at her from Ciara Drost at 70:50 and then her quick reflexes kicked in at 72:45 when she grabbed a ball that deflected hard off of Fleegel right in front of her.

“She was trying to get in the way of the shot, stopped it, got it in the air and luckily I was able to get to it,” Brunner said.

With about 70 seconds left, Holthaus’ left-to-right pass found Drost at the right post, but Brunner dove to secure one last big save.

“They were crossing the ball in from wide the whole game, so I knew that’s what they were looking for,” she said. I think it got through a couple of our defenders. I just went for it and luckily I got there and (Drost) kind of fumbled it. Her touch was weak. It kind of stopped on the line. Luckily I got there before she got another touch.”

“Our defense got tired, it was on our end quite a bit but they did not let anything get past them,” Tessmann said. “Brunner had an amazing game.”

The Raiders played without one of their starters, Megan Schaefer, who rested an ankle injury and did some experimenting and shuffling during the game. Tessmann said she was pleased with how the Raiders rolled with those changes. Bayley Metz had some good short runs in the second half and Tessmann liked Shayla Radlinger’s aggressiveness up top.

“The girls have been great and willing to step into positions that they’re not as familiar with or haven’t played as much,” Tessmann said. “We’ve been talking about that the past week or two that that’s what we’re looking for. They stepped in and everyone was willing and raring to go.”

Medford’s Tuesday game with Waupaca was postponed to May 2 due to the wintry weather. The Raiders are scheduled to host Crandon at 6 p.m. tonight, Thursday, Regis-McDonell Friday at 7 p.m. and Amherst/Iola-Scandinavia at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Medford’s Alexis Szydel gets to the soccer ball just ahead of Rice Lake’s Audriana Schultz early in Thursday’s season-opening 0-0 tie at Raider Field. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS