MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER - Win at Mosinee follows a memorable PK win over Hodags

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

After two shootout wins following regulation ties, the Medford Raiders officially put their first notch into their 2024 Great Northern Conference win total Tuesday by earning a 4-1 win at winless Mosinee.

In just the second road game of the season and Medford’s first of the year on a grass surface, the Raiders dominated play in the first half but had nothing to show for it until breaking the seal with two goals in the last four minutes.

They scored twice early in the second to clinch the victory over the winless Indians, who fell to 0-3 in league play and 0-8 overall.

Medford is 1-0-2 in the GNC, good for a first-place tie with 2-0-1 Rhinelander. Both teams have seven points. Lakeland is 2-0 and has six points. The Thunderbirds are at Raider Field tonight, Thursday, for a pivotal conference showdown that starts at 7 p.m.

“They’re always a tough team,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “They’re always well-coached, always strong defensively and offensively. It will come down to whoever capitalizes and gets a goal or two. Hopefully that’s us.”

Opportunities abounded for Medford in Tuesday’s win. In the first half alone, Medford had 13 corner kicks and the ball was on Mosinee’s end of the field for the vast majority of the first 40 minutes. But it took until the 36th minute before the Raiders got one past Mosinee’s goal keeper. It came off a corner kick that was taken by Sierra Tessmann. A couple of Raiders got touches on it, but it was Talyn Peterson, who finally banged home a leftfooted shot to put her team up 1-0.

About two minutes later, the Raiders pressured again and got a handball call on Mosinee in the box, resulting in a penalty kick. Tessmann buried it for a 2-0 lead.

“We felt better after finally taking advantage and getting a couple of goals,” Tanya Tessmann said. “At halftime we talked about how we wanted to improve on our corner kicks. Of course, then we only had one in the second half.”

Mosinee actually had the first good shot of the second half, but its top player, Kaitlyn Selle, banged her shot off the right post.

“She got through us a few times, but there were times too against her where we held strong and put pressure on her,” Tessmann said.

At about 48 minutes, Medford’s Bayley Metz had a goal taken away for being offsides. But two minutes later, she got the ball legally in almost the exact same spot, took it in and beat the goalie for a 3-0 lead. At 51:19, Megan Schaefer scored from the right side, just outside the box to close Medford’s scoring.

Selle got Mosinee on the board in the 53rd minute, barely tucking a left-to-right shot into the upper corner. The Indians had a shot hit the crossbar late as well.

Medford finished with 28 shots. Tessmann had 12 of them and Metz had five. Schaefer and Mallory Richter had three shots each. Nikki Poetzl, Peterson, Alexis Szydel and Riley Clark added a shot apiece.

Sophia Brunner had six saves. Mosinee had 10 shots total.

After tonight’s key game with the T-Birds, Medford wraps up the first round of GNC play Tuesday by hosting winless Antigo at 7 p.m. The Raiders will also host Waupaca on May 2 before they hit the road-heavy second half of their schedule.

“We were able to sub a lot and everybody got some good touches,” Tessmann said. “We’re still working on our shooting and accuracy and we’ll be working on corner kicks.”

Big shootout win

Officially, Thursday’s 0-0 game in Rhinelander will go in the books as a tie, but a 4-3 win in the penalty-kick shootout was a huge moment for Medford’s girls soccer program, which had lost to the Hodags in all 23 of the teams’ previous meetings going back to Rhinelander’s entry into the GNC in 2011.

This was a game the Raiders had been anticipating since a 1-0 loss last June 1 in a WIAA Division 3 regional semifinal created a strong belief they could play with or even beat the Hodags this year. Another strong defensive effort earned the tie as Medford shut out its sixth opponent in seven games to start the season. Sophia Brunner had 11 saves in regulation time.

“We’re excited to stop that streak,” Tanya Tessmann said. “To tie them was big for us, but the girls didn’t stop there. When they won the shootout, they were so hyped. They were hyped at halftime. They were hyped at the end of regulation. It was a pretty good feeling.”

In the five-round shootout, Medford trailed 3-1 after three rounds and was one miss or one Hodag goal from defeat. But Brunner came up with two saves, the second of which was a diving stop to her right on a shot by Emma Chiamulera. Szydel tucked a low shot inside the right post and Peterson deflected her shot off the left post and in to tie it at 3-3 and send the shootout to a sixth round. There, Brunner stopped a Morgan Van Zile shot as Van Zile aimed for the right post. Shayla Radlinger then won it for Medford going right as Hodag goalie Mya Krouze guessed left.

Schaefer had Medford’s first goal of the shootout in round two.

“There were some nerves going into the game, but they tried to calm each other down when they needed and pump each other up and they did it,” Tessmann said. “We reminded them to take deep breaths during the penalty kicks, zone in on where you’re shooting and we got it done.”

Medford’s best chance to score in regulation came early in the second half at the 47:35 mark. Sierra Tessmann tapped the ball away from a Hodag and short passes from Szydel and Radlinger set up Tessmann for a run at the goal as she split a pair of Hodag defenders. But Krouze was in the right spot, gathering Tessmann’s hard shot from about 13 yards out.

Tessmann’s free kick from 39 yards out was saved with just over two minutes remaining. There were a couple of other chances that didn’t quite materialize. At 11:05, Schaefer’s kick toward the left post went wide and went out of bounds just before Szydel could get there. At 24:50, Radlinger won a 50-50 ball on the far left side of the box and centered it in front of the net, but Tessmann was unable to get there before Krouze did. At 46:30, Richter stole the ball and made a push up the right sideline, but was unable to connect with Radlinger with a pass toward the middle.

Brunner made a nice save just 1:40 in, breaking up a crossing pass from Vivian Lamers to Van Zile. During that play, Metz went down with a right foot injury, though she did return for a few minutes in the second half. Brunner intercepted a corner kick in the 13th minute. The Raider defense blocked a shot by Ella Miljevich, but Miljevich got off a quick rebound shot that Brunner settled under. Brunner aggressively went well out of the box and broke up a potential breakaway for Rhinelander’s top scoring threat, Sophie Miljevich, at 45:20 and she made a diving save to rob Lamers on a 15-yard right-toleft shot at 58:20. Rhinelander had a free kick just outside the box near the right sideline at 62:10. Brunner momentarily bobbled the line drive kicked by Sophie Miljevich but gained control before the Hodags could pounce on it.

“Our defense held strong,” coach Tessmann said. “Talyn and Masaeda Krug were strong in the middle and if anything got through them, Nikki Poetzl and Hannah Fleegel were there. We made some good runs and had some good shots. We’re looking to get a few more of those and hopefully we can capitalize on some when we play them again on May 9. We’re looking forward to playing them on our turf.”

The Medford Raiders celebrate after winning the penalty-kick shootout that ended Thursday’s match at Rhinelander. Rhinelander had beaten Medford 23 straight times in girls soccer before Thursday’s 0-0 tie. BOB MAINHARDT/NORTHWOODS RIVER NEWS