MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER - Drought ends emphatically in 8-0 soccer blowout at Antigo

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

The Medford Raiders broke a scoreless drought spanning more than five games and 425 minutes very early in Tuesday’s Great Northern Conference girls soccer finale and didn’t stop scoring in an 8-0 rout of host Antigo.

The teams moved up the game time 45 minutes and got the contest in between storms Tuesday. While it was quite windy and the grass was fairly wet, the Raiders adjusted well and ended the game at the 60-minute mercy mark against the league’s last-place team.

Medford finished with 13 points in GNC play at 3-5-2 and is locked into fourth place in the standings between Northland Pines and Mosinee, who will make up a Tuesday postponement tonight, Thursday, to complete league play.

Ironically, the seal was broken for Medford by the Red Robins, whose own goal put the Raiders on the board 2:52 into the game.

Sierra Tessmann scored five of Medford’s goals after that, the first of which came just 5:06 in. The Raiders peppered Antigo’s defense with six shots in the first five minutes. Starting near midfield, Tessmann was able to weave through traffic, even staying on her feet after being tripped once, and got off a shot that beat goalkeeper Abigail Pennington for a 2-0 lead.

Off a Nikki Poetzl throw-in, Shayla Radlinger dribbled into scoring position and found Tessmann for a goal at 12:29. The Raiders nearly had two more goals. Pennington make a nice stop of a Radlinger shot and she got to a Tessmann shot just before it crossed the goal line after it had deflected off a teammate and passed her at the 37-minute mark.

As the final seconds of the first half ticked away, Medford advanced the ball with Peyton Boelk passing to Bayley Metz and Metz getting it to the center of the field where Tessmann and Riley Clark worked side by side. Clark tapped the ball to Tessmann, who buried the shot with one second left to give Medford a 4-0 halftime lead.

Just 38 seconds into the second half, Mallory Richter got to a shot from Radlinger that went wide and put it in. Off a Raider corner kick, Madison Clarkson scored at 42:40 for a 6-0 lead and Tessman scored her last two goals at 44:48 and 52:14.

Medford got 43 shots off in 60 minutes with 11 different players getting at least one. Tessmann took 12 shots, Radlinger took seven, Clarkson took six and Metz got five off in limited minutes as she works her way back from an ankle injury. Sophia Brunner had two saves for Medford.

“We were able to substitute a lot,” head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “We’ve been nursing a few injuries, so those players got some time but we didn’t play them very much.”

Now 7-7-3 overall, Medford concludes its regular season today, Thursday, with a 4:30 p.m. game at Ashland (15-2-1), who is the number-one seed in the WIAA Division 3 sectional half-bracket.

Medford drew the fourth seed and will host its first regional semifinal since 2019 when fifth-seeded Waupaca (5-4-3) is at Raider Field for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Thursday, May 30. The winner will likely go to Ashland for a June 1 regional final.

Before Tuesday, Medford’s last goals came in a 2-0 home win over Waupaca on May 2.

Lakeland 2, Medford 0

The Raiders suffered their fifth straight shutout loss Thursday and gave up a season-high in goals with a 2-0 loss at Lakeland, who clinched the outright GNC title with the win.

Medford had an active first half offensively when it got all six of its shots on goal for the game, yet the Raiders still trailed 1-0 at the time. The score was still 1-0 when, in the final stretch of the game at 73:31, Lakeland’s Josie Wentland got off a high shot from about 35 yards out that dropped straight down at just the right time and got behind Brunner to put the game away.

Lakeland got its first goal early at 12:19 when a long ball from Charley Cleveland on the right side got all the way through the left side, where Bobbi Lee put it in.

“We were on our best marking and they just made the shot,” Tanya Tessmann said. “We came out strong right off the kickoff after that goal. Sierra Tessmann was able to dribble through and get off a shot that the goalie (Ava Evenhouse) bobbled but made the save. On the next play, Shayla Radlinger ended up getting shot that the goalie dove to knockout. Not long after that we had a corner kick that we were able to a shot off of. In the first half, we were right there.”

Lakeland made a point of marking Tessmann and Radlinger at all times in the second half and Medford wasn’t able to get much going. Late there was one nice passing sequence between Clarkson, Hannah Fleegel, Clarkson again, to Radlinger and then Megan Schaefer got the shot, but it wasn’t on goal.

Evenhouse finished with six saves, while Brunner had nine for Medford. Radlinger had three shots, while Talyn Peterson, Tessmann and Makenna Tlusty each put one on goal.

“Madison Clarkson keeps getting better with each game,” coach Tessmann said. “She’s getting more engaged, getting in there and getting after the ball.”

Lakeland won the JV game as well 3-1.

Kella Gebert scored Medford’s goal.