WEEK 3 FOOTBALL - League play begins this weekend

WEEK 3 FOOTBALL

Conference play starts around the state in high school football this week. Locally, the Medford Raiders and Rib Lake Redmen host league openers, while Gilman is on the road in its mandatory crossover game against a North Central West team before getting into play in the North Central East next week.

In Medford, the 1-1 Raiders will host 2-0 Antigo at 7 p.m. at Raider Field. The Raiders split their non-conference games against Mississippi Valley Conference teams Holmen and Onalaska while Antigo won two close games, beating Northland Pines 27-21 and Sturgeon Bay 27-20.

Senior quarterback Colton Thomae is off to a hot start. He ran for 77 yards in the win over Pines and ran for two scores and threw for another in the at Sturgeon Bay. Grant Praslowicz has been an effective ball carrier early on for the Red Robins, who went 4-6 last year while earning a playoff spot.

“They’re 2-0, and they’ve played in two very tough games, winning each by a score so they know how to play in close games, very competitive games,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They’re very senior dominated. I think I read they have 20 seniors out this year and they’re really, really big. They have a lot of size, especially at their tight end position. One of their running backs is a really big kid and their offensive and defensive lines are pretty big. Being more senior-dominated this year and the fact they’re big could cause some problems.”

Medford has won its last six meetings with the Red Robins, including last year’s 58-14 rout in a week-nine monsoon at Schofield Stadium.

In Rib Lake, the Redmen will open Northwoods East Conference competition in eight-player football against the visiting Chequamegon Co-op in a 1 p.m. matinee Saturday.

The Screaming Eagles blew out Winter-Birchwood 54-14 in their opener, while the Redmen didn’t back down but didn’t have enough to hang with second-ranked Gilman in a 38-6 loss.

“They have a couple of good athletes out there and it looks they ran their stuff fairly well,” Rib Lake head coach Jonah Campbell said. “Defensively we have to play physical and make them uncomfortable. We can’t give free releases. That helps you take on blockers or take on pullers. We have to stay physical up front and that’s where it’s going to start.

“We got a tougher defense out of the way in Gilman,” he added. “If we can eliminate our mistakes –– we moved the ball well against Gilman –– I think we’re confident we’ll be able to create some longer drives at a more consistent rate and then hopefully this week finish the drives.”

Obviously this is the teams’ first meeting in eight-player football. Chequamegon (or Park Falls) and Rib Lake-Prentice met 11 times as Marawood Conference rivals from 2008-18 with Rib Lake-Prentice winning seven of those games.

After their 36-8 win at Rib Lake, the Gilman Pirates visit the Frederic Vikings Friday at 7 p.m. It’s the teams’ first meeting as eight-player teams. The Pirates beat Frederic in WIAA 11-man tournament play in 2003, 2007 and 2010.

The Vikings lost their season opener Friday to Northwood-Solon Springs 26-20.

Gilman faced Frederic just two weeks ago during the Cornell scrimmages. Head coach Robin Rosemeyer said it appears to be an improved team over last year’s 3-6 squad.

“We struggled against their pass game a little bit, so we need to shore that up,” he said. “We were OK against their run but we have to make sure we stay OK against the run and not give them that option. We just have to do better at keep flowing to the ball and make sure we keep getting better at stopping the run game. Their pass game is a concern. They have a big 6-2 quarterback who can throw well. He’s going to be a running threat with his scrambling too. They present some problems.”