MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER - Soccer win snatched away in last six minutes by Jays; Hawks win 3-0

MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER

Just when the Medford Raiders finally found the net and some much-needed momentum on the soccer field Tuesday night, their luck turned the wrong way in a stunning 2-1 non-conference loss to Three Lakes-Phelps at Raider Field.

The Blue Jays scored twice in the game’s final six minutes, getting the tying goal on a freak bounce at 74:06 and the game-winner on a perfectly-executed corner kick with 48 seconds left.

With the win in its first-ever meeting with Medford, Three Lakes-Phelps improved to 4-3-1 overall. The Raiders are still searching for their first win at 0-6-2.

“It’s tough because the guys played so much better than they did on Saturday, up until the 74th minute,” Medford head coach Adam Derr said, referring to a 3-0 loss to Shawano. “We said at the end of the game, we have to play a full 80 minutes. We lost our focus a little bit in those last six minutes.”

The Raiders had gone five full games without scoring a goal in regulation and were nearing a sixth straight scoreless game when they finally broke the ice at Tuesday’s 69:48 mark. Michael Meyer took a Lucas Mahner throw-in along the right sideline, worked upfield and then cut toward the middle. His crossing pass to Jason Scott was deflected but still found its way to Scott’s foot and he pushed it past Blue Jay goal keeper Masen Schoeneck and inside the left post.

“Jason was in a great spot,” Derr said. “He was exactly where he should be. Jason has scored a couple of goals in JV games this season. He hasn’t seen a lot of minutes on the varsity, but if he keeps putting the ball in the back of the net, that can change.”

Unfortunately for Medford, the lead didn’t last long.

Tenacity from Blue Jay Cohen Welsh kept Medford from cleanly trying to push the ball out of their defensive third to midfield. Welsh took a shot that got blocked back to teammate Cruz Melton, who also took a shot that got blocked. Welsh andMedford’s BeckMayrer battled for control of that rebound but the ball trickled back to Melton, who took a 30yard shot that didn’t seem to have a lot of power behind it, but as it took a bounce in front of Medford keeper Cale Schulz it spun slightly to the left and went through his grasp and into the net.

The winning goal at 79:12 came off a corner kick from the left side by Welsh. His kick was headed into the upper right corner of the net by the cutting Charlie Liebscher.

“That was just good execution,” Derr said of the game-winner for the Blue Jays. “It takes skill to cross a ball like that on a corner kick and get a head on it and put it in the back of the net. It was just unfortunate for us it happened when it did.”

Three Lakes-Phelps outshot Medford 26-8. Schulz had 14 saves and the Raiders put six shots on Schoeneck. Medford played with its co-captain defender Nathan Schuld and took a few minutes to settle in as the Blue Jays got a handful of early shots on goal. But the momentum shifted midway through the opening half.

“When the guys found out Nate wasn’t going to play, I think they did a double take,” Derr said. “I think they were a little nervous about how it would go. But that changed very quickly when they saw Levi Zuleger and Luke Semrau play as aggressively as they did. They saw that, got comfortable and got on with the job.”

Derr said Lucas Mahner continued to play well as an outside defender and the Raiders got senior Anthony Seidel back on the other side too after a stretch of injury and illness.

“Our movement was better, we pressured the ball better and we played well as a team,” Derr said. “It kind of a cliché, but in soccer a lot of the time, once one goal is scored another will be scored in the next couple minutes. We scored at 69:48 and they scored at 74:06. It was five minutes. There was that initial adrenaline rush after we scored, but you have to maintain that. We had a little letdown.”

Medford will be back in action Monday at 7 p.m. when it makes up a Great Northern Conference game at Mosinee that was postponed by weather on Thursday. The Raiders will host Waupaca at 7 p.m. Tuesday in non-conference play and host Northland Pines on Oct. 3 in a game that has been moved up to 6 p.m.

Shawano 3, Medford 0

While not a conference game, the Shawano Hawks continued to build its post-season résumé with success against Great Northern Conference teams in a 3-0 win over host Medford on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

The Hawks got a goal just over 12 minutes in, but the real crushers came in a span of less than six minutes late in the first half that turned that 1-0 deficit into an insurmountable 3-0 deficit.

“They have some good goal scorers,” Derr said. “We ran into that last year at the regional game (a 4-2 loss). You saw it today. They’re very clinical. If we don’t turn the ball over as much, they don’t get those chances.

If you look at the open play when it’s not a turnover, they didn’t build much up. It’s those turnovers in the back that really hurt us.”

Shut out for the fifth straight game in regulation, the Raiders took some encouragement by their ability to create some offensive chances. Midway through the first half, a stretch of good possession included three straight corner kicks. In the second half, Meyer’s shot at 52:35 just missed the upper right corner, Schuld had two close chances broken up by the Hawks in the 63rd minute, Meyer had a transition chance where his last dribble carried just a bit too far right to goalie Ryan Buerman at 67:30, Ethan Emmerich got a good shot off a corner kick at 71:50 and Zuleger, at 75:40, had a shot deflect off a couple of Hawks’ heads and nearly went in.

“We haven’t had a lot of opportunities scoring wise, so to get a couple today, was good,” Derr said. “In the middle of the first half, we had a little bit of possession. We had a couple of corner kicks, we had the ball on their end for a little while. So definitely, I think we had more chances today than we’ve had in the last couple of games. That’s definitely a positive. We passed the ball a little bit better in the second half. We just have to continue that.”

Well-executed plays end-to-end gave Shawano its first goal. Buerman sent a long goal kick toward midfield, where it was headed by Grayson Swedberg to Warner Beyer. Beyer fed the ball right back to Swedberg, who got to the goal area unimpeded and snuck a right-to-left crossing shot inside the left post at 12:07.

Shawano got a through ball from Brayden Mead ahead to Warner, who was ruled to have stayed onside at 33:55. From the left side, he snuck one between the post and Schulz for a 2-0 lead.

With 32 seconds left in the half, Anderson Schmidt’s boot from midfield found Beyer on the right wing and he centered to Swedberg, who lobbed a 12yard shot into the upper left corner.

Overall, the team defense tightened in the second half and Schulz made saves on close shots at the 52:00 and 70:45 marks.

“Last year I felt like we dominated games and then lost them on one or two plays,” Derr said. “This year, I feel like we aren’t playing that well yet and we’re still in games. If these guys can just put it together and play a little bit better, we’re going to score goals and we’re going to be OK. It’s just little bit of quality that we have to increase.”

Shawano improved to 3-1-1 against GNC teams this season.