WEEK 7 FOOTBALL - It’s a travel week for all three local football teams
WEEK 7 FOOTBALL
Another high school football season is flying ball with the regular season already two-thirds complete. In Taylor County, the final third starts Friday with all three teams making conference road trips.
The most intriguing game on paper is at Flambeau High School, where Rib Lake meets the host Falcons in a key eight-man contest in the Northwoods East Conference. The Redmen, 3-2 overall and 3-1 in league play, aim to stay within striking distance of league unbeatens Phillips and Hurley, while Flambeau, also 3-2 overall but 2-2 in the conference, probably has to win its last three games to keep any hope of a post-season berth alive.
“They’ve had a few tough games already with losses to Hurley and Phillips,” Rib Lake head coach Jonah Campbell said. “They’re a tough team, semi-comparable to us in a lot of ways in that they’re physical and they have bigplay ability on offense. I think they have one senior on the roster but they have nine juniors so they’re kind of upperclassman heavy. We expect this one to be another every-possession-matters type of game. Defense is going to be big. Any stop is going to be big in this one. We just have to eliminate those mistakes on offense. We have to make the best out of every possession. Ball control and the defense getting stops is going to be key. It’ll be a task. They seem to be well-coached and they play hard.”
Flambeau’s wins are by sizable margins over Bruce (36-20), Athens (46-20) and the Chequamegon Co-op (60-12). Hurley got three big touchdown passes on the Falcons in a 26-12 win on Sept. 13 and Phillips, much as it did to Rib Lake, won an offensive shootout 52-26 this past Friday. But, Flambeau was ahead 20-8 early on two passing touchdowns and a rushing score from junior Cole Schley before the Loggers got some big plays in the second half to pull away.
Flambeau was a longtime member of the Lakeland Conference before moving to eight-player football. Flambeau and Rib Lake-Prentice were in that conference together in 2020 but never actually played each other due to a Covid cancellation. The Hawks were awarded forfeits in 2021 and 2022 due to Flambeau’s early departure from the conference to go to eight-man football.
In the GNC, Medford heads to Tomahawk for its first football matchup with the Hatchets since a 14-0 win in 2010. Once longtime rivals in the old Lumberjack Conference, the teams had gone their separate ways in conference play, save for two years when the GNC first started, until being reunited this year.
The Hatchets are 1-3 in the GNC and 24 overall. They’ve been competitive in all six of their games, but the loss of quarterback Rex Reilly to injury in a 27-21 overtime loss to Antigo Sept. 13 has hurt them. They did beat Rhinelander in his absence the following week, faking a 48yard field goal attempt and scoring on a 31yard touchdown pass from Brayden Larson to Landyn Seymour with 3.6 seconds left to win 21-14. Tomahawk had a 7-0 halftime lead on Mosinee Friday before losing 28-14.
Larson has 622 rushing yards through six games. Reilly was also averaging 100 rushing yards per game when he went down in week four.
“(Larson) is a really good running back for them, he’s a good player,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They’ll split him out a little bit too. The Reilly kid was their quarterback, he hasn’t played for a couple weeks. If he plays, he’s a dynamic player for them. They play tough, they play hard. They just haven’t been able to overcome some of the mistakes they’ve made to win some of those games. But they’ve been in every single game. I expect they’ll compete and play hard.”
Medford, 4-0 in the GNC and 5-1 overall, clinched a WIAA playoff spot with Friday’s 44-6 win over Wausau East and aims to keep sharpening things up while trying to win the program’s first GNC title since 2020.
“We’ve had to control our own controllables, our own variables and that’s about getting better every day,” Wilson said. “I know it seems like coach’s speak, but it’s so true. You can’t worry about the score of the game, you have to worry about you getting better. That’s what we’ll keep preaching.”
The Gilman Pirates will be at Alma Center Lincoln Friday for a North Central East Conference battle with the Hornets. Gilman (3-1 NCEC, 4-1 overall) rebounded from a loss to McDonell Central by taking care of Thorp 61-18 on Friday. Lincoln was humbled at top-ranked and leagueleading Owen-Withee 62-0 to fall to 1-3, 23.
The Hornets remain a team that relies on the pass more than others in the conference. Junior quarterback Adam Massman is just 26 yards shy of the 1,000yard mark for the season, per WisSports. net statistics, and Ben Ross has 41 catches for 616 yards and eight touchdown receptions. Senior Luke Anderson, who was Lincoln’s quarterback last year, is a solid running back for Lincoln and is the anchor of their defense at middle linebacker. He’s amassed 579 yards and nine rushing touchdowns through five games. He did leave the Owen-Withee game early due to injury.
“This Alma Center team is going to be the best Alma Center team we’ve seen,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “They average about 400 yards a game offensively. They do get a lot of yards. They have scored points, they just did not score against Owen. They work a lot out of the spread with Anderson running the ball. The sophomore quarterback does have some pretty good numbers and they do have speed at receiver. Ross is a pretty good receiver. He has to be the league leader in catches. He’s pretty good and he’s fast and their other receiver (Jay Stetzer) is fast. So they have some weapons on offense. Plus, they’re a little bit more physical and tackle better than they have in the past.”
The Pirates are 4-0 against the Hornets since they became conference mates in 2020 and none of those contests were close.
