MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER - Best effort in some time ends in shootout loss; T-Birds roll 5-0

MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER

Prior to Tuesday, the highlight of Medford’s difficult 2024 boys soccer season was a penalty-kick shootout win over Rhinelander following a 0-0 tie with the Hodags in the Great Northern Conference opener Sept. 3.

The Hodags turned the tables on Medford Tuesday, winning another shootout after the teams tied 1-1 at Mike Webster Stadium.

Penalty kicks were the story of Tuesday’s games. Both goals in regulation were scored on penalty kicks. Shut out 3-0 in just three rounds in the September shootout at Raider Field, the Hodags won Tuesday’s PK shootout 4-1. The tie was Medford’s third of the year overall and kept the Raiders winless at 0-7-2 in the GNC and 0-11-3 overall with one regularseason game left.

This was the fifth shootout the two programs have gotten into since 2021, with two of them coming in WIAA Division 3 regional games. While the shootout at the end obviously gained the most attention, Medford coach Adam Derr was most pleased with what happened in the 80 minutes of regulation.

“We passed the ball better than we have probably all season,” Derr said. “Rhinelander ended up with 14 shots, seven shots on goal and probably one of them was a decent shot that Cale Schulz made an amazing diving save on to keep it out of the upper 90.”

Medford, which has been starved for offense much of the year, put six of its nine shots on goal and Derr said at least four of those were quality chances. Those that stood out included a Michael Meyer breakaway that Rhinelander goal keeper Barak Rappley was able to save, a hard shot from Hayden Spangler that Rappley saved and Oliver Koffler got off a long shot that just went over the crossbar.

Medford struck first 32:22 into the first half. Off a throw-in from the right side in the offensive third, the soccer ball was kicked around and found its way to the other side of the field where Dominic Fennell was fouled in the corner of the penalty area.

Michael Meyer took the penalty kick and drilled it, going over Rappley’s left shoulder.

Rhinelander, though, got the equalizer in the second half at 57:43. As things tend to go in a year where the Raiders are getting few breaks, the opportunity for the Hodags came when Medford’s defensive captain, Nate Schuld, was off the field fixing a shoe issue.

Aidan Lueder sent a long pass up the right sideline and, after a brief scrum, Asher Rivord won control of the ball and was fouled as he dribbled in for a pointblank shot on Medford goalie Cale Schulz. Lueder took the penalty kick and converted, going low to his left.

Medford won the toss in the post-game shootout and got the opportunity to kick second in each of the five rounds. But the Hodags put immediate pressure on the Raiders as Lueder again scored going low to his left in round one and Michael Schiek also made his low kick to the left in round two, while Meyer missed high and Grant Neubauer’s straight-on kick was saved by Rappley.

Rhinelander’s Aiden Osterman started round three by going low to the right and getting the ball past Schulz to put Medford in do-or-die mode the rest of the way. Fennell came through, going low to his right to beat Rappley, but Rivord went left on his shot to start round four and scored to clinch it.

Rhinelander is 3-4-2 in GNC play and 4-8-2 overall.

“I feel like we played really well for the first time in a while,” Derr said. “It was disappointing to not come away with a win but we can take a lot of good things from it.

“It was good to have Grant Neubauer back,” Derr said. “He had a really good night passing in the middle. He’s been out sick and then been out with his fishing. For him to come back and to have the chemistry he did with Mike and Beck (Mayrer) and Judah (Wipf) and Oliver in the middle was impressive for being gone for two or three weeks and then just having a couple of practices. Our freshmen stepped up. Judah and Beck played really well. Colton Long filled in as well on defense and Levi Zuleger has been filling in well all season back there.”

Medford’s last chance at a conference win comes tonight, Thursday, when it hosts Mosinee at 7 p.m. in the regularseason finale. It will be Medford’s last home appearance of the season as the Raiders drew the ninth seed in the WIAA Division 3 sectional half-bracket and will travel to eighth-seeded Antigo for a 4 p.m. kickoff on Tuesday. Antigo won both regular-season meetings with the Raiders by 1-0 scores.

Tuesday’s winner will go to top-seeded Lakeland for an Oct. 24 regional semifinal that starts at 7 p.m.

Lakeland 5, Medford 0

One of the GNC’s top scorers in 2024, Dominic Gironella, recorded a hat trick while leading first-place Lakeland to a 5-0 win over the visiting Raiders on Thursday.

Gironella scored the T-Birds’ first three goals while helping keep his team in a one-point lead over Northland Pines in the conference title chase.

Lakeland kept Schulz and the Medford defense busy in the first 19 minutes, with Schulz getting a handful of saves and the Raiders breaking up another couple chances. But at 19:34, after Schulz made a save on a Connor Erickson shot and punted the ball away, Lakeland got to the ball first, pushing it ahead to Marshall Holmquist. He fed Gironella, who beat Schulz to the loose ball and then had a clear shot to put the T-Birds on the board.

At 20:10, a long boot by Lakeland’s Sawyer Brown found Gironella, who beat Medford’s back line and got the ball between Schulz and the right post. The Raiders got their two best chances of the half after that. Lakeland’s Talan Pockat made the save on a 33-yard shot on goal from Koffler at 26:15 and Keagan Gehrke’s run was broken up before he could get his shot off at 35:55.

Lakeland got a rebound goal at 53:59 from Gironella. A centering pass from Oren Slemmons to Lincoln Friedley made it 4-0 at 65:52 and Brown’s head pass to Erickson created the last goal at 75:38.