MEDFORD 43, RHINELANDER 13 - Dominant ground game buries Hodags, clinches GNC title share

MEDFORD 43, RHINELANDER 13

The Medford Raiders’ ground game hit another gear Thursday, piling up a seasonhigh 451 yards, including another career high for senior Paxton Rothmeier, in a 4313 blowout win over Rhinelander at Raider Field.

Rothmeier added 311 more yards to his impressive 2024 numbers and did it on just 19 carries. Evan Wilkins added a season-high 107 yards on just seven attempts.

With the win, Medford (6-0 GNC, 7-1 overall) clinched at least a share of the 2024 Great Northern Conference championship and will aim to clinch it outright Friday in a big regular-season finale at Mosinee (5-1, 6-2).

“I thought we executed in the running game really well,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “Paxton running for over 300 yards is not just a testament to him, it’s a testament to the blocking and all of the kids doing what they need to do, making sure that people are picked up and doing things correctly. To rush for 451 yards is pretty good. I thought our execution level was good.”

Now at 1,785 rushing yards for the season, Rothmeier leads the state, according to WisSports.net. He added four more touchdowns and is tied for fourth in the state with 24. Medford enters the final week of the regular season ranked sixth in Division 3 in the WisSports.net state coaches poll.

The Hodags, who now sit in last place in the GNC at 1-5, 3-5, showed some early spunk. Medford did score quickly on its first possession with Rothmeier’s 40-yard run helping to set up his 12-yard score on the fourth play of the 68-yard drive. The Hodags stopped Medford’s next drive on downs at the 11, throwing Charlie Gierl for a 3-yard loss on fourth down. Medford forced a punt and used the short field to go 39 yards in six plays with Rothmeier scoring from 26 yards out to make it 14-0 with 10:52 left in the half. Rhinelander got a 29-yard screen pass from Truman Lamers to Tyler Chariton to get into the red zone and had a fourthdown touchdown pass to Rowan Wiczek nullified by a penalty. On the replayed down, Gierl sacked Lamers for a 15-yard loss, all the way back to the 40.

On the next snap, Rothmeier darted 60 yards for a touchdown. The two-point pass from Parker Lissner to Evan Paul made it 22-0. With the Hodags now staggering, Tripp Reamer’s 13-yard sack of Lamers quickly ended their next drive and the Raiders went 70 yards in seven plays, getting a 6-yard touchdown run by Wilkins with 50 seconds left in the half, making it 30-0.

“We actually just didn’t do our assignments on that particular play, the screen pass,” Wilson said. “That kind of stuff happens, but going forward obviously it’s a good learning point for us to pay attention to the back out of the backfield in the right situations and being more aware of what could be going on. But that was a big stop on fourth down and big for us to go the other way.

“We had good pass rush,” he added. “Coach (Ross) Hackbarth called a pretty good game, sending some pressure packages with our linebackers at times. It always helps to get a little bit of a rush out of your down linemen, but if you send pressure and it gets home, that’s important too. I thought we did both of those things.”

The knockout punch came quickly in the third quarter. On the first play from scrimmage, Rothmeier went 63 yards to the house and, after the defense got another three and out, Wilkins got through a hole up the middle and was gone from 56 yards out for a 43-0 lead.

“Wilkins didn’t get touched on his run and Paxton had to make one guy kinda miss. Just really well blocked,” Wilson said.

Medford only attempted one pass and it fell incomplete. Rhinelander did get to 100 rushing yards and scored twice with Medford substituting freely by then. Lamers was five of 12 for 70 yards while dealing with the Raiders’ consistent pass rush.

All season long, the Raiders knew the week-nine game at Mosinee would possibly have conference championship implications. But Wilson said the team deserves credit for staying focused all season long at the task at hand to make sure it would. Having already earned a title share, this is Medford’s first GNC title since 2020.

“I think they really took on the mantra of making sure every game was important,” Wilson said. “You can’t overlook a game. You can’t be looking ahead. You have to concentrate on what you can control and that’s this week. That’s today. That’s tomorrow when we get there. You can control what you’re doing in the moment. You can’t necessarily control the future and you can’t control the past. Focus on the moment and keep going and I think they did that very well this year.”