WIAA DIV. 3 BOYS SOCCER - Raiders capture elusive first win after Mosinee steals it Thursday

WIAA DIV. 3 BOYS SOCCER

It hasn’t been the season Medford’s boys soccer team envisioned when it kicked things off in August, but, the reward finally came Tuesday when the Raiders went on a three-goal scoring barrage in the second half and eliminated host Antigo 4-1 in a WIAA Division 3 regional opener.

The Red Robins got Medford twice in the regular season with 1-0 and had three straight wins over the Raiders dating back to last year.

Senior Michael Meyer notched Medford’s first hat trick of the season, Keagan Gehrke added a goal and the defense limited Antigo (5-13) to just a couple of decent scoring chances in the first official win of the season for the 1-11-3 Raiders.

“It was a much better second half,” Medford head coach Adam Derr said. “I still wouldn’t say we played a full 80 minutes, but we’re getting closer. They had only five shots on goal. That was big and was something we talked a lot about. In the first game against us, they had 10 shots but only one on goal. In the second game we played in Medford, they had eight shots on goal and 15 total shots.

“We kept them from taking quality shots. That was a big deal,” he added. “I feel we did our jobs defensively.”

Of course, it helps to have some offense to complement the defense. After scoring a season-high two goals in their previous game Thursday, the Raiders doubled that on Tuesday, led by Meyer, who now has seven goals for the season, more than half of Medford’s 12, and is taking advantage of a strategic move the Raiders implemented last week.

“I was a little nervous when we moved him up front last week,” Derr said. “We took a page on the Northland Pines coach’s book. Put your best player up front if you’re struggling to score. We tried it and Mike has five goals in his last three games. I was worried if we did that, he would not be involved in the game as much. He has such a great work ethic. It shows with the connection he has with the team. I guess it was something we should’ve done earlier.”

Derr said Tuesday’s game was the first one Meyer ever played with contact lenses opposed to the glasses everyone who follows the team is accustomed to. That may have played a role in the first goal where, just over 11 minutes in, he headed in a Grant Neubauer corner kick to put Medford up 1-0.

“He came off the field and said to Jake (Dassow) his glasses probably would’ve broken with that header exactly like they did in Thursday’s game,” Derr said.

Antigo countered with their best play of the night, a centering pass from the right side that found a foot right in front of the goal and beat Raider keeper Cale Schulz at 34:30. That was in the midst of a stretch where the Raiders kind of “disappeared,” as Derr put it, after taking their early lead.

“We came off the field at halftime looking like we were down 4-0,” Derr said. Jake, Onyi (Ekwueme) and myself had to pump them back up. We came out after the break and we pummeled them.”

Just five minutes into the second half, Nathan Schuld’s through ball found its way to Meyer and he won his one-on-one with Antigo keeper Logan Griese for the go-ahead goal. In the 60th minute, a shorter through ball from Judah Wipf got to Meyer, who made the shot to complete his hat trick.

“That was a big deal for him,” Derr said. “He was pretty pumped up about it.”

A ball sent in by Levi Zuleger found its way to Gehrke, who closed the scoring by putting his shot into the lower left corner.

Medford had 16 shots total with nine of them being on goal. Antigo had a 4-3 edge in corner kicks. The Raiders were called offsides six times, mostly due to Meyer’s aggressiveness, which the coaches certainly didn’t mind.

Derr gave credit to Antigo for having one of its best seasons but said it was big for his team to win comfortably heading into a major test tonight, Thursday, in a regional semifinal at top-seeded Lakeland.

“The guys really needed to get a solid win,” Derr said. “The guys clearly outplayed Antigo. To win a game convincingly like that was important to the guys.”

Lakeland won the Great Northern Conference by one point over Northland Pines with an 8-0-2 record and the Thunderbirds are 14-1-2 overall. They beat Medford 2-0 and 5-0 in the regular season, with the second win coming just two weeks ago.

But Medford has found new life in the last week and goes in with nothing to lose. Tonight’s winner will play either fifthseeded Seymour or fourth-seeded Waupaca Saturday in the regional final.

“We’re going in with some confidence now after the last three games,” Derr said. “We’re still going to have to play a little bit better, but if we get some bounces and if we can play our best game, we have a chance.”

Mosinee 3, Medford 2

On Thursday, the Raiders felt like the work they’d put in was going to pay off with a well-played win over Mosinee in the home, Great Northern Conference and regular-season finale.

And then it didn’t. A game Medford thoroughly controlled for 69 minutes and led 2-0 went south in a hurry when Mosinee got two goals from Omar Ingram sandwiched around a Cooper Zastrow goal in the last 11 minutes for a stunning 3-2 win and sole possession of third place in the final GNC standings at 4-5-1.

Medford’s league year ended at 0-8-2 and with the painful feeling of letting a win it absolutely had in its grasp get away.

“For 69 minutes, we played great,” Derr said. “I think with all of the losses leading up to this one, they started getting excited. You have to finish out the game. A couple of, not even mistakes. Just a couple of good plays by the other team and we started getting nervous.”

The first good play that brought the late energy to Mosinee’s side of the field was a perfectly-executed corner kick at 69:43 after Schulz had made a key save, deflecting a straight-on head shot by Mosinee’s Evan Karst.

Karst’s corner kick from Schulz’s right found Ingram, who was well marked by Schuld, and Ingram’s head shot lobbed into the upper corner of the net to make it 2-1.

“We even played good defense on that one,” Derr said.

Schulz made an easy save a couple minutes later. But at 75:21 the Indians got the equalizer –– with some controversy.

Off a long punt by Mosinee keeper Isaac Cherek and a collision in the chase for the ball, Zastrow emerged with possession and passed it ahead to George Ahles. The ball got to Schulz a split-second before Ahles did. They bumped, the ball squirted free and Zastrow booted it into the net. The officials allowed the goal to stand.

With tension now mounting on the Raiders, Mosinee penetrated the defense once again at 77:33 and got the gamewinner. Greyson Grabielski got the ball kicked right back to him on a sideline throw-in. His centering kick was allowed to roll free until it found Ingram’s foot. His low right-to-left kick easily found the net.

“Their second goal to tie it up, it is what it is,” Derr said. “The third one, again, you gotta have possession of the ball. That’s what we’ve been talking about. Get the ball on our side of the field, so they don’t get those chances.”

The only chance Medford had to tie was at 78:35 when Cherek seemed to misjudge a long, high shot from Oliver Koffler just for a moment, but he recovered and made the catch.

Medford had the game’s first scoring chance, but Cherek made the save on Dominic Fennell’s breakaway 2:20 in. Karst’s direct kick from 25 yards out rolled left of the post at 15:45, then a minute later, the Raiders got the break they’ve been seeking for most of the year when Schuld, the team’s co-captain and defensive leader, took a short drop pass from Koffler, took one dribble and drilled a 30-yard shot that caught Cherek flatfooted and put the Raiders on top.

Medford had three good chances for a second goal in the next four minutes. Meyer’s breakaway shot went wide at 17:05, Neubauer’s rebound shot went wide right at 20:35 and Meyer’s shot off a corner kick was saved at 21:05.

The Raiders got their second goal early in the second half at 43:03. Fennell took control of the ball at midfield and pushed it ahead to the cutting Meyer who just beat Cherek to it and touched it past the keeper without colliding. Meyer nearly made it 30 at 54:30, but as the breaks have gone for the Raiders this year, he hit the left post.

“I think in the first half, we had two or three chances that could have put the game away,” Derr said “In the beginning of the second half we probably had a couple. Mike hit the post. We haven’t had bounces all year and, again, the ball didn’t bounce our way.”

Despite the loss, it was Medford’s second straight strong outing, following a 1-1 tie at Rhinelander two nights earlier.

“You can’t complain about the way our guys played the first 69 minutes and the heart that they showed,” Derr said. “It showed how much better we have gotten as the season has gone on. Nobody’s quit on this team. Everybody’s out there working hard. They’re coming back. They want to play. They’re hungry. Just unlucky and you just have to play that whole 80 minutes.”

Senior Anthony Seidel puts his foot into a free kick during the second half Thursday’s 3-2 loss to Mosinee at Raider Field. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS

Michael Meyer