MEDFORD 28, LAKELAND 7 - Business taken care of in Level 1 win over the T-Birds

MEDFORD 28, LAKELAND 7

The Medford Raiders built a 22-0 halftime lead and then lost much of that momentum in the second half, but their 28-7 win over the eighth-seeded Lakeland Thunderbirds in Friday’s WIAA Division 3 Level 1 playoff game keeps the season alive and that’s what matters most as the calendar moves toward November.

The top-seeded Raiders did what they expected to do against their Great Northern Conference rivals in the first half, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions and keeping Lakeland’s offense off the scoreboard. While the second half wasn’t as sharp, Medford’s lead was not threatened and, in fact, it grew before Lakeland got its lone score with 1:33 left.

“That’s the number-one goal is to win the game, whether it’s pretty or ugly or somewhat of both, the goal is to win the game and advance and we did that,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said.

“A playoff win is a playoff win,” senior Evan Wilkins said.

Wilkins was one of the standouts who helped carry Medford to victory and a 9-1 overall record. He rushed for 144 and two long touchdowns on just nine carries and had an interception in the end zone to end a scoring threat by the Thunderbirds late in the first half. Wilkins was one of the players expecting a larger role in this game as the availability of his backfield mate, Paxton Rothmeier, was uncertain all the way up until Friday. Rothmeier, the state’s leading rusher, did play after suffering an injury to his mid-section late in the previous week’s win over Mosinee. He gained 138 yards on 21 carries and scored two short touchdowns.

“I knew with Paxton being iffy this week and kinda not getting as many carries and I was going to carry more on my shoulders this week and do more of my thing,” Wilkins said. “It worked out good for us.”

Medford also had to work around the absence of two-way senior starter Charlie Gierl, who missed this game for a family wedding.

“It was a much different week without having Charlie around and with Paxton, I didn’t even know (Rothmeier) was going to actually play until Friday,” Wilson said. “He didn’t practice much at all during the week. He practiced just a tiny bit on Wednesday with no contact and probably got about 10 plays on Thursday in practice. We really played that one by ear. We were trying to prep a lot of people into a lot of different things and mostly worry more about just our basic stuff just so we could run that instead of trying to put in anything special because we had so many different moving parts and trying to figure out where kids were going to be.

“I thought we did OK,” Wilson added. “Wilkins ran the ball really well. He had 144 yards and two touchdowns including the two big ones, so that was good. Paxton ended up carrying 21 times and came out completely healthy. I think he feels fine and is going to be good to go this week. We got Evan Czarnezki some experience at linebacker, which is going to be good for us going forward. I thought as a whole that the kids faced a little bit of adversity and did pretty well.”

It didn’t take long for Wilkins to make his presence felt. After forcing Lakeland to punt after one first down on the game’s first series, Medford took over on its 24, got one first down and then, on second and six, Wilkins got through a nice hole opened up by the line on the right side, picked up a downfield block from Czarnezki and was gone for a 58-yard touchdown that put Medford up 6-0 with 7:08 left in the first quarter.

Rothmeier gained 14 yards and Wilkins added 13 on Medford’s next possession before a 28-yard completion to Alex Faude got the Raiders to Lakeland’s 6-yard line. Rothmeier’s 1-yard score and Czarnezki’s two-point run made it 14-0.

Medford’s defense got a stop on fourth and three, the Raiders took over on their 36 with 8:50 left in the half and turned that into a 48-yard touchdown run by Wilkins where he was basically untouched going right and then making a slight cutback to his left. Rothmeier ran in the two-point try.

“We had really good line movement right off the start,” Wilkins said of his scores. “We had guys up at the second level and then I just had to make one or two guys miss and it was off to the races. Get in the open field and fly.”

Wilkins’ interception on an attempted corner route in the end zone put an end to a 13-play drive by Lakeland with 14 seconds left in the first half.

Medford got the ball first after halftime and was driving, getting to Lakeland’s 13 when a 15-yard penalty ultimately stalled the drive. The Raiders weren’t really the same after that, though they did put together a 14-play scoring drive that took well over six minutes off the clock and ended with Rothmeier’s 4-yard run that was set up by Owen Klussendorf’s first two pass receptions of the season, a 15-yarder and 9-yarder. Faude’s two receptions in the game were also his first of the season.

“It was really neat to see Owen and Al both get some catches,” Wilson said. “That’s one of our simple concept flood routes. The way they were sitting in kind of a cover-two that deep out is wide open. Parker (Lissner) did a nice job putting the ball on Owen twice and Owen did a great job catching it. Al did a good job turning up field on the other one on the sideline. It would’ve been nice if he would’ve gotten it in the end zone but it was a nice catch and run by Al.”

Lakeland’s lone score came when receiver Mitch Mleko picked up a fumble by his teammate Noah Bruckner at the end of screen pass and carried it the final 7 yards into the end zone. The entire play covered 25 yards.

Medford finished with 373 total yards, including 299 on the ground. Lissner was four of six through the air for 74 yards. Lakeland had 193 total yards, 120 through the air and 73 on the ground on 26 carries. Evan Zoch, who had evolved into the top playmaker in Lakeland’s offense was held in check with three catches for 45 yards and 13 carries for 40 yards.

“They like to run a lot of the 5-yard curls, just the little stuff, march it down inside the red zone,” Wilkins said. “When the field tightens up, those little short plays don’t work.”

“I thought in the first half we played with some urgency and built up a nice lead,” Wilson said. “Again, I don’t know what the reason was, but in the second half, we were definitely flat. If we don’t get that penalty and we go in and score and make it 28-0 in the third quarter, maybe things are a little bit different. Those are things that we can’t have going forward.”

Whether or not it was factor Friday, Wilson said it has been getting somewhat frustrating for the Raiders seeing teams trying to keep games close by shortening the game.

“Some of that I think is a couple of teams in the conference, Lakeland included this time, they’re pulling this ‘we’re going to use the whole play clock’ thing to try to keep us out of rhythm, and it does keep us out of rhythm a little bit,” he said. “We’re a get out of the huddle, get up, snap the ball and get going kind of team. When our kids are standing around waiting for the ball to be snapped is a little weird for them.”

Playing an unfamiliar foe in Fox Valley Lutheran figures to get Medford’s attention in Level 2.

“The second half really woke us up and told us we need to play better football,” Wilkins said. “We were still on that Mosinee game and thinking about other things than winning this game. This second half will get us locked in this next week.”