WIAA LEVEL 1 FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS - THE BRACKETS ARE SET
WIAA LEVEL 1 FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS
Once again, the nine-week high school football regular season has seemingly gone by in just one or two blinks of the eye and the WIAA playoffs have arrived.
Locally, the Medford Raiders and Gilman Pirates have the ability to extend their seasons considerably. Now it’s up to them to make it happen.
In Division 3, Medford (7-2 overall, 6-1 GNC) drew the two-seed in their eight-team geographical grouping and will host seventh-seeded Hayward (3-4 GNC, 5-4 overall) in their Level 1 matchup Friday at 7 p.m. At the same time at the other end of Taylor County, Gilman (5-0 Central Wisconsin East, 8-0 overall) opens tournament play as the top seed in its four-team pod in eightplayer football and will host fourthseeded Newman Catholic (4-1 Central Conference, 5-3 overall) in the first round. It’s the third straight year these two will meet in the post-season.
Here’s a look at the opening-round matchups for both teams.
Hayward at Medford
This Level 1 matchup is a rematch of a Week 6 GNC contest held at Raider Field Sept. 22 that Medford won 36-7.
The Raiders scored on their first four possessions, threw for a season-high 137 yards and overwhelmed Hayward’s offensive line, holding the Hurricanes to minus-26 yards rushing in the win.
What was notable about the game is that Hayward went out of character, getting out of its typical spread attack and relying more on a straight-ahead running approach of the I-formation. The Hurricanes also did some things differently against Medford’s run game that caught the Raiders flat-footed at times, even though they were able to overcome it.
“They’ve been a spread team the entire year,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “One week out of the year they decided to play the I with a tight end most of the time and it was against us. In the last couple games they have not been in that formation that they tried to run against us. So what that means, I don’t exactly know. We’ll prepare for all of it.”
Junior Alex Depew orchestrated Hayward’s spread offense early in the year, but since the middle of the Medford game, junior left-hander Keegan Walsh has been the man in charge. According to WisSports.net statistics, Walsh has completed 36 of 70 passes for 587 yards and seven touchdowns. Brock Chucka is the team’s leading rusher with 302 yards but he’s been absent the last couple of weeks as well. Senior Micah Bacon has been the player Hayward has been trying to get the ball to the most in recent weeks. He has 203 receiving yards and 166 rushing yards this year.
This will be the sixth meeting between the two squads since 2019 and the second playoff matchup in that time.
“It can be good and it can be bad,” Wilson said of playing a familiar foe in the playoffs. If Medford wins, it will see another familiar opponent in Level 2, whether it’s Rhinelander or Onalaska. “You have to figure out some wrinkles but you also can’t change much. There’s a lot that goes into getting the kids to where they need to be and running the plays we need to run. I’m a big execution guy. We have to stick with that. But we also have to put in a few wrinkles here or there so it’s something new that maybe they haven’t seen.
“It is what it is. It’s the playoffs. You’re going to see who you’re going to see. If you want to advance you have to find a way to win.”
Medford has had little trouble winning all five of the most recent matchups with Hayward but this, of course, is no time to get complacent.
“I think everybody understands it’s a single elimination thing,” Wilson said. “Just like every other high school sport, if you don’t win, you don’t advance. A lot of our kids are three-sport athletes. They’ve been in the playoffs and they’ve been deep in the playoffs, whether it’s basketball, baseball or wrestling. They all, I believe, understand the importance of trying to put their best foot forward.”
Rhinelander (3-4 GNC, 5-4 overall) is the sixth seed in the bracket and Mississippi Valley Conference cochampion Onalaska (6-1 MVC, 6-3 overall) is the three-seed. The winner of that game will meet the Hayward/ Medford winner in Level 2. Medford beat Rhinelander 40-8 in week seven and ran over Onalaska 52-35 in week two.
The other side of the bracket has topseeded Rice Lake (7-0 Middle Border, 8-1 overall) hosting eighth-seeded La Crosse Logan (3-4 MVC, 3-6 overall) and fifthseeded Lakeland (5-2 GNC, 5-4 overall) visiting fourth-seeded Sparta (3-4 MVC, 5-4 overall) on Friday.
Newman at Gilman
The two-time defending eight-player state champions invade Gilman Friday night, but, certainly, this is not the same group that beat the Pirates in a 2021 state semifinal 29-28 and 49-14 in Level 2 last year and was responsible for winning those two gold balls.
With new faces in most positions, Newman got smacked by Three Lakes-Phelps 28-7 and Florence 32-6 to start the season. As it turned out, both of those teams are pretty good and are threats to make playoff runs on the other side of the eight-player bracket. Newman finished on a 5-1 run, losing only to Almond-Bancroft 52-14 in what could’ve been considered the Central Conference’s championship game Sept. 22.
Offensively, the focal point of Newman’s attack is 6-1, 185-pound junior Logan Ackerman. Like his predecessor at quarterback, Connor Krach, Ackerman is a running and throwing threat. According to WisSports.net statistics, he’s racked up 1,296 rushing yards in eight games, while averaging 8.0 yards per carry. He scored 12 touchdowns. He ran for 300 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-12 win over Port Edwards on Sept. 16 and had five rushing touchdowns while gaining 169 yards on 17 carries in a 50-0 win at Wild Rose Oct. 6. He had 159 yards on 25 carries in a 22-18 win at Tri-County Thursday.
Through the air, he’s 83 for 152 for 920 yards and 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Ackerman’s leading receivers are Carson Rice (25 catches for 322 yards and six touchdowns), Aiden Spychalla (15 for 267 yards, one touchdown) and Quincy Pfender (31 catches, 254 yards, three touchdowns), who are all taller targets. Most of Newman’s passing was done early in the year. They’ve gone to more of a ground approach in the last four weeks.
“It’s going to be very similar to two years ago when they lost their running back (Thomas Bates) and they beat us in Stanley when the quarterback did the majority of the running,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “We’re preparing for that same thing on Friday night. A lot of fakes, a lot of guard traps for him. We have to read our keys and not go for the fake. We have to read what we need to read with our eyes. Then, if the first guy there makes the tackle, we’ll be in good shape.”
Ackerman is also the middle linebacker on defense and can be a dangerous blitzer. The game film shows Newman relying most of the time on a three-man defensive line, but the Cardinals will bring added pressure much of the time.
“They have almost all eight guys just running forward at the snap of the ball,” Rosemeyer said. “It’s aggressive. It gives us an opportunity to make the big play because of how aggressive they are. But it also could be a negative for us. We have to be sure of our blocking, make a guy miss and see what happens after a handoff. We’ll have to use some play action to help try to get behind them too.”
The western half of the 16-team eight-player tournament is no picnic. The Newman/Gilman winner will face either third-seeded Owen-Withee (5-3) or second-seeded Thorp (6-2) in Level 2. Those two teams finished just behind Gilman in the Central Wisconsin-East and played a remarkable game Friday where Thorp forced a late fumble and then drove 95 yards in the final moments to win 24-22.
Level 3, the eight-player semifinals, could bring a matchup with undefeated Clayton or McDonell Central on Nov. 3.
“It is a very tough regional,” Rosemeyer said. “Our four-team pod has Thorp and Owen on the other end. Somebody is going to earn it after a couple weeks. Then Chippewa Falls McDonell gets a two-seed behind Clayton. They’re both undefeated, so it’ll be a three-week gauntlet and a battle of attrition through this whole thing to see who stays healthy. You want to make sure you have your core guys out there that you need for three straight games. Whoever can do that might be in the best shape to get through.”
