HOLMEN 55, MEDFORD 16 - Medford overwhelmed by powerful, veteran Holmen squad

The Medford Raiders knew they were in for a challenge in Friday’s football season opener against Holmen and the Vikings more than met that expectation, blitzing the Raiders 55-16 in non-conference play at Raider Field. A year ago, Medford knocked off Holmen 26-13, but with an nearly entirely new cast of starters, the Raiders simply were no match for the Vikings, who bring back a wealth of experience from last year’s team that went on to earn a share of the Mississippi Valley Conference title after its loss to Medford. “They’re a really good program,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They had a lot of returners coming back from a team that was a conference champion and I’m sure they have super high expectations for themselves. We don’t have a ton of returning pieces and a couple of the pieces we’re supposed to return are injured. I think we got a real quick, fast introduction to what varsity football is like and they blitzed us pretty quickly. “You can definitely tell we’re young, very, very young. But I think we can use it as a good learning opportunity. I think we will learn from it and I think we’ll get better.” Holmen scored on all seven of its firsthalf possessions to roll to a 48-0 halftime lead, marking the toughest first half a Medford team has had since it trailed by the score at Rice Lake in an eventual 48-14 loss in the 2021 WIAA playoffs. The last five of those possessions started in Medford territory as the offense did not get a first down in the half and Holmen also blocked a punt to set up a touchdown drive that went only 4 yards. Holmen finished with 312 rushing yards, averaging 8.7 yards per carry. Speedy senior back Jack Barth, who had 99 yards in last year’s game, had 182 yards on just six carries Friday and also caught both of Holmen’s pass completions for 34 yards and another score. Elijah Kane added 106 yards on 14 carries as Medford had some good plays here and there, but couldn’t string enough together to get the Vikings’ offense off the field. “You have to do things right if you’re going to be a good team,” Wilson said. “Talent is one thing, but you have to do things right. I think they’re all fixable mistakes, but there has to be willingness to fix it and I think our kids will do that.” Holmen’s best offensive drive was its first one. The Vikings went 62 yards in 11 plays and overcome a holding penalty to score on Barth’s 19-yard catch on a wheel route to the left side. The drive took the first 6:08 of the game off the clock. Barth then got loose for an 80-yard touchdown run along the right sideline on the first play of Holmen’s next drive, making it 14-0 with 3:33 left in the first quarter. After a short punt, Medford had a chance to stop Holmen’s next drive, which started at Medford’s 40, following a personal foul and a 5-yard sack of quarterback Colin Williams by Raider sophomore Luke Klapatauskas. But Barth foiled that with a 43-yard touchdown run against a caved-in left side of Medford’s defense on the first play of the second quarter. Barth’s 36-yard punt return set up a short 14-yard drive that ended with Kane’s 10-yard touchdown. Holmen stopped Medford’s Sawyer Elsner for a 1yard gain on fourth and two from its own 28 and that led to Barth’s 23-yard touchdown run. After another Medford punt, Kane scored on the first play from 47 yards out and the blocked punt in the final minute of the half set up a 4-yard score for AJ Alesch. Medford’s offense did score on its first two possessions of the second half against Holmen’s number-two defense. Elsner’s 41-yard run set up his 3-yard touchdown on an eight-play, 80-yard drive. Carson Ingersoll added the two-point run to make it 48-8 with 8:26 left in the third quarter. Holmen’s top offense got one last drive before calling it a night and scored on a 10play, 61-yard march with Kane getting the touchdown from 24 yards out. Medford went on another 80-yard scoring drive after that, ending it on an 8yard scoring run from Cash Thums with 4:53 left. Ashton Behling added the twopoint run. The defense got its only stop of the night after that with Klapatauskas recovering a fumble. “Probably the biggest thing is our kids didn’t quit,” Wilson said. “Whether it was the twos or not, we could’ve just rolled over and let the twos beat on us too and we didn’t do that. That’s important. It’s important to show heart, it’s important to show that ‘hey, just because things didn’t go our way in the first half that we’re not just going to lay down even though we’re down.’” After mustering just 19 yards of offense in the first half, Medford finished with 199 total yards, all but three of which came on the ground. Elsner had 76 yards on 14 carries. Ingersoll had 49 yards on eight carries and Colton Soczka had 37 yards on five attempts. Next up for Medford is a trip Friday to another potential Mississippi Valley Conference title contender, Onalaska. “Obviously the last few years, we’ve had some better success in the first two weeks,” Wilson said. “I don’t think playing somebody where you can make the mistakes we made and still easily win makes you a better football team. Nobody likes to get beat like that, nobody likes that feeling. But as far as taking things and being able to learn from it and trying to get kids better, sometimes you can really get better from the losses more than the wins.”