MEDFORD 51, ANTIGO 18 - Raiders get fall’s first ‘W’ in 51-18 rout
After a tough first two weeks with onesided losses to top-10 state-ranked teams, the Medford Raiders were able to use the lessons learned and take out their frustrations Friday in a 51-18 rout of host Antigo in the first week of Great Northern Conference play.
While rolling up 337 rushing yards offensively and forcing three turnovers on defense, the Raiders got to experience that winning feeling for the first time this season and, for many on the roster, did so while playing prominent roles at the varsity level for the first time.
“It feels nice,” senior Sawyer Elsner said. “Everyone knows what it is now and how hard you have to work.”
“You realize how good winning feels and now you want to keep doing it,” junior lineman Forest Hartl said.
The teams traded first-quarter touchdowns, leaving Medford up 8-6 at the time. Then the Raiders ran away from the Red Robins, scoring 36 straight points to put it well out of reach.
“It feels good,” head coach Ted Wilson said. “I think the kids have started to steadily improve. We did play two very, very good teams and very good teams have a tendency to expose your weaknesses pretty quickly. That’s kind of what we got into those first two weeks. We got a little bit exposed. We’re young, super young. We’re still pretty young and making some mistakes that we definitely need to get rectified.
“But it always feels good. The kids get a little more motivated and are a little bit better about trying to fix things when you’re also putting some Ws on the board.”
Elsner was the leading back offensively for Medford, rushing for 124 yards on 16 carries and scoring three times. But he wasn’t alone Colton Soczka (74 yards), Carson Ingersoll (44) and Will Wojcik (41) all gained at least 40 yards on the ground.
“I thought our linemen played very well, especially Forest Hartl. Forest had a great game,” Wilson said. “It felt like the first two weeks we got a little bit dominated by Holmen and Onalaska up front. I felt their offensive and defensive linemen were pretty good players. We’ve learned a lot as linemen going forward after those two weeks. That’s the heart and soul of a team. I truly believe that, always have believed that. Those linemen, the way they play is going to be the way the rest of our kids play. As a group, as a whole they played pretty well.”
“It was way better tonight,” Hartl said. “We kept low, ran our feet, we played way better than the last two weeks.”
“It seemed like no matter who we gave the ball to, there were some yards to be had, which I think means our blocking was improved and we blocked much better,” Wilson said.
Soczka got the fun started by intercepting a Max Kneeland pass on the game’s third snap from scrimmage. That set Medford up on its 44 and the Raiders plowed ahead for a 56-yard touchdown drive on nine plays. Soczka had an 18-yard burst on the drive, which ended with Elsner’s 5-yard touchdown run and his two-point conversion.
Antigo hit Medford with two big plays on its ensuing drive. A 55-yard run by Levi Binversie, who kept the ball on counter fake to the left and had a wide open right side to run on, and then a 22-yard pass from Kneeland to Randy Quevedo set up Kneeland’s 1-yard sneak. The two-point pass failed, keeping Medford in the lead with 3:18 left in the first quarter.
Medford got its biggest play of the night just a couple plays later. On second and 11, Will Wojcik was left uncovered out of the backfield on a wheel route to the left side and quarterback Nick Krause hit his wide-open receiver in stride for a 54-yard touchdown pass that made it 14-6. The defense then forced its second turnover of the quarter as Parker Hill and Elsner met for a sack of Kneeland. Hill’s hit forced a fumble that Luke Klapatauskas recovered at Antigo’s 29-yard line. Five plays later, Elsner scored from the one to make it 206 with 35 seconds still left in the opening quarter.
The Raiders snuffed out a fake punt, giving themselves the ball at Antigo’s 41. It took just three plays to take advantage of that with Wojcik bouncing free on the right side for a 19-yard score. A 57-yard, five-play scoring drive ended emphatically when Elsner burst through the line of scrimmage on a quick hitter and went 39 yards untouched to the end zone for a 36-6 halftime lead.
“That was amazing seeing green grass and then I just hit it,” Elsner said. “I turned around and there was no one there.”
The momentum carried right over into the second half. On the opening possession, the Raiders got a 33-yard run from Ingersoll that took the ball to Antigo’s three. Elsner took it in from there and the two-point pass from Krause to Ashton Behling kicked in the running clock at 44-6.
From there, Antigo put together two scoring drives against Medford’s defensive reserves. But in between, the Raiders got another chunk play as Soczka showed off his speed, starting right and then cutting back left and outrunning the defense for a 43-yard touchdown.
“It was real nice,” Elsner said of the Raiders finding their running game. “That’s what Medford football is all about. Just keep pounding the football right through people.”
While Antigo wound up running for 182 yards and gaining 257 yards overall, the Red Robins had just 113 yards at halftime with two plays accounting for 77 of them. Binversie had 122 yards on 13 carries and Owen Medo had 70 yards on seven carries, all in the second half.
“We made so many strides,” Hartl said. “Our D-line played way lower, much better. We had lots of tackles in the hole, got tackles for losses.”
Medford looks to even its overall and stay unbeaten in the GNC Friday when it ends a three-game road swing at Merrill at 7 p.m. Merrill enters at 0-1 in the conference and 1-2 overall after giving GNC pre-season favorite Mosinee an upset scare before losing 21-14 last Friday.
