Depth tested as Medford survives the Hurricanes

MEDFORD 30, HAYWARD 20

The Medford Raiders bulldozed their way to 351 rushing yards, including 254 from Aiden Gardner, and never trailed in a 30-20 Great Northern Conference win at Hayward Friday.

Things did get interesting as Medford’s depth was deeply tested, particularly on defense and the Hurricanes were able to take advantage of that, especially in the third quarter when they put together consecutive touchdown drives. But the Raiders got through it, put another notch in the win column and now sit one win away from another WIAA playoff berth.

“It’s tough,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “This is probably as many injuries as we’ve had in quite a long time. Between that and a little bit of the quarantining stuff, it’s definitely put us to the test as far as who’s playing where and what and trying to make in-game adjustments and just getting kids to do a job they maybe haven’t been trained up for.”

Gardner and the offensive line did their jobs, steadily moving the ball all night long. The Raiders never punted but lost a first-quarter fumble in Hayward territory and were stalled on occasion by what the coaching staff felt was an overzealous officiating crew that flagged the Raiders 10 times in the game for 105 yards.

The lost fumble came on Medford’s game-opening drive and with a penalty tacked on, the Hurricanes started in good position at the Raiders’ 37. Hayward went backwards in three plays and punted. The Raiders then went 82 yards in 10 plays, highlighted by a 37-yard pass from Ty Metz to Brigham Kelley, and scored the game’s first points on Gardner’s 23yard touchdown run as he burst through a hole to the left side. He also ran in the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

Hayward put together a nice drive that, unfortunately for the Hurricanes, stalled on downs at Medford’s 9. The Raiders quickly turned around the field position and went 91 yards in just five plays to build a two-score lead. Garner broke off runs of 11, 10, 24 and 17 yards, then Caleb Guden sprinted untouched to the right pylon on a counter for a 29-yard touchdown. Tukker Schreiner’s twopoint run made it 16-0 midway through the second quarter.

Guden, who had primarily been a pass receiver through five games, had a larger role in the offense Friday, carrying 11 times for 81 yards and had some big plays called back by penalties, including what would have been a 61-yard touchdown run, but the Raiders wound up scoring on that late second-quarter drive anyway.

“We know we need to get the ball in his hands a bit more,” Wilson said. “We had some plans to go into some different formations that we’ve been working on but haven’t really run too much this year to try to isolate him a bit more and get him the ball. With the way the reffing was going, it just didn’t manifest itself the way we would have liked.”

With the help of a couple of flags, Hayward got on the board with a 63-yard scoring drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown catch by its best athlete, receiver Nhzoo Sullivan.

Medford, though, answered with a huge strike in the final minute of the half. A 41-yard pass from Parker Crass hit Guden perfectly to put the Raiders at the five and Schreiner covered the rest of it on the next play. Gardner’s two-point run made it 24-6 at halftime.

“Aiden did a great job,” Wilson said. “He really did a good job of being patient and letting his blocking develop and then trying to put it down another gear to get extra yards.”

With Medford’s defensive backfield down three projected starters, Hayward quarterback Chase Briggs went on the attack in the third quarter. The Hurricanes got a 23-yard scoring run from Melvin White on their first possession to pull within 24-14. Medford countered with another scoring drive with Gardner and Guden splitting the 66 yards in nine plays, the last of which was a 2-yard touchdown run for Guden.

Briggs hit Sullivan for 25-yard touchdown and the two-point conversion could have made it a one-score game, but Sullivan was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after his catch, forcing Hayward into an 18-yard attempt for two that failed, keeping it a 10-point game.

Medford put the game away with two drives in the fourth quarter that didn’t produce points, but chewed up most of the last 12 minutes.

Medford finished with 429 total yards of offense, that included two of four passing for 78 yards. Wilson said the bright spot there was that all four passes, three by Metz and one by Crass, were right where they needed to be.

“I was pleased with how Ty threw the ball,” Wilson said. “The three throws he had, he did a good job and Parker put a nice ball on Chubs.”

Briggs finished 15 of 22 for 198 yards. Sullivan caught eight of those passes for 133 yards.

“It was more of an experience type of thing,” Wilson said of the defensive results. “The more you see, the more you understand. You have to be careful, and we talked about this earlier in the season with the kids we have in the first place. Some of what makes starters the starters is their eye discipline and their ability to key what they’re supposed to key instead of looking at the eye candy the offenses have a tendency to give them. When you start getting kids that aren’t as experienced that can be a difficult thing to try to figure out mid-game.”

Medford will see another good pass- ing attack next week when Mosinee is in for homecoming. This week, the Raiders will aim to take care of business at Antigo in its homecoming game and punch its playoff ticket. The Red Robins have only played three games this year and, with a forfeit win at Ashland, officially sit at 1-3 in GNC play. On the field, they’ve lost to Escanaba, Mich., Merrill and 42-0 Friday to Rhinelander.