Raiders’ title hopes thrown out by Mosinee’s pass attack
MOSINEE 41, MEDFORD 14
The Medford Raiders’ hopes of a Great Northern Conference championship share were smashed Friday by the Mosinee Indians, who left little doubt who the league’s best team of 2021 is with a dominant 41-14 win on homecoming night at Raider Field.
Mosinee quarterback Trevor Garski and his stable of receivers took advantage of Medford’s patched-up secondary, tearing the Raiders’ defense apart to the tune of 327 yards and six touchdowns through the air in the Indians’ seventh straight win. At 6-0 in the GNC and 7-1 overall, Mosinee has clinched at least a share of league championship for the first time since it shared the 2012 title with Medford and, barring something really unforeseen, will secure its first-ever outright GNC title when it hosts Antigo Friday night.
Medford fell to 4-2 in the GNC and 4-4 overall as it finishes the regular season this Friday at Merrill.
“They’re a great football team,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They have a very nice senior class leading them. Their quarterback played extremely well. I think their defense played well. They have a really nice team this year.”
Mosinee put Medford in a quick 14-0 hole, the Raiders briefly recovered, but the Indians made sure Medford’s stay in the game was short with three secondquarter touchdowns that created an insurmountable 35-8 halftime lead.
Garski finished 27 of 35 for 327 yards and threw all six of Mosinee’s touchdown passes. The quickness of sophomore Keagen Jirschele (11 catches for 118 yards) and the size of 6-5 Davin Stoffel (five catches for 89 yards) made life difficult for any Raider who tried to defend them.
“(Garski) definitely threw some balls up there that I would say were 50-50 balls and their kids seemed to come down with them,” Wilson said. “As a whole, they just played really well. They’re strong where we’re a little weak this year. They have a good stable of wide receivers. We’ve lost two defensive backs to injury and we’ve got a kid who has played linebacker his whole life trying to play safety and cover their best wide receiver.”
Jirschele wasted no time impacting the game, catching an 11-yard pass on Mosinee’s opening drive and then hauling in a perfect over-the-shoulder pass from Garski for a 44-yard touchdown on the fifth play of the game. The Raiders fumbled the ball away on their third play, giving the Indians the ball at Medford’s 29. The Indians overcame a sack by Raider Max Dietzman on the first play with a 17-yard run by Wyatt Harris and eventually scored on a 1-yard push pass from Garski to Jirschele to make it 14-0 just 5:44 into the game.
Medford answered with its best offensive possession of the half, marching 63 yards on 12 plays. Aiden Gardner picked up the initial first down with a 9-yard gain on fourth and one. His 28-yard burst put the ball at the two and he scored from a yard out two snaps later. His two-point run cut Mosinee’s lead to 14-8 with 49.3 seconds left in the first quarter.
Drives like that were what Medford’s coaching staff felt it needed to stay in the game and the Raiders didn’t get enough of them.
“I kind of knew going in with as explosive as their offense is we were going to have to keep the ball away from them, grind a little bit,” Wilson said. “We had a couple of drives where we’d get six or seven plays into it and then we made a mistake or two. We got behind the chains and that’s not usually good for us. I thought we played OK (offensively). It’s tough. When you’re playing good teams you have to make sure you’re eliminating your mistakes and try not to give them anything, like that fumble or any- thing else of that nature.”
Medford’s momentum from that score was gone in the blink of an eye. Harris ran for 9 yards, a penalty gave Mosinee five more, a pass to Evan Upthall gained 15 and, on the first play of the second quarter, Garski hit Stoffel for a 29-yard touchdown along the left sideline to open up a 21-8 lead.
Mosinee stopped Medford’s fake punt at midfield and turned that into a 50yard scoring drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown pass from Garski to Barnes Bunkelman. A Medford threat was stopped at the 28-yard line with 1:47 left in the half. Rolling to his left, Garski threw a pinpoint pass over the middle to Kyle Miller, who turned it into a 45-yard gain that took the ball to Medford’s nine. After a motion penalty, Garski hit Stoffel for a 14-yard score with 27.3 seconds left to make it 35-8.
Medford threatened on its second possession of the third quarter when Gardner’s 45-yard run put the Raiders in the red zone, but the drive stalled on downs at the six. Garski’s sixth touchdown pass was an 11-yard strike to Drake Grod at the front left pylon with 5:55 left in the game. Dietzman recovered a late Mosinee fumble and the Raiders cashed in on that, getting a 39-yard pass from Ty Metz to Seth Mudgett that set up Gardner’s 1-yard touchdown run with 2:13 left.
Mosinee added 63 rushing yards to finish with 390 overall on offense. Medford had the best offensive outing anyone in the GNC has had against the Indians with 259 total yards with 185 coming on the ground. Gardner had 139 yards on 28 carries and Metz threw for 74 yards while completing three of seven passes.
While the outcome was certainly disappointing, Wilson said the Raiders can’t afford to dwell on it as they need to regain some momentum Friday before heading into their Oct. 22 WIAA playoff opener.
“We made it into the playoffs and obviously we don’t want to go in on a poor note,” Wilson said. “When you get in there, anything can happen. We’re looking to make as best of a run as we can. I don’t think we’re far away from being really good. We still make some young mistakes at inopportune moments.”
Medford’s Aiden Gardner stiffarms Mosinee’s Barnes Bunkelman while picking up some nice yardage during a first-quarter carry in Friday’s 41-14 homecoming loss to the Indians.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
Glenn Goessl was presented with a plaque at halftime of Friday’s game honoring his 24 years of work as Medford’s football public address announcer.MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
