Tigers roar for 44 seconds and win; Raiders rout Jays, Robins
A non-conference test against Marshfi eld Tuesday was the perfect playoff primer for the Medford Raiders, who had the Division 1 squad on the ropes before two late goals in a 44-second span allowed the Tigers to escape Raider Field with a 2-1 win.
Quinton Tlusty gave the Raiders a 1-0 lead at the 58:21 mark by converting a penalty kick after he was fouled in the box. It was the second straight night Tlusty buried a penalty kick.
But with less than 10 minutes left in the game, Marshfield got through cracks in the Medford defense with goals from Will Domine and Laurens Kersten to improve to 4-8-3.
Medford is 7-7-1 with one game remaining before WIAA Division 3 postseason play begins. The Raiders host Northland Pines tonight, Thursday, at 7 p.m. at Raider Field. As the fourth seed in the sectional half-bracket, they’ll host fifth-seeded Rhinelander Oct. 21 in a regional semifinal with the winner likely earning a trip to top-seeded and GNC champion Lakeland on Oct. 23.
“We played great,” Medford head coach Nate Bilodeau said. “This was a match where we had to have the will to want to win. We said if you have that mindset and have that mentality to want to win, we can beat this team. We played really well. We played great soccer. Quinton got his goal and there was about 20 minutes left and I said let’s just slow it down, possess the ball and make sure we’re not turning the ball over.”
During three games in a six-day span, the Raiders seemed to correct issues they’d been having on the defensive end on opponents’ set plays. But, they did get caught flat-footed at times with the ball in play and eliminating those very brief but potentially costly lapses is a focus heading into next week.
At the 70:04 mark, Marshfield got possession of a goalie kick by Medford’s Jake Dassow, worked the ball through the middle and tied the game on Domine’s goal, which was assisted by Matheus Molina. At 70:48, Kersten surprised Medford by blasting a long shot that found the back of the net and put Marshfield in front.
“His shot was phenomenal,” Bilodeau said. “An absolute screamer to the back of the net. It kind of caught Jake off-guard because (Kersten) was really far out. It was a rifled shot. But again, our defense was caught just kind of standing around. That’s where I get a little disappointed where we have a lead and we can’t keep and maintain it. We break down a little defensively.”
Bilodeau said, despite the two late goals, Dassow was one of Medford’s top performers in the loss.
“Jake Dassow had a great game,” he said. “He had some phenomenal saves in the back and he was a lot more vocal. We have a lot more confidence in Jake now and that’s what the team needs. I’m proud of the way he’s been able to shake off the first half of the season. Then he was out for two weeks due to contact tracing. He came back and he’s really grown a lot, which is great because it’s going to give everyone more confidence going into the playoffs and obviously next season.”
The Raiders did lose leading scorer Zach Rudolph to knee injury and played without Sam Blair, one of their key defensemen. Tlusty’s score on a penalty kick was his second in as many nights.
“It was a great shot,” Bilodeau said. “Quinton’s probably one of our best penalty shooters. He’s just consistent and that’s what you need. He and Aaron Schield are probably the most consistent penalty shooters that we have.”
While the loss wasn’t something Medford wanted to accept, Bilodeau said most of his takeaways from the match were positive.
“It was kind of a weird post-game moment because we had half the boys proud of playing really good soccer against a D1 school and then you had the other that said we should have won that match and I agree with both of them,” he said.
Medford 8, Merrill 1
The Raiders took advantage of a second straight overmatched opponent, scoring eight goals in each half of an 8-1 non-conference win over Wisconsin Valley Conference cellar dweller Merrill on Monday.
Gage Neubauer notched a hat trick, Rudolph scored twice and Tlusty had a goal and an assist in the win.
“I think it was a good game for the offense to work on some of the fundamentals that we’ve been lacking in the past few matches,” Bilodeau said. “We’re working on some link-up play, a lot of give and gos with the wings and the striker and the center mids. Those are the things we practice and it was nice to actually implement them and put them into game play and capitalize on our scoring opportunities.”
While the eight goals tied a seasonhigh set just four days earlier, the Raiders had chances to score several more, but they were denied by some fantastic saves from Merrill’s freshman goal keeper Joshua Henderson.
Henderson, however, couldn’t quite get his hands fully on a left-to-right crosser by Kale Klussendorf at the 8:53 mark and the deflection was punched in by Neubauer for the game’s first goal. The play started with a throw-in from Klussendorf. He got the ball back on a perfect back-tap to the corner from Rudolph and sent in the shot that turned into an assist.
Bilodeau said Medford’s midfielders possess the ball so well that it’s hard not to attack the middle, but the coaches have been trying to stress getting the wings more involved and it paid off Monday.
“We played the wings a ton tonight, which was huge,” he said.
Neubauer nearly got another goal seconds later but was denied by Henderson. Rudolph, though, made it 20 at 23:29. Gerardo Estrada Rodriguez headed the ball to Neubauer, who tapped it to Rudolph who got free up the middle and buried the shot from 10 yards.
Merrill got within 2-1 at 29:43 when Matthew Rydeski took advantage of Medford’s inability to clear the ball after an initial pass was broken up.
The 2-1 score didn’t last long. Rudolph’s long free kick found a sprinting Neubauer and he stuck it inside the left post at 31:03. At 37:51, Gabe Felix was the first to an Adyn Gripentrog corner kick and stuck it in uncontested for a 4-1 lead that stood through halftime.
Arguably, the prettiest goal of the night was scored 3:02 into the second half. Silas Wipf pushed the ball up the right sideline to Tlusty, who joined Neubauer in beating the defense and putting Henderson in a no-win situation. Tlusty fed Neubauer for the easy score and a 5-1 lead.
“I told Quinton that was the most un-SCOTT selfish thing I’ve seen you do ever,” Bi- lodeau said. “He could’ve shot it, there was no question. He was one-on-one with the goalie. The pass was perfect to Gage. Gage had the composure to score. It was a great link-up play. Those are the things we try to coach and instill in these guys.”
Tlusty was fouled in the box at 49:09 and converted the penalty kick. Rudolph created his own shot and scored from 15 yards out at 54:10. Defenseman Braeden Long closed the scoring with his first varsity goal with 25 seconds left in the game, lobbing in a shot from 24 yards.
“I think I was jumping up and down on the sidelines just as much as the guys were,” Bilodeau said. “What’s cool about that though is, going back to the unselfishness of this team, Quinton was playing wing and he was telling Braeden to move up. If you want to try to score, move up. Quinton had a goal and an assist tonight. It was nice to see him say Braeden go up there and try to score.”
Medford 8, Antigo 2
Tlusty recorded a hat trick and Rudolph scored twice in Medford’s 8-2 blowout win at Antigo Thursday in Great Northern Conference play.
The Raiders jumped ahead of the Red Robins with three first-period goals and then broke it wide open by scoring twice in the first four minutes of the second half.
The result kept Antigo winless in GNC play. The Red Robins are 0-9 head- ing into tonight’s finale at Rhinelander, though they are 5-15 overall.
Silas Wipf got the scoring started just 6:44 into the contest and Tlusty followed with his first goal at the 8:31 mark. Gage Neubauer got goal number three at 26:03.
Tlusty’s goal just 1:27 into the second half, followed by Rudolph’s score at 43:17 made it 5-0. Vincent Seidel had the assist on Rudolph’s goal. Tlusty assisted on Ru- dolph’s second goal of the night, which came at 53:23.
The Red Robins cut into that lead a bit, getting con- secutive goals from Wes Ebel and Trevor Walbeck. But Tlusty capped his hat trick in the 74th minute and Felix found the back of the net in the 79th minute to put it away.
Jake Dassow played the first half in net for the
Gage Neubauer wins a race to the ball with Antigo’s Alex Samolinski during the first half of Thursday’s 8-2 win over the Red Robins.WALBECK/ANTIGO DAILY JOURNAL
