Raiders get all-too-familiar foe; Pirates draw Clayton
WIAA LEVEL 1 FOOTBALL
Playoff football has arrived at the high school level in Wisconsin and that includes Taylor County, where the Medford Raiders and Gilman Pirates have qualified.
_ The Medford Raiders open WIAA Division 3 play as the sixth seed in its eight-team bracket and will be a heavy underdog in most observers’ eyes when it visits third-seeded Rice Lake at 7 p.m. Friday.
Under head coach Dan Hill, the Warriors beat Medford twice last season and opened the 2021 season with a 28-6 home win over the Raiders on Aug. 20. After a week two 28-20 loss at Maple Northwestern, Rice Lake went 6-1 in the powerful Big Rivers Conference and shared the league title with Menomonie. The Mustangs handed Rice Lake its only BRC loss, 35-0, on Oct. 1.
Otherwise, Rice Lake’s top wins included an impressive 33-12 win at Hudson Sept. 3, an 8-7 win over Chippewa Falls on Sept. 24 and a 44-28 win at New Richmond Friday.
Having played the Warriors at least once a season since 2009 and, now, for the fourth time in two years, there shouldn’t be many secrets. Medford knows Rice Lake will look to set the tone with its running game but will also try to hit a couple of home runs behind the arm of senior quarterback Cole Fenske and speedy receiver Alex Belongia, who has made big plays against Medford’s secondary in all three of the teams’ games in 2020 and 2021.
“They’re a very good football team, well coached,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “To have a share of the title over there, one loss in the Big Rivers, shows they’re a very talented team. They have a great quarterback. They obviously have an extremely talented wide receiver/safety. They make it tough on you because with the offense they run, the wishbone, you can’t necessarily walk out there and double-team (Belongia) all the time because they’ll kill you running the ball.
“You kind of have to pick and choose your spots to try to see if we can control (Belongia) a little bit,” Wilson said. “But if we let them, they’ll roll it right down your throat with their backs. They’re made for running the ball and they’ll try to get a couple of big plays out of their passing game.”
In the season opener, Rice Lake controlled the game with lengthy drives as the Raiders just couldn’t get the third- or fourth-down stops it needed to put its offense back on the field. Likewise, the offense moved the ball at times, but made untimely mistakes or didn’t convert enough third and fourth downs to move the chains.
“At this point in the season you are who you are and they are who they are,” Wilson said. “You just have to go out and execute and get after it. It helps with a little familiarity for the kids, especially with that offense. They’ve played against it. They’ve seen it. But at the same time, them having beaten us the last three in a row isn’t necessarily great for the spirit of competing. But I think we’ll be just fine with that. We’ll go there and put our best foot forward.”
_ After an undefeated regular season, the 8-0 Gilman Pirates drew the top seed in their four-team WIAA eightplayer football bracket and will host the fourth-seeded Clayton Bears at 7 p.m. on Friday.
With a win, Gilman could draw a rematch with McDonell Central in Level 2. The Pirates beat the third-seeded Dons 58-24 on Friday to clinch their second straight undisputed Central Wisconsin West Conference championship. Mc-Donell (6-2) is at second-seeded Prairie Farm (7-1).
As for this week, Gilman renews acquaintances with a team it beat 66-0 last year. Clayton went 5-3 overall this year and 2-3 in the Lakeland West. Notably, the Bears beat Wausau East’s eight-man team 29-28 on Aug. 27 and lost 36-19 to Prairie Farm on Oct. 1. They are coming off a 45-14 loss to Luck, a number-one seed on the other side of the 16-team state tournament bracket.
“They’re going to spread you out,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said of Clayton’s offensive attack. “They are going to do some double tight end stuff or maybe go a little unbalanced. But it’s pretty much all run. They’re a running team no matter what formation they’re going to use. They only average about eight to nine passes per game.”
They are led offensively by 5-10, 180-pound senior Colton Zacharias who, according to WisSports.net statistics, has run for 1,180 yards and 18 touchdowns this year while also throwing for 629 yards while completing 45 of 84 passes. Senior Ryan Becker and junior Avery Starzecki also have surpassed 400 yards on the ground.
Rosemeyer said Gilman’s coaches are hearing Zacharias and his top receiver Nick Luoma may not play due to injury, but they’ll have to prepare for them nonetheless and be ready for anything.
Clayton will have its work cut out for it trying to slow down a Gilman offense that no one has come close to stopping so far this year. The Pirates were impressive at McDonell Friday, rolling up 434 rushing yards in just 45 attempts and a season-high 58 points. The Pirates averaged 50 points and nearly 390 yards per game during the regular season with many contests getting into running-clock mode.
