Raiders look tournament-ready in 4-2 win over Northland Pines
MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER
Shaking off a miscue that gave the visitors an early lead, the Medford Raiders closed the 2021 regular season with a solid, momentum-building performance in a 4-2 win over Northland Pines.
Four different players scored goals, the Raiders held a significant edge in possession and scoring chances were in control from the moment they tied the game at 1-1, just over three minutes after Pines took its only lead.
Medford finished 5-5 in Great Northern Conference play and carries an 8-71 overall record into WIAA Division 3 tournament play, which starts tonight, Thursday, with a 7 p.m. regional semifi- nal against Rhinelander at Raider Field.
“The mentality has changed for the better,” Medford head coach Nathan Bilodeau said. “We’re starting to focus on each other more and playing for each other rather than being selfish and wanting to score goals and have the me mentality. It’s more about how can we win games, how can we score goals. That’s good and we need that. I still think we can beat any of these teams in the GNC. Every team is good. Every team is really good. But, I still think we can beat any one of them.”
The first great scoring chance of the game came 10 minutes in when Pines goal keeper Patrick Roth made a diving stab to his right of a laser kicked by Silas Wipf that seemed to be headed for the inside of the left post.
At 27:05, Eagle Gabe Smith stole the ball at midfield, carried it into the offensive end and pushed it ahead to Ryan Muench, who was able to get to pointblank range and score.
But at 30:27, the game turned when Zach Rudolph, on a direct kick from 32 yards out, hit a bullet that deflected high off an Eagle’s foot and looped over Roth, who had already dove to the ground, and bounced into the net.
Not long after that, at 36:45, Adyn Gripentrog lofted a long pass to the right corner to Quinton Tlusty, who beat a defender and dribbled in for a close shot that was deflected by Roth, but Gage Neubauer was in the right spot at the right time for an easy tap-in at the left post.
Tlusty, who has become an offensive force in the season’s home stretch, had a big role in both of Medford’s second-half goals.
The first came just 1:03 into the 40-minute half. A long punt by goal keeper Jake Dassow was touched by Rudolph and then picked up along the right sideline by Tlusty, who beat one defender, stopped and then centered the ball to Gerardo Estrada Rodriguez, whose left-footed shot just snuck inside the left post.
“That’s where we utilize the team’s strengths,” Bilodeau said. “Q is going to be the fast wing guy that can beat teams down the sideline. He can either take the ball in and shoot or he can have a cross. We’re kind of making up for Colton Gowey. Gowey was that guy last year. Q has really stepped up. He’s done a nice job. He puts himself in those positions where he’s able to dish the ball off. That’s something we work on. When you’re in a position like that, can you take a shot? Maybe? Or do you pass the ball off and almost guarantee a goal and put ourselves in a much better scoring position?”
Tlusty’s beautiful lob shot from the right side from a difficult angle and off a nice feed from Rudolph put the game away at the 63:44 mark.
“He just saw it,” Bilodeau said. “That’s what we try to do. Before you shoot, you use your peripheral vision to see where that goalie is, try to take a second to look up. He must’ve done it because he saw where the goalie was and just popped it perfectly. That’s where we talk about the balance between accuracy and power. Right there, he didn’t need power, he just needed some accuracy and he placed it well.”
Muench scored again on a header off a corner kick from Owen Uebe at 72:45, but it was too little, much too late for the Eagles, who finished 3-6-1 in the GNC and 6-8-2 overall.
“They have a very strong program,” Bilodeau said. “They have great coaching. Their players are really good and we knew that coming in. We wanted to prepare for that. We played really, really good tonight. Really proud of the way the guys played.”
The Raiders now are ready for a week of regional rematches against GNC rivals. They split with Rhinelander in the regular season, losing 1-0 at home and winning 2-0 on the road. Tonight’s winner will likely travel on Saturday to the bracket’s number-one seed Lakeland, who won the GNC with an 8-1-1 record and swept the Raiders during the regular season 2-0 and 1-0. Rhinelander, however, is the team that tied the T-Birds and beat them in a penalty-kick shootout on Oct. 5.
The team that survives the weekend will play in a sectional semifinal Oct. 28 with number-two Waupaca and numberthree Mosinee being potential opponents.
