T-Birds score early and often; Raiders get on the board in Mosinee loss

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

The Medford Raiders took more of a defensive focus in their Tuesday Great Northern Conference soccer rematch with league contender Lakeland and it helped some, but the Thunderbirds’ speed, passing accuracy and shot-making ability was still too much in a 7-0 shutout.

Senior Sophia Myshchyshyn had a first-half hat trick and senior Leah Wolfe added two goals for Lakeland (10-2), who moved a point closer to Rhinelander in the league standings with the win. With Rhinelander tying Northland Pines 1-1 Tuesday but winning the penalty-kick shootout 3-1, the Hodags are 7-0-1 in GNC play and have 23 points, while Lakeland sits at 6-1 with 18 points.

Those teams play tonight, Thursday, at Lakeland. A Hodag win secures the outright championship. However, a Lakeland win would give T-Birds a clear path to the title if they can beat Northland Pines and Antigo next week.

Tuesday’s loss dropped Medford to 2-6 in the GNC and 2-12-1 overall.

“From when we played them last time, we knew they were a very fast team, so we stayed back,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “They didn’t burn us like our first game (a 9-0 loss on April 25). They just made really good shots.”

The first score came 7:55 in on a crossing pass from Josie Wentland to Myshchyshyn. At 14:19, Myshchyshyn punched in the loose ball off a scramble in front of the net.

“It was in the box, and we had a lot of touches,” Tessmann said. “I don’t know if every defensive player touched it, but we just couldn’t get it out.”

Wentland picked up her second assist on a nice crossing pass to Bobbi Lee, who put it home at 24:33. Wolfe scored her first goal at the 35:18 mark to make it 4-0. Myshchyshyn’s free kick from 23 yards out perfectly got above the hands of goalie Sophia Brunner, skimmed the crossbar and got into the net at 37:44 to give Lakeland a 5-0 halftime lead.

Wolfe connected on a long shot from outside the box four minutes into the second half and Taylor Heleniak got the last goal off a Wolfe assist at 49:20, burying a shot into the lower left corner.

Medford held Lakeland scoreless over the final 30 minutes. Brunner finished the game with 13 saves. Lakeland had 34 total shots, 20 of which were on goal.

“We talked a lot this week about trying to squeeze in the middle,” Tessmann said. “We still didn’t do the best at that at the beginning, but then we got better as the game went on. They were just looking for those through balls. Once we could squeeze the middle, it took some of those shots away.”

Medford starts a stretch of four games in six days today, Thursday, with a trip to Antigo. The game kicks off at 5 p.m. Medford’s last win was a 4-1 victory over the Red Robins on April 28. The Raiders will host New Richmond in a 6:30 p.m. start Friday. The Tigers are 3-5 in the Big Rivers Conference and 7-6-3 overall.

Another non-conference game will be held at Raider Field Monday when Medford hosts Hayward at 7 p.m. The Hurricanes are 7-7-1 overall, including a 1-0 win at Rhinelander on April 2.

Medford wraps up GNC play Tuesday by hosting Northland Pines, who seems to be playing its best soccer at the right time of the year, at 7 p.m.

Mosinee 2, Medford 1

The good news Thursday was Medford broke a twoweek scoring drought with Sierra Tessmann’s first-half goal off a free kick. The bad news was that goal only cut a two-goal deficit in half and that’s where the score remained the rest of the way in a 2-1 loss to Mosinee at Raider Field.

The difference in the game, arguably, was a shot from a tough angle by Mosinee’s Madalyn Samz in the opening moments that somehow found the net and put the Indians ahead to stay.

From there, shots were basically even between the teams, both teams got one quality shot into the net and both defenses denied a run or two that showed scoring promise.

Samz’s floater just 1:44 in came from the right corner and somehow found its way in from the opposite corner of the net.

“It surprised everyone,” coach Tessmann said. Medford seemed to be building an edge in possession time as the first half progressed. But after a water break at the midway point of the first half on an unseasonably warm night, Mosinee gained an offensive advantage and broke through at the 24:30 mark when Kaitlyn Selle picked up a loose ball, dribbled in about 35 yard and fired a perfect shot to the lower left corner to make it 2-0.

It only took about a minute for Medford to answer when Tessmann lobbed in her free kick from the right side of the formation about 22 yards out.

“She said she saw them talking and she knew she needed to take it quick,” coach Tessmann said. “She got it over everybody. The goalie (Jessica Brown) got her hand on it, but it went in. That got our spirits up. Again, we had our shots, we just weren’t getting them in.”

With wind at their backs in the first half, the Raiders had the edge in pressure through the remainder of the half, getting several corner kicks in the process. Sierra Tessmann placed most of those kicks well, but Mosinee’s defense didn’t allow the Raiders to get a clean shot off them.

Lydia Pernsteiner had Medford’s best chances of the second half. Those came early in the second half about 30 seconds apart when two crossing shots from right to left slipped just wide of the post.

Medford’s stats sheet showed a 13-12 edge for Mosinee on shots. Medford put nine of their shots on goal, while Sophia Brunner had seven saves for the Raiders.

“The girls still played hard, they stayed positive the whole time and were supporting each other out there,” coach Tessmann said. “They didn’t give up. We’ll just keep working on finding the back of the net.”