Raiders widen GNC lead at Antigo, win defensive battle in Mosinee

MEDFORD BOYS SOCCER

The Medford Raiders took care of business in Antigo Tuesday, cruising to a 9-0 win over the last-place Red Robins and, in the process, were able to widen their lead a bit in the Great Northern Conference standings.

Their win, combined with Lakeland’s 1-1 tie with Northland Pines that ended with the T-Birds taking the shootout, put the Raiders three points ahead of secondplace Lakeland and four ahead of thirdplace Rhinelander in the standings.

Medford is 4-0 in GNC play with one of those wins coming in a shootout and stands at 6-1-2 overall heading into the last game of the first round of league play tonight, Thursday, at Northland Pines. The Raiders have 11 conference points and have a little more cushion going into back-to-back GNC games at Rhinelander and Lakeland Sept. 22 and 29, where things could tighten up or Medford could basically clinch the 2022 championship.

“It was 4-0 at halftime and it was one of those games where it could have been 8-0 at halftime,” Medford head coach Nate Bilodeau said. “Often playing on grass versus turf makes a difference and it was evident last night. We just needed to be a lot cleaner in our play and a little more disciplined. We came out in the second half and scored two goals in the first five minutes. So, they learned quickly. Our little halftime chat usually seems to do the trick. We kind of unfortunately have that reputation of being a secondhalf team. We came out and scored five goals in 15 minutes.”

With the 9-0 lead, the game ended via the mercy rule at the 60-minute mark. The margin for the rule to kick in has been lowered by the WIAA from 10 to eight.

Zach Rudolph had a huge night with four of Medford’s goals, while Aaron Schield also had a huge night with four assists and a goal on a corner kick.

“Aaron was by far our distributor,” Bilodeau said.

Silas Wipf also earned a hat trick with three goals and Naut van Meurs added one goal and an assist. Bilodeau had Rudolph, Wipf, van Meurs, Adyn Gripentrog and Jimmy Murillo Aguirre credited with one assist each.

“That just shows the team effort,” he said. “We don’t have guys just taking the ball and scoring on their own. They’re all team goals.”

Ken Pace got his first varsity start in goal, filling in for the injured Jake Dassow, and was able to ease into it with very little action.

“It was a good game to get some of the lesser experienced players some game time,” Bilodeau said.

Antigo fell to 0-4 in the GNC with the loss and is 3-7-1 overall.

Northland Pines could be an intriguing opponent in today’s 4:30 p.m. contest. The Eagles only beat Antigo 1-0 on Thursday, but have tied Lakeland and Mosinee 1-1 in league play, won the shootout with Mosinee and gave Rhinelander a battle before the Hodags won 5-2 with a late scoring barrage.

Medford hosts Wausau West Monday at 7 p.m. in what should be a good nonconference test before the Raiders’ rematch with Rhinelander.

Medford 1, Mosinee 0

As has been their custom, the Raiders got off to a slow start Thursday, but they turned it on in the second half, got a goal from Wipf and earned a key 1-0 GNC victory in Mosinee.

“It was an absolute battle,” Bilodeau said. “Mosinee is a strong, fast, physical team.”

The biggest adjustment for the Raiders was the playing surface. After starting the year with seven games on turf, this was their first of three in a row on grass. That, along with playing a good opponent –– several team members return from last year’s WIAA Division 3 sectional final squad –– made it a challenging game.

“It was a little wet, everyone was muddy,” Bilodeau said. “It just changes the dynamic of the game. When we’re used to playing on turf, the speed of the game is so much faster and you have to be so much more accurate and precise. On grass you can get away with it a little more.

“We just came out slow,” he added. “The first 40 minutes, we kind of watched them. We were kind of flat and watched and got beat up a little bit. They’re a fast, physical team and were just beating us to the ball. They wanted to win and we were just flat. We woke up in the second half, per usual, and we really dominated the second half.”

With Michael Meyer filling in as the goal keeper, the Raiders’ game plan was to try to keep Mosinee’s shots to a minimum. They made things easy for Meyer, who had to make just four saves.

“I don’t think Mike even had a save in the second half,” Bilodeau said.

The other part of the game plan, of course, was to create plenty of offense and they did just enough, getting Wipf’s goal at the 57:29 mark of the 80-minute game.

“It was a good team goal,” Bilodeau said. “He got the assist from Naut. Silas shot it from about the 18 and snuck it past the keeper. It was a good goal. Fortunately it was enough to get the job done. We did not want to go to penalty kicks. Getting the three points for the win was huge for us.”