First local major clash of season features Pirates and Blackhawks

WEEK 6 FOOTBALL

A spirited local football rivalry will be renewed Friday when the Gilman Pirates visit the Owen-Withee Blackhawks in a battle of eight-player unbeatens.

About the only thing that will have changed from the days these teams met in the CloverWood and Small Cloverbelt conferences is the number of players on the field. The way Terry Laube’s Blackhawks and Robin Rosemeyer’s Pirates try to beat their opponents certainly hasn’t.

Owen-Withee has built its 4-0 record, as always, almost exclusively on running the football. While beating their first four opponents by an average of 42 points per game, the Blackhawks have rolled to an average of 404 rushing yards per game and that’s with three of those games going to a running clock.

They opened their Central Wisconsin East Conference slate last Friday with a 56-0 drubbing of Athens, who also came in 3-0. Two of their crossover opponents were, presumably, the best teams in the Cental Wisconsin West. They beat Prairie Farm 53-12 and McDonell Central 4425.

According to statistics posted at WisSports.net, Treyton Tessmer, a 6-1, 195-pound senior, is Owen-Withee’s leading rusher with 573 yards and 10 touchdowns. He’s averaging 13 yards per attempt. Colin Dallman, a smaller back at 5-8 and 155 pounds, isn’t far behind with 532 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging 7 yards per carry. Quarterback Logan Amacher is an experienced, successful athlete at the school and stands at 6-4 and will carry the ball on occasion and return kicks. The aggressive offensive line features senior Nathan Zarins at left guard who is the most sizable lineman the Pirates have seen thus far.

“They kind of run the same scheme they did in 11-man football,” Rosemeyer said. “It’s a lot of run. I think they’ve only thrown three times this year. They’re going to have a fast kid at quarterback. Their running backs are more physical than fast. Their quarterback will provide their speed. They run a lot of option stuff, so we’ll have to be very disciplined to be able to stop the dive and then be able to make sure we have our responsibilities for the quarterback and pitch man.

“Their number-one play will still probably be their trap that they like to run a lot,” he added. “We’ll be tested. Our run defense especially will be tested. Their passing game is still similar to what it used to be where it’s kind of all or nothing. They’ll run play action and try to beat you deep.”

Gilman, ranked third in this week’s state eight-player poll, will counter with a defense that has set a school record with four straight shutout wins. The Pirates have outscored their first four opponents 224-0, though none of those opponents compare to what Owen-Withee will bring.

Defensively, sixth-ranked Owen-Withee plays solidly as a unit, Rosemeyer said.

“They won’t have that dominant player like we saw the other night (with Greenwood’s Rogan Travis), but they have a lot of good players that will just do their job,” he said. “They’ll all be physical, read well and do their thing. It will just be a different challenge for our kids. We just haven’t seen that yet this year.”

The Pirates won the last 11-man game in this series 54-0 in 2019 and won 35-0 in 2018. Owen-Withee leads the all-time series 31-20 and last won 13-6 in 2017.

  In week six of the 11-player season, the Medford Raiders (3-0 GNC, 4-1 overall) can clinch a playoff berth Friday with a Great Northern Conference win over the Hayward Hurricanes, who they are facing for the third time in GNC play and for the fourth consecutive season.

Hayward has just one win this fall, a 36-0 GNC win over Antigo on Sept. 2, but the Hurricanes showed some spark this past Friday by taking a 14-7 second-quarter lead over GNC co-leader Mosinee before things fell apart by halftime in an eventual 48-14 loss. They lost 14-0 at home to Rhinelander on Sept. 9.

The Hurricanes hung with Medford last year behind a potent passing game though the Raiders won 30-20 at Rod Lundberg Field, where this week’s game also will take place. The matchups in the 2019 playoffs and the 2020 GNC opener were not close in favor of the Raiders.

“They’re very pass heavy,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They have a couple of nice wide receivers out on the edge that we’ll have to see who we can match up on them. They’re a team that’s like a few teams in our league, they don’t get much, they don’t get much and then they pop one for 20 yards. We really have to try to get off the field on third down, keep the ball in front of us and make tackles. Rally to make tackles and get some pressure on the quarterback. That’s what we’ll be looking to do.”

Alex Depew, a new starter this year at quarterback, was impressive at Mosinee, completing 21 of 28 passes for 283 yards and hitting seven different receivers. Generally speaking, Hayward’s passes are short with the receivers looking to gain some yards after the catch. Depew will take snaps in the pistol formation as Hayward typically lines up in spread formations with four wideouts. Stats from WisSports.net show Depew completing 69 of 119 passes so far (58%) for 645 yards and four scores with four interceptions. Micah Bacon (20 catches for 172 yards), Gannon Mohr (18 for 210 yards) and Xzavier Stojek (15 for 128 yards) are the top targets.

Defensively, Hayward was solid against the run in the games with Antigo and Rhinelander, but Mosinee gashed the Hurricanes for 457 total yards, including 265 in passing and 192 on the ground.

  In Rib Lake Friday, the winless Rib Lake-Prentice Hawks will see what they can get accomplished against an always-strong Hurley squad in a 7 p.m. Lakeland Conference kickoff.

The Northstars won their first three games, including a 14-6 win over a strong Crandon squad in week one and a 38-35 non-conference victory at Grantsburg on Sept. 2. But they’ve dropped their last two, falling 29-8 to an Auburndale team that beat the Hawks 62-0 in week two and 44-38 Friday to the Lakeland Conference’s most improved team this year, Ladysmith. The Lumberjacks won the game on a 7-yard touchdown pass from Brady Ingersoll to Logan Alberson with 45 seconds left.

Offensively under head coach Scott Erickson, Hurley is all about running the football. The Northstars threw the ball twice Friday with no success and, according to WisSports.net stats, have thrown it just six times all season.

Carter Hall, a 6-1, 195-pound junior leads the running game with 640 yards and eight touchdowns, but three other backs have at least 190 yards.

Rib Lake-Prentice head coach Jonah Campbell said Hurley doesn’t appear on film to have the speed recent Hawks opponents have had, but the Northstars’ strength and physical style will be challenging for the young Hawks.

“They’re still going to be tough,” Campbell said. “They’re going to be physical. Their offense is going to run like it normally runs. They’re just going to grind. It’s a matter of getting a couple of stops and getting the ball moving. There are some opportunities to move the ball and extend drives and get some momentum going. That’s the week to week goal to see if we can do that.”