In the two 10-minute overtime ….

In the two 10-minute overtime periods, each team’s keeper got their hands on a couple of balls, but no shots seriously threatened the net.

The first shots of each penalty kick round went to Rhinelander. Medford, as it did in a Sept. 29 shootout win at Lakeland, turned to van Meurs as its keeper for the same two reasons. Dassow didn’t come into the game 100% healthy, this time with an ankle injury he’d been nursing and van Meurs can cover ground with his size.

But Hodag Andrew Henrichs buried his opening shot by shooting low to his left. Aaron Schield countered for Medford, also going low to his left to beat Radke. Braden Mork went low to the left and scored on a ball van Meurs deflected. Zach Rudolph tied it back up for Medford by drilling a line drive to his left inside the post.

In round three, Shinners switched it up, going low to his right and getting it inside the post. Wipf went right for Medford and Radke stopped it giving the Hodags the 3-2 edge. Shane Petrick went back the other way to sneak one inside the post and leave it up to Raider sophomore Grant Neubaer to keep the Raiders alive. He pushed his shot right and Radke was there to stop it, making the fifth round of the shootout unnecessary.

“We put Naut back there and Naut did a phenomenal job,” Bilodeau said of the Dutch exchange student who had a major positive impact on the Raiders’ success this fall. “Those shots that they made from the shootout perspective, no one was going to save those. They were just really powerful, low shots. They were on target, they were powerful. They were just great shots. Naut got his hand on a couple of them. But great shots score goals, especially from 12 yards out.”

The loss ended a season that began with high expectations, most of which were met until Thursday’s abrupt ending. The Raiders were a senior-dominated team with 11 of them making their final appearances on the pitch.

“As far as the whole senior class goes, 10 of the 11 guys out there were seniors,” Bilodeau said. “They’ve been playing together from the youth age all the way through middle school into high school and all the club tournaments we’ve been doing together. It’s just amazing to see them playing together as a team like that. There’s no selfish attitudes. There’s nobody that cares about who scores the goals or how many goals they have or anything like that. Everybody just wanted to win.

“You couldn’t ask for any better leaders,” he added. “The three captains for sure really stepped up. Obviously spearheading the whole team was Zach. Zach just has a God-given ability to rally the troops, to build confidence in a player and pick somebody up when they screw up. Just a phenomenal leader. There’s a reason he’s been a captain for three of the four years he’s been on varsity.

“Silas adds a different perspective from a technical and soccer IQ perspective. Silas has just engulfed himself in soccer from a very early age and it really showed his senior year. He really helped out some of the younger, less experienced players on the team. Then as a vocal leader, Vincent Seidel is just always trying to stay positive and keep everybody in matches, keep spirits high and just be that cheerleader we need on the team.”