Raiders drop home finale 6-0

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

The Ashland Oredockers scored two goals less than a minute apart early in the first half and the Medford Raiders weren’t able to offer much of a counterpunch in a 6-0 non-conference loss to end the regular season.

The Oredockers are the number-one seed in the area’s WIAA Division 3 sectional half-bracket and improved to 15-22 with their win. Medford heads into the post-season as the half-bracket’s sixth seed and with a 6-13 overall record. The Raiders are at third-seeded Rhinelander tonight, Thursday, in a 7 p.m. regional semifinal.

Thursday’s game had to be moved to the Medford Area Elementary School due to graduation preparations that began that afternoon at Raider Field. The much smaller field gave the game a much different feel than what either team was used to as open space was hard to find.

“You could see it was different for the players,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “Our varsity had never played on it before. Everything was condensed. It felt like the defense was right on top of you. I know (goal keeper) Sophia Brunner said it felt like our defense was so close. But it was the same for both teams.”

Ashland was denied on a couple of very early opportunities to score. A shot 4:05 in hit the post to the right side of Brunner and bounced away, while Brunner and teammates Talyn Peterson and Holly Grube broke up straight-on run by Ashland’s Sienna Mika at 5:50.

But the Oredockers broke the ice at 13:44 in unfortunate fashion on an own goal that deflected past Brunner off an Ashland corner kick. At 14:27, Oredocker Emily Nye knocked home a high shot that put her team up 2-0 and in firm control.

Hannah Kapitz got Medford’s first shot on goal at 20:15, but it was secured by Oredocker goalie Maggie Tutor. Brunner made a tough save 45 seconds later, barely getting a hand on the ball to prevent it from getting under the crossbar.

Ashland turned a corner kick into a Lilly Nye goal at 29:52 with Hollyanna Gohr getting the assist for a 3-0 lead that held into halftime.

Mika scored an unassisted goal at 45:10 to start the second half scoring. Hannah Bochler scored off a Mika assist for the fifth goal and Bochler scored again at 60:37.

Medford’s stats showed Ashland taking 61 shots but not many of them were actually on goal. Brunner was credited with 10 saves, including eight in the first half.

The Raiders got shots from Sierra Tessmann, Madison Clarkson, Mallory Richter, Valeria Polendo Soto and Kapitz.

Coach Tessmann said the Raiders planned to quickly put this one behind them and turn their focus squarely on Rhinelander (12-5), who beat them 6-0 and 4-0 in their two Great Northern Conference meetings. “I watched the film again and I think we can do this,” she said. “A lot of the goals they got were helped by our mistakes. If we do our jobs, we can hold them and maybe we get a goal or can get into a shootout.”

Tonight’s winner advances to the regional final on Saturday against either seventh-seeded Mosinee (3-10-1) or second-seeded Lakeland. Lakeland is 14-1 and won the GNC title by going 100. Ashland was the only team to beat the T-Birds. That was a 5-1 game on April 14. Medford and Mosinee split their GNC regular-season games. The Indians won in Medford 3-1 on May 4, but the Raiders took a 1-0 road win a week later.

The higher seed hosts Saturday’s game at a time to be determined.