WEEK 2 FOOTBALL - Local matchup, big challenge for Medford Friday in non-conference football

The second week of the high school football season actually features the first game of the season for one area team as part of a cross-county, non-conference matchup and it features another major test for the Medford Raiders after a tough opener. The Rib Lake Redmen and Gilman Pirates will meet for the second straight season, this time in Gilman, Friday at 7 p.m. The Pirates won 38-6 in Rib Lake in last year’s season opener, which was Rib Lake’s first game since the 1980s as a standalone program and its first eightplayer football game. After a solid 5-3 first season of eightman football, the Redmen got off to a rocky start this year, nearly ending it before it started due to low numbers after the first week of practice. But after some recruiting, a head coaching change and needing to forfeit their first game to Hurley, the Redmen are committed to finishing out the rest of their schedule. They’ll meet a Gilman team that made a statement in its opener Friday, blowing out the Owen-Withee Blackhawks 43-0. While Owen-Withee lost a significant number of players from last year’s eightplayer state championship team, the rivalry win is a good sign for the Pirates, who went 6-2 last year but did not make the WIAA playoffs. The Pirates were strong defensively in the win, limiting the Blackhawks to 104 total yards, and the offense was driven by big plays, including touchdown runs of 53 and 52 yards from senior Tony Syryczuk. While Gilman doesn’t have much of a scouting report to go on, the Pirates expect to see a heavy dose of Talon Scheithauer, Rib Lake’s top returning rusher after he gained 899 yards and scored 16 touchdowns last year. He also threw for six scores last fall. “We don’t know their plays, so it goes back to just do your job and be physical at the line of scrimmage no matter what the play is,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “You have to do your job. If the first guy there makes the tackle we’re in good shape. “Scheithauer is probably one of the better athletes at quarterback we’ll see all year, if that’s where he is,” he added. “We’ll have to be pretty disciplined just to do our jobs. We might have to make some in-game adjustments as we go, not knowing what they’re really going to run.” “We’re going into week two with a deck kinda stacked against us,” new Rib Lake head coach Austin Edwards said. “We’re going up against a really, really, really good Gilman team with a new system, a new offense. I don’t know how that’s going to go. I do think we’ll be a competitive team this year.” Also in non-conference play Friday at 7 p.m., the Medford Raiders make the long trip to Onalaska to face the Hilltoppers, who won their opener last Friday 35-26 at West Salem. It will be the teams’ sixth meeting since 2018. Onalaska has won four of the last five, three of which have come in the post-season. This is the third straight year the teams will meet in week two. With a multitude of new starters, Medford was humbled by Holmen in week one 55-16. Holmen and Onalaska both figure to be title contenders in the Mississippi Valley Conference. This one figures to be another steep challenge for Medford’s defense. The Hilltoppers got 221 passing yards out of returning senior quarterback Ian Kowal in their opening win, senior Luke Seidel had four catches for 122 yards, including an 81-yarder from Wylder Burch on a doublepass trick play. Junior running back Kaeson Stettler also brings a nice combination of size and speed. He ran for 93 yards on 16 carries in the win. The Hilltoppers again run much of their offense out of spread sets. “They haven’t changed much,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “They do what they do. Tom (Yashinsky) is a really good coach. They have 24 seniors, it’s going to be tough sledding. They’re a very good team. They’re disciplined. They’re well-coached. They have good athletes.” As is part of the plan with tackling tough opponents early, the loss to Holmen exposed many areas Medford needs to improve upon as its new lineup gets used to varsity football. Improvement is the biggest thing the coaching staff wants to see. “A lot of it is little things like constantly stepping with the correct foot to block, blocking with the correct shoulder, eyes through thighs, driving for five with your feet, reading your keys, not looking in the backfield when you’re supposed to be reading a set key, filling properly. These are things that we’ve been talking about every day for the last three weeks. We have to get those fixed up and I think we’ll be a better team by Friday. It’s still going to be really tough. I don’t know what the outcome will be because they are very, very good. But we’ll be better and that’s the important part.”