RIB LAKE 44, CHEQUAMEGON CO-OP 6 - Convincing first win of the season means a lot to Redmen

The Rib Lake Redmen were virtually unstoppable in the first half –– before heavy rain arrived in Park Falls Thursday night –– and earned their first win of the 2025 football season, a 44-6 drubbing of the host Chequamegon Co-op.

Brothers Slade and Talon Scheithauer both ran for well over 100 yards as the Redmen rolled up 283 yards on the ground. Rib Lake also made things happen through the air as Talon Scheithauer threw for 126 yards while completing seven of 11 passes.

Defensively, the Redmen forced four turnovers, including three interceptions, to help negate their own four lost fumbles, three of which happened as the weather conditions deteriorated in the second half.

The result left both teams at 1-2 overall, but Rib Lake is 1-1 in the Northwoods East Conference, while the Screaming Eagles fell to 0-2.

“It’s cool to get a win for many reasons,” Rib Lake head coach Austin Edwards said. “It’s our first win of the season. It’s good to get in the win column in general. But we talked after the game, the overall significance is that it was a good win for the program. There are a lot of people that had kind of written Rib Lake football off. We said if we can get a win, that’s going to do a lot, and that it was a convincing win, I think let everybody know we’re not dead, we’re here. We can play and I think we can compete with a lot of teams.”

Slade Scheithauer had 101 rushing yards at the half and finished with 140 yards on 19 carries. He scored twice on the ground and once through the air. Talon Scheithauer had 96 yards in the first half and finished with 128 yards on 20 carries and three touchdowns.

The first score came on Rib Lake’s second possession. After a short Chequamegon punt, the Redmen took over at their 42. Slade Scheithauer’s 27yard run set up Talon Scheithauer’s 12yard touchdown run as he got loose around the right side and won the race to the pylon. The two-point pass to Grant Beard made it 8-0 with 6:36 left in the first quarter.

Slade Scheithauer then recovered Kylan Bartelt’s ensuing onside kick at the 50-yard line.

“It could not have been executed more perfectly than what (Bartelt) did,” Edwards said. “That was a highlight. Kylan is all about team. He’s our kicker and was able to contribute on special teams for us.”

That Rib Lake possession ended in a lost fumble. But Slade Scheithauer’s fourth-down sack of Chequamegon quarterback Antonio Poetzl quickly gave the ball back to the Redmen at the Screaming Eagles’ 46.

On third and 14, it was Scheithauer to Scheithauer as Talon hit Slade with a perfect over-the-shoulder pass over the middle for a 50-yard touchdown that made it 16-0 with 1:26 left in the first quarter after Slade Scheithauer ran in the two-point conversion.

“They make a play caller look really good when they do things like that,” Edwards said. “There aren’t a lot of kids that can throw the ball like Talon can and there aren’t a lot of athletes like Slade who are going to bring that pass in. We’re lucky to have those two on our side.”

Lucas Cook’s sack and the stop of a fake punt gave Rib Lake the ball at its 33 on its next drive. A 30-yard pass to Beard led to Talon Scheithauer’s 1-yard run and a 24-0 lead.

Chequamegon’s one big play of the first half, a 29-yard run by Norson Rodriguez was immediately followed by an 11-yard touchdown run by Mason Paholke. But Slade Scheithauer again recovered a squib kick at Rib Lake’s 49 and the Redmen turned that field position into a seven-play scoring drive. Beard, who emerged as key passing target with three catches in the first half for 69 yards, hauled in a 20-yard pass that got the Redmen to the five. Slade Scheithauer took it in from there and added the two-pointer to make it 32-8 with 4:36 still left in the half.

“Grant is coming on,” Edwards said. “At the beginning of the season he was actually going to be one of our guards. Probably after our first practice I was like, you know what, this guy is too big of a target to not have him running out and catching passes. His hands are too good. I also want to highlight his blocking because a lot of our outside runs had success because he was sealing the end. That was true with Ethan Cook on the line too. A lot of times he was our pulling guard, putting a hat on hat. Offensively, there were a lot of guys that showed up.”

The Screaming Eagles went nowhere on their next possession and the Redmen took over at the 50 with 2:40. That was more than enough time to strike yet again. A 19yard third-down pass to Beard got them down to the 13. Talon Scheithauer ran for 12 yards and then got the final yard on a sneak with 47 seconds left to give Rib Lake a commanding 38-6 lead.

The Redmen had a chance to put one more score on the board before halftime after a Gavin Zondlo interception with 21 seconds left. But they couldn’t connect on two pass attempts that could’ve gotten them closer to the goal line.

As the rain started to come down harder midway through the third quarter, Lucas Cook dropped Rodriguez for a 13-yard loss on a fake punt to give Rib Lake the ball at Chequamegon’s 28-yard line. Four plays later, Slade Scheithauer got outside toward the right sideline and scooted into the end zone from 15 yards out to kick in the running clock with 3:48 left in the quarter.

The teams combined for zero points and four turnovers during a steady downpour in the fourth quarter. Ty Niemi had an interception for Rib Lake as did Talon Scheithauer on the game’s final play.

Rib Lake finished with 409 yards of total offense. Cook had 15 yards rushing and 9 yards receiving. Slade Scheithauer finished with 48 yards receiving after one of his three catches went for a 3-yard loss.

The Redmen held Chequamegon to 136 rushing yards on 42 attempts. The Eagles got two big runs from Dominic Cebery in the second half to boost their yardage totals. Cebery ran for 62 yards on eight carries. Poetzl was four of 10 through the air for just 11 yards. Ethan Cook was credited with 10.5 tackles and Talon Scheithauer had 9.5. Beard and Lucas Cook had big games at the end positions as well.

“That’s one of the biggest benefits of playing Gilman in the first game,” Edwards said. “We were going up against some really good blockers and some of our D-ends were losing contain because they thought they were doing the right thing because they were 3 or 4 yards in the backfield and then guys were just running right by them. That’s a good learning experience. Playing a team as good as Gilman our guys learned quick why you can’t go into the backfield, why you can’t lose contain. Our linebackers learned that their first step needs to be creeping toward the football and not just waiting for the blocker to come get them.”

Two weeks after facing Gilman, who are ranked second in this week’s unofficial eight-player playoff matrix standings and ranked first in the BoundWisconsin.org coaches poll, the Redmen will get their second major test of the season tonight, Thursday, when they host Phillips at 7 p.m. The Loggers are the defending Northwoods East champions and have several senior leaders back from that physical, run-heavy squad.

“We’re going to learn where we’re at as a team,” said Edwards, who graduated from Phillips High School in 2019. “They’re a really good measuring stick for us. You could see in practice (Monday) there is a lot of positive energy and a lot of buzz with our guys right now. They want this opportunity to go play Phillips.”