MEDFORD 20, LAKELAND 18 - Big rebound win as Raiders knock off unbeaten Lakeland

Six days after a mistake-filled loss at Merrill, the Medford Raiders showed Thursday what they can do on the football field when they reduce those errors, upsetting undefeated Lakeland 20-18 at Raider Field to get right back into the Great Northern Conference race and the WIAA Division 3 playoff picture.

Medford’s defense limited Lakeland’s potent offense to two big-chunk plays and made the Thunderbirds work for everything else they got. Offensively, the Raiders also did their best work of 2025, considering the opponent, with a Medford-like performance that included 251 rushing yards, led by Will Wojcik (118 yards) and Carson Ingersoll (93 yards), who both had 18 carries.

“It was just us playing the football we know we can play and doing what we know we’re capable of,” Ingersoll said after Medford gained three rushing first downs to kill the game’s last three minutes after the defense got one last huge stop on fourth down after Lakeland had gotten to Medford’s 19-yard line.

“A great team win,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. “Very important going forward for us. It still keeps us not only in the running to make the playoffs but also keeps us in the conversation to control our own destiny as far as the conference goes. We’re in control of our own destiny as far as making the playoffs and in regards to possibly being a conference contender/champion.”

This is a rivalry Medford has dominated the past 15 years and much of that has had to do with the Raiders’ physicality up front. On Thursday, the offensive and defensive lines did their jobs, opening holes when the Raiders had the ball and limiting Lakeland’s ability to establish its running game. Of Lakeland’s 134 rushing yards, 81 came on one play.

“We really had to work on our communication skills,” senior blocking back and defensive tackle Conor Anderson said. “We have to get our heads up and we can’t take a play off. Communication is such a huge thing in football.”

“Up front we did amazing every time we ran the ball,” Ingersoll said. “Everyone came in with a lot of energy, they came and played hard all game. That really helped us back there.”

Defensively, the game plan focused on Lakeland’s top weapon, senior Evan Zoch.

“Historically I’ve always like to try to find a way to take away things that teams do best,” Wilson said. “Sometimes that’s a best player. Sometimes that’s their best plays and sometimes that goes together. In this particular case, because they do so much with (Zoch), it seemed wise of us as a coaching staff to try to take him out of their passing game as much as we could. We decided he was going to double team him any time he was split out. We thought it would be best to make sure he is not going to beat us by running free in our secondary.”

The results were solid. While Lakeland quarterback Deklan McQuade completed 16 of 31 passes, they went for a modest 148 yards with only one pass play being longer than 20 yards.

“We talk about that a lot with teams that are going to pass the ball,” Wilson said. “They’re going to complete some balls. It’s not the end of the world if they complete a pass. The thing we can’t do is let them get over the top of us. The other thing we can’t do is miss tackles. If they complete a pass, we have to rally to the ball and make tackles. We took a step forward toward that on Thursday.”

The defense bent but didn’t break on Lakeland’s opening possession, getting a fourth-down stop at its 22. Medford’s lone major communication breakdown of the night led to a snap to no one that was recovered by Lakeland after a 17-yard loss at the Raiders’ 30. Lakeland converted the game’s only turnover into a perfect 27yard scoring pass from McQuade to Tyson Redman on fourth and seven. A bad snap on the kick, however, kept it a 6-0 game and that miss loomed large for Lakeland the rest of the way.

Medford recovered the ensuing short kick and responded with a 54-yard touchdown drive. After two rushing first downs, the team’s only pass completion of the game was a 22-yard touchdown pass that Nick Krause put right on the money to Will Wojcik at the goal line despite being forced to roll to his left and getting hit as he threw it. Ingersoll ran in the two-point conversion to give Medford an 8-6 lead with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.

Wilson said that play did unfold as planned, but the Raiders made it work.

“We called an audible, it’s like a runpass option,” Krause said. “Will got past his guy. I rolled out of the pocket and he had him beat. I threw it as I got hit. I got up and it was a touchdown.”

Ingersoll deflected a third-and-one pass by McQuade forcing a punt on Lakeland’s next drive. The Raiders then covered 72 yards in eight plays, started by a 27-yard run from Wojcik, and stretched their lead to 14-6 on a 9-yard run by Cash Thums.

Lakeland countered with its best drive of the game, going 57 yards in 14 yards and scoring on an 8-yard pass from McQuade to tight end Brooks Lenz with 52 seconds left in the half. The two-point pass to tie it failed, keeping Medford in front 14-12.

Zoch did get loose for one big play. Lakeland stopped Medford’s first drive of the second half on downs at the 19. On the next play, Medford had Zoch hemmed in on a pitch to the right, but he somehow broke a tackle and got out of it, bursting up the sidelines for a go-ahead 81-yard touchdown. Again, the two-point try failed and the lead was just four at 18-14.

Momentum seemed to be swinging toward the guys in white and black when Medford went three and out, but a good Krause punt and a three-and-out from Medford’s defense led to a shanked punt that set the Raiders up on Lakeland’s 23. Seven plays later, Ingersoll had a 1-yard touchdown to regain the lead for Medford with 2:32 left in the third quarter.

The teams traded punts. What wound up being Lakeland’s last offensive possession started at its 30 with 9:13 to play. The T-Birds methodically drove into scoring possession, getting to a first and 10 at Medford’s 27. Mason Schettino gained 2 yards and Lenz caught a 6-yard pass. Linebackers Luke Klapatauskas and Sawyer Elsner blew up a running play to Zoch that gained nothing, leaving Lakeland with a fourth and two. McQuade’s pass intended for Nolan Johnson was overthrown and the Raiders ran out the clock from there.

“We just talked about giving our best every play, not slacking off, not making dumb mistakes and just giving it our best,” Krause said. “We kept on having to maintain blocks and take care of the ball. That was the big thing. Last week, we didn’t do that.”

“Our kids showed a lot of resiliency,” Wilson said. “To move on from a tough loss and move on from turning the ball over six times and letting a game that maybe we could have won slip away from us, they did very well with that. I think they just showed a lot of resiliency and the ability to be able to move on and concentrate on the future and take lessons from the past, learn from them and become better football players.”

Now 2-1 in the GNC and 2-3 overall, Medford heads to Wausau East (0-3, 14) Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Thom Field. The Raiders are part of a four-way tie for second place in the GNC standings, a game behind 3-0 Tomahawk, who comes to Raider Field next week. The quality win shot Medford up to 16th in the Division 3 playoff matrix rankings, up from 34th and out of the top 32 after last week.

“This is a big boost but we can’t let it get into our heads,” Anderson said.

“We have to take this into the next week,” Krause said. “We have to bring the same pressure.”