WIAA LEVEL 2 FOOTBALL - Raiders, Pirates to face teams seeking revenge in Level 2

WIAA LEVEL 2 FOOTBALL

After convincing wins in Level 1 of the WIAA football playoffs, the Medford Raiders and Gilman Pirates will be back on their respective home fields at 7 p.m. Friday night, looking to continue their seasons with second-round wins in their brackets.

Both will be facing teams they’ve already beaten this season, which, of course, means next to nothing at this time of year.

In Division 3, second-seeded Medford (8-2), fresh off its methodical 41-3 beating of Hayward, hosts third-seeded Onalaska (7-3), the co-champions of the Mississippi Valley Conference and a team it beat 5235 in week two.

In eight-player football, top-seeded Gilman (9-0) hosts second-seeded Thorp (7-2) in a matchup between the top two teams in this year’s Central Wisconsin-East Conference. Gilman, who beat Newman Catholic 49-20 in Level 1, took down Thorp 30-8 just three weeks ago to all but clinch the conference title.

Onalaska at Medford

The number is still as staggering today as it was two months ago.

In its 52-35 win at Onalaska on Aug. 25, the Medford Raiders ran for 566 yards to tie a school record and, more importantly, keep the ball out of the hands of the Hilltoppers’ dangerous senior quarterback Adam Skifton, who still ended up with 313 yards and five passing touchdowns in the game.

No matter what the yardage total ends up being this time around, Medford will need to re-establish control at the line of scrimmage again and run the ball well to earn a second straight win over the Hilltoppers.

“That’s our bread and butter,” Medford head coach Ted Wilson said. That’s what we’re going to try to do.”

While Onalaska hasn’t given up yards like that on the ground since, it still has shown vulnerability to good rushing attacks. In week nine, Tomah needed a win to get into the playoffs while Onalaska was looking to secure the outright championship in the MVC. Tomah’s Logan Rufledt ran for 297 yards on 45 carries in Tomah’s 38-13 upset win.

Onalaska eked out a 21-20 win over Baraboo in week eight while allowing 295 rushing yards and gave up more than 300 yards in a 36-35 squeaker over La Crosse Logan in week five. The Rangers were the eighth seed in this Division 3 bracket and lost 50-7 at top-seeded Rice Lake Friday. Onalaska was better in a big 29-28 win over co-champion La Crosse Central in week four, keeping the Riverhawks under 200 rushing yards.

“I think we have to just go in and do what we do best and that’s block and run and hit gaps and sustain blocks and play good defense,” Wilson said.

Defensively, this will be the second straight week Medford will play against a team that likes to spread it out and throw the ball.

“Onalaska is quite a bit more explosive than Hayward is,” Wilson said. “Their athletes are a little bit better in space. I think we’ll just try to get a good week of prep in and try to make sure our kids understand the things that Onalaska is trying to do to put us in positions where they’re successful and we’re not and we’ll try to mitigate those and away we’ll go.”

It starts with Skifton, who recently announced he’ll play at Augustana University after he graduates this year. Skifton has thrown for nearly 2,300 yards and had 30 touchdown passes this season. Senior Brodie Mickschl has 70 pass receptions and 15 touchdown catches as Skifton’s top target. Medford limited him to four catches in week two. However, three went for scores and he averaged 36.8 yards per catch.

Onalaska has been without its other top wideout, Evan Anderson, since week seven due to a broken collarbone. But it will have another weapon it didn’t have in week two, running back Brady Kuhn, who doesn’t have eye-popping numbers but is good enough to keep defenses honest. He scored twice in Friday’s 56-6 Level 1 win over Rhinelander, including a 45-yarder in the first minute that set the tone.

“They have their running back back so that adds an extra dimension that they didn’t necessarily have against us in week two,” Wilson said. “He’s a really good athlete. Not having Anderson hurts them, but having the running back back obviously helps them because you can’t just get out of the box, otherwise they will just run it right down your throat.”

The Raiders do believe their defensive backfield, as well as the entire defensive unit, has improved a lot since starting the season with little varsity experience. This will be a good test to see just how much better it is now.

Friday’s winner will face either fourth-seeded Sparta (6-4) or top-seeded Rice Lake (9-1) in Level 3.

Thorp at Gilman

There won’t be many unknowns when neighboring rivals Thorp and Gilman meet in an eight-man state quarterfinal Friday. This figures to be a simple case where the team that executes its stuff better should win.

Since losing to Gilman, Thorp has played one opponent –– Owen-Withee –– and beaten the Blackhawks twice. The first featured a dramatic last-ditch 95yard touchdown drive that won the regular- season finale 24-22. An Owen-Withee turnover gave Thorp its chance to make the unlikely drive. In the first round of the playoffs Friday, Owen-Withee turned the ball over four times in Thorp territory, including its first three possessions and Thorp won the game 28-21.

“Whenever you see that it gives your team good reminders of ball security,” Gilman head coach Robin Rosemeyer said. “They do try to strip the ball. They will go after it quite a bit. They lose tackling but as last week proved they also can get the turnover.”

Gilman lost two fumbles to Thorp in the first game but also got two turnovers.

Offensively, Thorp’s attack continues to revolve around dynamic quarterback Denzel Sutton (927 rushing yards with 14 touchdowns and 1,402 passing yards with 15 touchdowns) and running back Logan Hanson (1,348 rushing yards with 16 touchdowns), whose combination of physicality and speed makes him dangerous any time he gets it.

“They’re athletic kids,” Rosemeyer said. “Hanson and Sutton are just tough to bring down at times so we have to be good gang tacklers. If the first guy can do good things and at least slow him down, and allow the rest of the guys to get there, that will be a big deal.”

Since the Oct. 6 matchup, Rosemeyer said there’s been some small wrinkles shown by Thorp’s offense the Pirates must be ready for. As for Gilman, it’s biggest change is Logan Halida taking over at quarterback for Dawson Krizan, who was injured in the Thorp game. In the last three games, Halida has executed when called upon, completing 18 of 21 passes for 295 yards, including 12 of 14 for 206 yards in Friday’s 49-20 win over Newman Catholic. Still, the Pirates will no doubt need to run the ball to win. Running back Troy Duellman had 126 yards and three scores on 21 carries in the conference matchup, Tony Syryczuk found room to run on some traps and had 53 yards on 14 carries. Krizan had 82 yards, including a key 18-yard touchdown that put Gilman up 22-8 late in the third quarter.

Friday’s winner will see either second- seeded McDonell Central or the oneseed Clayton, both of whom are 9-0, in the Nov. 3 state semifinal.