ALL-GNC BOYS SOCCER - Gripentrog kicks way on to first team, six Raiders earn awards

ALL-GNC BOYS SOCCER

A year after putting the names of seven seniors on All-Great Northern Conference recognition list, the Medford Raiders’ boys soccer team finished the 2023 season by replacing those graduates with a new list of six first-time award winners in the vote for the All-GNC squad.

One of the few holdovers from the 2022 GNC championship team, senior Adyn Gripentrog, was a relatively obvious choice for the 2023 All-GNC squad. Three of his Raider teammates –– seniors Dayne Jacobson, Alexander Gonzalez and Aidan Ball –– earned second-team spots and senior Spencer Rau and junior Cale Schulz received honorable mention for their play during the fall season.

Under new head coach Adam Derr, Medford’s awards follow a 6-9-1 season overall that included a 3-6-1 mark in the Great Northern Conference. The 0-0 tie on Sept. 28 ended in a 4-3 shootout win at Northland Pines. Medford’s 11 points put the Raiders in fourth place in the team standings in what wound up being a pretty competitive conference from top to bottom.

It was a conference dominated by defense in 2023. While Lakeland scored 35 goals and first-time champion Mosinee scored 32 in league play, no other team scored more than 16. Every team except last-place Antigo gave up fewer than 20 goals in 10 GNC games. Mosinee (8), Lakeland (7) and Rhinelander (8) gave up less than a goal per game and there were 11 GNC games where two goals or fewer were scored in the 80-minute games.

Gripentrog only had one goal and one assist in conference play, but his impact on the field was certainly felt with his speed and ball-handling ability. When Medford made pushes into enemy territory and threatened to score, Gripentrog usually had a role in that whether carrying the ball through the midfield area into the scoring third or threading a pass to an open teammate for a shot.

His GNC goal was Medford’s lone score in a 6-1 loss at Lakeland on Sept. 12, coming off a Michael Meyer corner kick. The assist set up a Jacobson goal in a 3-1 win over Antigo on Sept. 7.

Gripentrog had five goals overall. He got one and had an assist in Medford’s season-opening 2-1 win at New London on Aug. 24, he scored the lone goal in the team’s 3-1 loss at Waupaca on Sept. 9 and had a goal in the team’s 4-2 WIAA Division 3 regional final loss at Shawano Oct. 19.

Gripentrog added a phenomenal goal in a 2-1 win at Baldwin-Woodville on Oct. 9, quickly turning a steal into a left-footed goal from nearly 30 yards out.

The All-GNC first team included three members each from Lakeland, Mosinee and Rhinelander as well as Gripentrog and Northland Pines’ Cody Vojta, who was named the GNC’s co-Defensive Player of the Year along with Mosinee’s Josh Ivey.

Lakeland’s Yaroslav Myshchyshyn repeated as the Offensive Player of the Year, an award he shared last year with Medford’s Zach Rudolph. Easily the league’s most feared scorer, Mysh-chyshyn led the GNC with 17 goals in league play and added five assists for a league-high 39 points. He and his T-Bird teammates Dominic Gironella and Leo Rotar were unanimous first-team picks.

Vojta and Mosinee’s Cole Kowalski, the GNC’s second-leading scorer with 22 points, were the other unanimous picks. Ivey and Andrew Carlson were Mosinee’s other first-team representatives while Rhinelander got goal keeper Barak Rappley as well as seniors Neil Weigel and Will Quinn on the first team.

Antigo’s Ben Wilhelm was named Coach of the Year. The Red Robins have long struggled in the sport of soccer, but they did get their first on-field win in their GNC history on Oct. 3, unfortunately coming at Medford’s expense, by a score of 3-2, and were more competitive than they have been in the past in a handful of GNC games.

Jacobson was a welcome newcomer to Medford’s squad this fall and brought some much-needed offensive punch. His speed on the left side was something teams certainly had to account for. He finished as Medford’s leading scorer with six goals and three assists overall (15 points). He got four of those goals and an assist in league play. He scored twice in the 3-1 win over Antigo and had a goal and an assist in one of Medford’s biggest wins, a 2-0 victory over Rhinelander on Sept. 21. He scored in the loss to Antigo as well.

In non-conference play he scored against New London and he got a goal in the WIAA loss to Shawano.

Ball had an assist in the opening win over New London and that wound up being his only point of the year, but obviously his contributions went beyond numbers to earn his second-team spot. One of three team captains, along with Gripentrog and Gonzalez, Ball brought important leadership to the squad and added tenacity and solid passing to Medford’s midfield group, especially when Meyer was hit with a mid-season injury.

Throughout the season, Derr credited Gonzalez and Rau for the work they did on Medford’s back defensive line. They and Schulz, Medford’s first-year starter in goal, helped the Raiders allow just 1.7 goals per game. Gonzalez was Medford’s most aggressive defender, while Rau often held his position as the last line of defense in front of Schulz. Gonzalez did register an assist on Gripentrog’s nonconference goal at Waupaca.

Schulz finished with a 1.92 goals against average in GNC competition, accounting for all but 9:11 of Medford’s 800 conference minutes. He allowed 19 goals and had 51 saves for a .729 save percentage.

The conference put four teams into WIAA regional finals in late October. Mosinee beat Rhinelander 2-0 in one of those. Northland Pines lost 1-0 to WIAA Division 4 state qualifier Washburn-Bayfield in another. Lakeland knocked off Mosinee 1-0 in a Division 3 sectional semifinal but then lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Somerset in a sectional final played at Merrill on Oct. 28.

Dayne Jacobson Second Team

Alexander Gonzalez Second Team

Aidan Ball Second Team

Spencer Rau Hon. Mention

Cale Schulz Hon. Mention