ALL-GNCFOOTBALL - Raiders all over this year’s All-GNC football awards list
ALL-GNC FOOTBALL
The Medford Raiders started the 2023 football season thin on varsity experience, but they ended the year with 15 players who improved enough to merit some level of All-Great Northern Conference recognition, including three twoway first-team selections.
Seniors Max Dietzman, Cameron Bull and Logan Kawa are the first-team selections on both sides of the ball. The firstteam honors didn’t stop there however, as junior Paxton Rothmeier also made the GNC’s top offensive squad for 2023 and junior defensive backs Evan Paul and Evan Wilkins made the list as well.
The awards follow Medford’s second straight 8-3 season under head coach Ted Wilson that featured a 6-1 finish in the GNC. The Raiders and Mosinee Indians again were clearly the eight-team league’s two best teams in 2023 with Mosinee winning what amounted to be the championship clash, 14-0, on Oct. 6 in the second-to-last game of the regular season.
Medford got one WIAA Division 3 playoff win, beating GNC foe Hayward 41-3, before falling 35-16 to Onalaska in Level 2 in a rematch from a week-two game that Medford won on the Hilltoppers’ home field.
Medford added two second-team awards on both sides of the ball and six honorable mention awards when it came to conference voting. On Monday, Dietzman was announced as a two-way selection to the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association’s Large School All-Region 1 team, while Bull was named to the defensive team and Rothmeier earned a spot on the offensive team.
For the second straight season, Medford had the top-ranked offense in the GNC, averaging 374.6 yards per game, according to the official conference statistics. Mosinee was about 86 yards per game behind. The Raiders’ 255 GNC points and 36.4 points per game were just behind Mosinee, who scored 259 GNC points and averaged 37 points.
Overall in 11 games, Medford averaged 36.8 points and 384 yards per game.
That success was, as always, driven by the offensive line. Dietzman at tackle and Kawa at guard earned first-team honors for their work on that line, while senior center Colton Dassow earned a spot on the All-GNC second-team for offense. Junior guard Tripp Reamer earned honorable mention. Senior running back Braxton Weissmiller also earned honorable mention while doing most of his work on offense as an extra blocker. As the team’s tight end, you certainly can add Bull to the list of valuable blockers that helped drive the offense.
Medford rushed for 2,103 yards in league play, according to GNC statistics, far and away the most in the league. The line also pass blocked well enough for the Raiders to pick up an additional 519 yards in league play.
Overall in 11 games, Medford ran for 317.5 yards per game and passed for 67.5 more.
Rothmeier emerged as Medford’s top offensive weapon. The shifty junior was, by far, the GNC’s leading rusher. He piled up 1,052 yards in seven league games, according to GNC statistics, on just 116 carries (9.1 yards per carry) and scored 17 touchdowns. Overall, he finished at 1,466 yards and 21 touchdowns. His year included two huge back-to-back games when he had 220 yards in a 12-0 win at Merrill to start the GNC season on Sept. 1 and 252 yards with four touchdowns Sept. 8 in a 50-14 win over Lakeland, who wound up being the conference’s thirdplace team at 5-2.
The league’s second-leading rusher, Noah Bruckner of Lakeland, was 249 yards and seven touchdowns behind Rothmeier.
Despite Rothmeier’s worthy resume, the vote for GNC Offensive Player of the Year went to Mosinee senior Keagen Jirschele, who led the league with 29 pass receptions for 490 yards and seven touchdowns. He also ran for 256 yards in league play and scored five more touchdowns.
Dietzman and Rothmeier joined Bruckner, Jirschele and Mosinee quarterback Gavin Obremski as unanimous choices for the All-GNC Offense.
Medford’s running game also got a strong year from senior Carson Carbaugh, who made the second-team offense. He ranked fourth in conference statistics with 425 yards in seven GNC games. He averged 5.5 yards on his 77 carries and scored three times. Overall, Carbaugh had six touchdowns and 742 yards, including a season-high 117 in Medford’s 40-8 week-seven win at Rhinelander on Sept. 29. He had 93 yards in Medford’s 52-35 week-two win at Onalaska when the Raiders rushed for an incredible 566 yards.
Bull was Medford’s biggest receiving threat. He caught nine passes for 195 yards and four touchdowns overall. He grabbed six of those passes in GNC play for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Bull had both of those GNC touchdowns in the win over Lakeland.
Senior quarterback Hank Crass earned honorable mention for his play on offense. Sharing time at the position with junior Parker Lissner, Crass wound up being the GNC’s second-highest rated quarterback in league play, going 20 for 41 for 288 yards, three touchdowns and just two interceptions. He was 24 for 60 overall for 365 yards, five touchdowns and three picks. He added two rushing touchdowns.
Defensive awards
Medford’s defense was second-best in the league, according to GNC statistics, allowing 159.7 yards per game. Mosinee allowed 136.9 yards per game and shut out all but one conference opponent. Hayward kicked a field goal in a 44-3 loss to the Indians.
Medford gave up 742 rushing yards (106 per game) and 376 passing yards (53.7 per game in league play. Overall, the Raiders allowed 116.6 rushing, 108.1 passing yards and 15.8 points per game with one shutout and five games with singledigit point totals by the opposition.
Up front, the charge was led by Bull at defensive end and Dietzman at defensive tackle.
Dietzman was easily the team’s leader in tackles for loss with 16, an average of almost 1.5 per game. He led the Raiders with 6.5 quarterback sacks and was credited with 37 total tackles, including 23 solo stops. Bull made sure opponents didn’t get to the edge on his side of the field, recording 9.5 tackles for loss and a quarterback sack amongst his 35 tackles, including 25 solo tackles. Bull also had three passes defensed.
Kawa was Medford’s most experienced defensive player coming into the year and was a definite leader on the unit. He led the Raiders in total tackles with 74, 47 of which were solo stops. Kawa added a sack and a pass defensed during the season.
Paul and Wilkins improved steadily in the defensive backfield as first-year starters.
Paul wound up being the cornerback the Raiders tried to match up against opponents’ top threats by season’s end and finished with two interceptions, seven passes defensed, a fumble caused and 18 total tackles with 13 of them being solo.
One of Medford’s fastest athletes, Wilkins tied Paul and Carbaugh for the team lead in interceptions with two, caused a fumble, defensed seven passes and was a key run defender as well, totaling 56 total tackles, 39 of which were solo tackles.
Seniors Cory Lindahl and Isaac Schaefer were Medford’s All-GNC second-team selections on defense. Lindahl was the end opposite of Bull and did his job well, ranking second on the team with 2.5 quarterback sacks and finishing with 39 total tackles, 18 of which were solo. He had 6.5 tackles for loss, which ranked third on the team and recovered a fumble. Schaefer’s strength and tenacity caused some disruption on the interior of the defensive line. Schaefer had 2.5 tackles for loss among his 17 total stops in eight games played, seven of which were solo.
Senior Jude Stark started the year fighting for playing time but became a fixture at the other inside linebacker spot next to Kawa. He got honorable mention after racking up 54 total tackles, including six for loss. Stark had two fumble recoveries during the year and 24 solo tackles.
Carbaugh and senior Jack Wojcik also got honorable mention for their play in the defensive backfield. Carbaugh had four passes defensed, a fumble recovery and a fumble caused to go with his two picks and 29 total tackles, 17 of which were solo. Wojcik was credited with two passes defensed, a fumble recovery and 25 total tackles, 19 of which were solo.
Jirschele was a no-brainer choice for GNC Defensive Player of the Year. He had an incredible 13 interceptions during GNC play alone, including four against Medford, and picked off 14 passes overall in 11 games from his safety position. Bull and Jirschele were the only unanimous picks for the All-GNC Defense.
Lakeland’s Dan Barutha was named the GNC’s Coach of the Year for 2023 after leading the T-Birds to third place in the final standings and a WIAA playoff berth after an 0-2 start to league play and an 0-4 start overall.
All-Region
Region 1 for Large Schools for the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association this year includes the Great Northern, Big Rivers and Mississippi Valley conferences, as well as the Valley Football Association and Fox Valley Association.
In other words, it’s a tough group to crack to get an All-Region award.
Dietzman impressively did it on both sides of the ball. He was one of 12 offensive lineman and one of six interior defensive lineman names to the All-Region teams. Lakeland’s Zane Amershek and Medford’s Dietzman were from the smallest schools represented on the offensive lineman list. The other defensive tackles are Jesus Gonzalez of Reedsburg, Reggie Kloehn of Hortonville, Jackson Lindell of Mosinee, Sam McGivern of Kimberly and Aidan Roh of Hortonville.
Bull is one of seven defensive ends on the All-Region team, joining Ethan Ehlinger of Stevens Point, Sawyer Hanlon of Kimberly, Caleb Hyman of New Richmond, Brady Lamon of Appleton North, Ross Liegel of Baraboo and Aiden Tepper-Engh of Hudson. Rothmeier is part of an outstanding group of seven All-Region running backs that includes Miles Burke of New Richmond, Tanner Dalske of Fond du Lac, Grant Dean of Neenah, Logan Rufledt of Tomah, Jonah Severson of River Falls and Braylon Smola of Stevens Point.
The WFCA will announce its All-State teams on Tuesday.
Cameron Bull First Team Offense First Team Defense All-Region Defense
Logan Kawa First Team Offense First Team Defense
Paxton Rothmeier First Team Offense All-Region Offense
Evan Wilkins First Team Defense
Evan Paul First Team Defense
Carson Carbaugh Second Team Offense Hon. Mention Defense
Colton Dassow Second Team Offense
Cory Lindahl Second Team Defense
Isaac Schaefer Second Team Defense
Braxton Weissmiller Hon. Mention Offense
Hank Crass Hon. Mention Offense
Jude Stark Hon. Mention Defense
Jack Wojcik Hon. Mention Defense
Tripp Reamer Hon. Mention Offense
