MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER - Goals galore in record rout; Raiders fall to Hawks, T-Birds

MEDFORD GIRLS SOCCER

Medford’s girls soccer team knew Tuesday’s game at Antigo would provide some offensive opportunities. No one expected the Raiders to get this many opportunities.

With senior forward Megan Schaefer back in the lineup after a two-week injury absence, the Raiders scored their first goal just 1:33 in and didn’t stop scoring until they had demolished the Red Robins 16-0 in the shortened 60-minute game. The Raiders scored eight goals in each half and took 47 shots, 32 of which were on goal. Twelve different players took shots.

“Amelia Pernsteiner and Talyn Peterson played the defensive mids and did a good job of just keeping balls going forward,” Medford head coach Tanya Tessmann said. “It was nice to see everyone passing the ball, taking chances and taking shots.”

Sixteen of Medford’s goals were assisted. Schaefer led the way with four goals and two assists. Mallory Richter and Shayla Radlinger had hat tricks with Richter adding two assists. Bayley Metz and Caidyn Zenner each scored twice.

Medford’s 16 goals is easily a program record, surpassing the 10 goals the 2019 Raiders scored against Phillips and the 2021 Raiders scored at Antigo.

Peyton Boelk stopped both of the shots Antigo got off. With the win, Medford ended the first half of Great Northern Conference play at 2-3. The Raiders are 37-1 overall.

In her return to the lineup, Schaefer got the first goal 93 seconds in, crossing a shot in the box inside the post. Richter got her first one at 4:14, rebounding a shot by Bayley Metz that hit the crossbar. It stayed 2-0 until the 25:14 mark when the goals then came fast and furious.

Schaefer buried a shot form top of the goal box. At 26:59, Metz scored off a Schaefer assist and 32 seconds later, Richter assisted on Radlinger’s first goal. Richter’s crossing pass found Audrey Ruesch for the sixth goal at 37:06. Talyn Peterson sent a through ball to Kodi Rappe, who won her one-on-one with the Antigo keeper at 38:48. Just 52 seconds later, with 20 seconds left in the first half, Metz took a throw-in and dribbled into scoring position and made her shot to make it 8-0.

At 44:09, Richter dribbled in for the first goal of the second half. Schaefer again connected on a longer shot at 45:36. Aubri Sperl’s through ball found Radlinger at 48:43. Peterson’s second assist set up Schaefer’s fourth goal at 49:29. Ruesch got the assist on Zenner’s first goal at 50:12 and, just 20 seconds later, Zenner sent a pass up to Radlinger for her third goal.

Schaefer assisted on Richter’s third goal at 51:54 and the final goal came at 52:20 with Kate Gierl assisting Zenner.

Radlinger led Medford with 13 shots. Metz and Richter each took six shots. Peterson, Pernsteiner, Gierl, Greta Seidel and Layla Petersen all added to the shot total.

Tuesday’s game brought the road-heavy first half of Medford’s schedule to a close. The Raiders will enjoy the friendly confines for most of their games the rest of the way starting with Friday’s nonconference matchup with the Barron Coop. The start times are flipped for this one with varsity taking the field at 5 p.m., followed by the JV game.

The second round of conference play starts with two tough contests against Northland Pines Tuesday and Rhinelander on May 15. Those games start at 7 p.m.

Shawano 5, Medford 1

In non-conference play Saturday evening, Medford struck early for the game’s first goal, but host Shawano broke away bigtime from a 1-1 halftime tie by scoring four times in the second half to earn a 5-1 win.

Rappe got Medford’s goal just 8:49 in, not long after Medford had come up empty after putting pressure on Shawano’s defense and creating two corner kick chances. Shawano cleared the ball and got it over midfield after the second of those corner kicks, but Medford regained possession. Peterson pushed into Shawano’s half of the field to Rappe, who got past the goalie on her first touch and kicked into the wide-open net with her left foot.

Scoring chances went back and forth for the remainder of the half, but Shawano got one to go late, and that seemed to swing the momentum, which carried into the second half. On the equalizer, which came with 1:10 left in the half, Trinity Popelka was left open in the middle of the field, took a pass from Jadyn Brown and basically just turned and fired and hit the upper corner above Boelk’s right hand.

Early in the second half, at 43:15, a foul in the box gave Shawano a penalty kick which Madelyn Moesch converted to break the tie. From there, the Hawks scored three times in the next 13 minutes to put it away.

Kyla Dove tapped in a corner kick by Moesch at 48:26. Just 1:06 later, a questionable foul call on Medford gave Shawano a direct kick and, from 30 yards out, Popelka again made a near-perfect kick, getting it between the crossbar and Boelk’s reach. The last goal came at 55:53 with a long pass from Popelka leading to Arica Preston’s goal. As Medford’s luck in the game went, her shot, again, just got under the crossbar.

Medford had two good chances to close the gap, but Shawano did just enough to keep the ball from finding the net on heavy pressure just before the 61-minute mark and Radlinger’s hard shot off a corner kick at 65:30 was saved.

Boelk had 12 saves for Medford, who got off 16 shots, including 11 on goal. Peterson, Richter, Radlinger and Metz had three shots each.

“Talyn is doing a great job of placing her free kicks, whether they’re on goal or if she’s getting them into the mix up top where they give us a chance to score,” Tessmann said. “Hopefully we’ll find the net more on those as the season progresses.”

Shawano won the JV game 5-3. Medford got goals from Josslyn Schellinger, Chiara D’Arienzo and Abbie Marzinske.

Lakeland 3, Medford 0

On Thursday, host Lakeland took advantage of a couple of breakdowns and secured a 3-0 Great Northern Conference win over the Raiders.

Boelk recorded 18 saves as Lakeland applied its fair share of pressure on Medford’s defense. Still, the Raiders were in the game, trailing 1-0 until Lakeland got goals at 48:42 and 68:02 to create separation.

“We need to be checking our shoulders and making sure we’re marking players that need to be marked,” Tessmann said. “And we still need to have urgency and sprinting to every ball, even when we’re tired toward the end of the game.”

Boelk stopped a direct kick from Lakeland’s Landry Lenz about six minutes in. Peterson’s long direct kick in the 11th minute was hauled in by Lakeland’s Ava Evenhouse and Zenner sent a shot on goal in the 19th minute that Evenhouse picked up.

Lakeland got on the board at 23:04 when Medford’s attempt to clear got deflected backwards and the T-Birds were able to turn that break into an open shot from Karsyn Dyre, who hit the upper right corner. Boelk kept it 1-0 in the 35th minute with a save on a hard straight-on shot from Maya Savel.

Boelk stopped another hard shot by Savel early in the second half and then, possibly the Raiders’ best scoring chance came early in the 45th minute when Radlinger pushed a pass ahead to Rappe for what looked like a breakaway opportunity. Lakeland’s defense caught up from behind and forced a corner kick. Evenhouse made the stop on Richter’s kick.

At 48:42, Lakeland’s Cale Quade had plenty of room to work within the center of the field. She found Bobbi Lee, who turned and drilled a 21-yard shot inside the left post to make it 2-0. Addie Hagen closed the scoring at 68:02, taking a pass from Tayiah Bauman, who had just gotten a steal, and putting her shot in the low left corner.

“I felt our freshmen stepped up,” Tessmann said. “Kate Gierl continues to be aggressive and Greta Seidel is patient when she needs to be and is shielding really well.”

Lakeland holds second place in the GNC standings after the first round of play at 4-1.