Warriors tuning up for playoffs

This is a bit delayed, but I wanted to share a few thoughts with y’all on two teams I saw last week.

Let’s start with the high school ranks and Rice Lake, which has a big game with New Richmond tonight and has to be the area’s best five-loss team.

Every team to beat the Division 2 Warriors is a Division 1 Big Rivers Conference team – and a pretty good one at that. Rice Lake has lost twice to Eau Claire North, twice to Chippewa Falls and once to Hudson.

The Warriors are the only D2 school in the BRC, something that should toughen them up significantly for the playoffs.

“I think it helps us so much because we’re not going to playing anyone the same as the Big Rivers in regionals or maybe even sectionals,” senior forward Andrew Lochmann said after Friday’s win over Eau Claire Memorial. “It just helps us so much.”

Against D2 teams, the Warriors (10-5, 4-5 BRC) are 6-0 this season. That includes some quality wins over the likes of Northwestern, Barron and Spooner. Tonight’s game against a very good New Richmond team will be another great test – and give us a good idea of just how good the Warriors can be in the Division 2 bracket.

Rice Lake definitely is a different team from last season, when the Warriors had a balanced four-pronged offensive attack. This year they’re much more reliant offensively on the 1-2 punch of Alex Culy and Lochmann, who probably are the best duo I’ve seen this season.

The rest of the crew entered the season with very little varsity experience and has taken some time to get used to their roles. But players like Derek West, Tim Hovde and David Gianoli have made big strides – something that bodes well for the Warriors’ playoff chances.

“You look at that team last year, we had a lot of experience coming back,” Culy said. “This year it’s me and Andrew. Those other guys, you can tell as the season goes on, they’ve gotten better and better with experience.”

I had a chance to chat with another Culy, Alex’s older brother Dan, on Wednesday. I’ll check back in a little later with some thoughts on UW-Superior. For now I best get to work on tomorrow’s sports section.

- Joe Ziemer