Falcons now ranked No. 14 in the country

Even though the River Falls oense scored 10 unanswered points to secure a 27-24 win against then-No. 16 UW-Oshkosh, Falcons head coach Matt Walker said it was his team’s defense that won the game between the two nationally ranked WIAC heavyweights.

“It’s so hard to win games in this league. That’s as good of a football team as I’ve seen,” Walker said. “Think about the first quarter, multiple trips inside the 10 and they get three points. Our defense’s play in that first quarter ended up winning the football game.” After River Falls sophomore quarterback Kaleb Blaha threw an interception early in the first quarter, the Titans moved the ball down the field deep into Falcon territory. However, with a second-and-goal from the three-yard line, the Falcons stued the Titans on three consecutive run plays and forced a crucial turnover on downs.

While the River Falls oense continued to struggle in the first quarter, the defense kept the Falcons in the game. Oshkosh had another drive stall out in the red zone which culminated in a 34-yard field goal. Despite trailing 0-3, Walker and the Falcons felt good about limiting the damage early.

Oshkosh is only the second team that River Falls has played this season that made it a competitive game, the other being the 3734 loss against No. 4 St. John’s University. Other games included the 63-0 drubbing of Elmhurst, a 63-27 win against Northwestern and a 56-3 blowout of UW-Stevens Point.

The Oshkosh game was as physical as the Falcons have played all season. Coach Walker spoke about knowing that the Titans would respond to adversity and would make big plays throughout the game and how he prepared his team for that throughout the week.

“We said in our prep that this was going to be dierent than any other game. I called it responsive energy,” Walker said. “We’re going to have to respond. They’re going to make big plays. They’re going to score. They’re going to stop us. It’s going to be harder than it’s been all year. It was exactly what we said we needed to do and respond and we did it.” Walker was correct. The battle with Oshkosh truly ended up being a game of scoring runs. After the Titans took that 3-0 lead with five minutes left in the first quarter, River Falls responded with 17 unanswered points.

The first score came on a 20-yard touchdown pass from the aforementioned Blaha when he rolled out of the pocket and connected with sophomore wide receiver Mason Van Zeeland in the endzone. The Falcons took a 7-3 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Then with 12 minutes remaining in the second quarter, Blaha scampered into the endzone on a four-yard QB keeper that gave the Falcons a 14-3 lead. Blaha’s score capped o an eight-play 27-yard scoring drive for the Falcons. The Falcons added a field goal seven minutes later to make it a 17-3 lead.

Oshkosh responded with a four-minute drive late in the half that culminated in a touchdown pass from junior quarterback Kobe Berghammer to junior running back DJ Stewart. Oshkosh successfully converted the two-point conversion to make it a 17-11 ballgame, still favoring River Falls going into the halftime intermission.

The Titans scored the next 13 points of the second half to take a 24-17 lead over the Falcons. Both scores came through the air as Berghammer connected with freshman tight end Clayton Schwalbe and then to junior wide receiver Tony Steger.

Walker’s Falcons responded with a 14play, 65-yard touchdown drive that Blaha capped o with a three-yard touchdown run to knot the game up 24-24 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.

After a defensive stop, River Falls got the ball back to start the fourth quarter and chewed away more than half of the final frame as the Falcons drove methodically down the field. With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, freshman kicker Justin Scheberl booted a 23-yard field goal to give the Falcons a 27-24 lead. Walker spoke about his freshman kicker.

“I thought the kicking game was good,” Walker said. “That’s a freshman kicking those field goals and all three phases helped each other out today. This is a special group.” With a three-point lead, the Falcons’ defense again came up clutch. A couple of plays into the Oshkosh drive, Berghammer threw a pass over the middle of the field. That’s when River Falls sophomore defensive back Michael Brown jumped the route and picked the ball o.

However, Blaha almost immediately turned the ball back over. A couple of plays into the Falcons’ possession he took a big hit, fumbled and had it recovered by Oshkosh. The Titans had a chance at a game-winning score but it was the aforementioned Brown, who picked o another Berghammer pass to secure the 27-24 River Falls win. It was Brown’s second interception of the game.

“We have the two best corners in the league. I’m not afraid to write that publicly,” Walker said. “We’re so blessed. You’ve got to have coverage corners in college football and those guys are incredible. We can put them on islands, other teams can’t do that. He’s a stud and he deserves it. He worked as hard as anybody in our oseason.” Through five games this season, River Falls leads the WIAC in passes intercepted with 11. UW-La Crosse is in second place with eight interceptions. The aforementioned Brown leads the charge for the Falcons with four interceptions this season.

With the win, River Falls improves to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the WIAC. The Falcons are tied atop the league standings with Whitewater (2-0). After the win, the Falcons moved up to No. 14 in the national rankings, according to D3Football.com.

River Falls’ next game is on the road against the 2-3 UW-Platteville Pioneers on Saturday, Oct. 15. That game is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium in Platteville.

The UW-River Falls Falcons defensive line matches up with the UW-Oshkosh offensive line during the battle between the two nationally ranked teams at David Smith Stadium in River Falls on Saturday, Oct. 8.Photo by Reagan Hoverman