River Falls, Wis. - In a match-up of top nine ranked teams, the University of Wisconsin-a Crosse football team fell, 41-7, at UW-River Falls Saturday afternoon at Smith Stadium at Ramer Field.
The Eagles, ranked ninth on this week's Dfootball.com Top-25 Poll, drops to 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the eighth-ranked Falcons improve to 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the WIAC.
With the victory, UW-River Falls clinches at least a share of the WIAC regular season title.
The Falcons snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Eagles with Saturday's win. UWL has won 28 of the last 32 meetings overall.
UW-River Falls needed two plays to take the lead on Saturday as Trevor Asher scored on a 54-yard touchdown run with 14:27 left in the first quarter. Justin Scheberl converted the extra point. UWL's
Jacob Huber was intercepted by Taylor Sussner on UWL's first possession, but on the next play from scrimmage, UW-River Falls' Jaylen Reed fumbled with
Christian Powell recovering.
The Eagles tied the game at 7-7 with a six-play drive with
Gabe Lynch scoring on a two-yard run with 9:25 remaining in the first quarter.
Michael Stack made the extra-point. The drive went 43 yards in 2:58.
Kaleb Blaha's 18-yard touchdown pass to Austin Rush gave UW-River Falls a 14-7 lead with 5:47 left in the first quarter. The Falcons went 65-yards in 12 plays and 3:35.
UWL punted on its next drive and UW-River Falls extended the lead to 21-7 with :03 remaining in the opening quarter on Blaha's 20-yard touchdown pass to Rush. The drive used 3:42 to go 69 yards in 10 plays.
After an Eagles' punt, the Falcons went 63 yards in 11 plays and 3:10 to take a 24-7 advantage on Scheberl's 24-yard field goal with 9:14 remaining in the second quarter.
UW-River Falls turned the ball over on downs with :41 left in the first half and UWL drove to the Falcons' 30-yard line after
Jacob Huber's 24-yard completion to
Keaton Arendt, but
Michael Stack's 47-yard field missed on the final play of the second quarter.
UWL punted on its first drive of the third quarter and UW-River Falls went 66 yards in 11 plays and 4:05 to take a 31-7 lead on Trevor Asher's two-yard touchdown run with 9:13 left in the quarter.
Scheberl's 35-yard field goal with 9:27 remaining in the game extended the Falcons lead to 34-7. The drive used 5:25 to go 61 yards in 13 plays. UW-River Falls added a Taylor Sussner 65-yard interception return for a touchdown with 4:57 left to finish the scoring.
UWL finished with 201 yards on Saturday, including 42 rushing and 159 passing. The Eagles totaled 15 first downs and were three-of-12 on third-down.
Huber went seven-of-17 for 87 yards with one interception while
Nolan Mosier finished five-of-12 for 72 yards and two interceptions. Lynch led UWL with 28 yards on 12 carries and one touchdown with
Owen Leitel finishing with 24 yards on four attempts.
Jack Janke (93 yards) and
Keaton Arendt (44) each had five catches.
UW-River Falls totaled 534 yards with 226 rushing and 308 passing. The Falcons had 31 first downs and finished 11-of-20 on third-down and two-of-three on fourth-down. UW-River Falls won the time of possession, 35:02 to 24:58.
Blaha finished 35-of-50 for 307 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Asher totaled 128 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 18 carries. Blaha had 90 yards rushing on 17 attempts. Rush had nine receptions for 67 yards and two touchdowns.
UWL's
Ethan Tranel averaged 45.6 yards on nine punts with a long of 67-yards. He had three punts over 50-yards.
Grant Achterkirch led the Eagles with 15 tackles, including nine solo, while
Tyler Shaver finished with 10 tackles with eight unassisted. Along with the fumble recovery, Powell had 2.0 tackles for loss.
Gage Timm and Noah Nusbaum led UW-River Falls with seven tackles. Nusbuam finished with 2.0 quarterback sacks. Sussner had a pair of interceptions.
UWL wraps up its regular season at UW-Stevens Point on Saturday, November 15 at 1 p.m.
