River Falls, Wis. - In a match-up of top-seven ranked teams, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team earned a 31-28 victory at UW-River Falls Saturday afternoon at Smith Stadium at Ramer Field. The Eagles, ranked fourth on D3football.com, improve to 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) and clinch at least a share of the league's regular-season title. UWL also earns the conference's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships. UW-River Falls, ranked seventh on D3football.com, drops to 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the conference.
It is UWL's second straight conference title under head coach Matt Janus and 35th in school history. The Eagles will make their 14th appearance (1983, 1991-93, 1995-96, 1999, 2002-04, 2006, 2021-23) in school history in the NCAA III Championships, including third straight. The 32-team field will be announced Sunday, November 12.
UWL can clinch the outright conference title with a win at UW-Stevens Point on Saturday, November 11.
UW-River Falls was forced to punt on the first possession of the game with UWL's Zackary Watson returning the kick 42-yards to the Falcons' 23-yard line. The Eagles needed three plays to take a 7-0 lead with Keyser Helterbrand throwing a nine-yard touchdown pass to Jack Studer with 12:20 left in the first quarter. UW-River Falls was called for offsides on third-and-one to continue the drive. Michael Stack converted the extra-point.
The teams traded turnovers on the next three drives. Blaha fumbled at the UW-River Falls' 18-yard line with Bodie Schanhofer recovering. Helterbrand was intercepted by Aaron Borgerding in the Falcons' end-zone with him returning the ball to the six-yard line. On the next play from scrimmage, Blaha fumbled for the second time and Henry Walsh recovered at the UW-River Falls' five-yard line. UWL took advantage two plays later as Helterbrand scored on a two-yard run with 10:14 remaining in the opening quarter to extend the lead to 14-0. UW-River Falls cut the lead to 14-7 with 3:39 left in the first quarter on Blaha's 29-yard touchdown pass to Michael Krueger.
Helterbrand threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Watson on the third play of the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead with 13:28 remaining. The Eagles extended the lead to 24-7 on Stack's 27-yard field goal with 6:10 left in the first half. UW-River Falls drove to UWL's 27-yard line on the final drive of the second quarter, but Luke Kush was stopped in the field of play after a nine-yard catch with no timeouts for the Falcons.
UWL took a 31-7 lead on the first drive of the second half as Helterbrand scored on a one-yard run with 11:23 left in the third quarter. Helterbrand hit Studer for 43-yards on the drive. UW-River Falls cut the margin to 31-13 on its first possession of the second half with Blaha scoring on a two-yard run with 7:51 remaining. The Falcons' two-point conversion failed. After a UWL punt, UW-River Falls went 81 yards in 13 plays to cut the deficit to 31-20 on another two-yard touchdown run from Blaha with :10 left in the quarter. Justin Scheberl converted the extra-point.
The Eagles were stopped for no gain on fourth-and-two at the Falcons' 46-yard line on a Helterbrand rush with 10:29 remaining in the game. UW-River Falls cut it to 31-28 after Blaha scored on a one-yard touchdown run with 7:34 left. Ryan Krueger's 54-yard punt on UWL's next possession put the ball at the UW-River Falls' 22-yard line. The Falcons converted a fourth-and-five on a Blaha 19-yard pass to Kush. UW-River Falls drove to UWL's 10-yard line, but Scherbl's 27-yard field goal was blocked by Jack Kelly on the final play of the game.
UWL finished with 333 yards of offense, including 175 rushing and 158 passing. The Eagles totaled 19 first downs and won the time of possession, 34:06 to 25:54, while going three-of-10 on third-down. UWL finished five-of-six in red-zone chances.
Helterbrand went 13-of-19 for 158 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while rushing for 88 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries. Gabe Lynch had 61 yards rushing on 15 attempts. Studer finished with six catches for 100 yards and one touchdown.
UW-River Falls totaled 392 yards with 143 rushing and 249 passing. The Falcons had 29 first downs, finishing eight-of-16 on third-down and three-of-three on fourth-down. UW-River Falls was three-of-four in the red-zone.
Blaha finished 29-of-47 for 249 yards and one touchdown while rushing for 86 yards and three touchdowns on 30 attempts. Krueger had six catches for 75 yards and a touchdown while Kush caught seven passes for 68 yards.
Schanhofer led UWL with nine tackles, including six unassisted. He also had one fumble Kelly, Walsh and Cole Walter each recorded a sack. Carson Steen and Drew Hahn led UW-River Falls with nine tackles.