Box Score There was no magic this year at Carson Park as the Falcon football team fell to the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds, 38-17, in a non-conference game. Eau Claire's Joel Sweeney ran in three of the five Blugold touchdowns, handing the Falcons their first defeat in Eau Claire since 2006.
Eau Claire's high powered offense got off to a hot start, scoring touchdowns on each of its first two drives to treat the home crowd to an early 14-0 start. The ensuing kickoff was high and short and landed at the 29-yard-line between three Falcon players. Eau Claire's Mitch Olson landed on the loose ball to give the Blugolds a shortened field.
The mishap on the kickoff led to another three points for Eau Claire, giving the Blugolds a 17-0 lead with River Falls only running nine plays of offense.
"In our first two games we came out and played well early. But today we were not ready to play and that falls on me," said Falcon Coach
Matt Walker. "Today we just didn't show up and you can't do that against teams in this league."
After the early struggles, the Falcons were able to settle down and contain the Blugold offense. Following the first two scoring drives, the Falcons held Eau Claire to a field goal following the fumble, and then forced four straight punts.
"When we had Eau Claire in a long field I thought our defense did a good job.” Walker continued. “But we hurt of defense again in the field position game."
In the first drive of the second half, the Falcons started at their own one-yard-line and were stranded after three quick plays. Punting out of their own end zone led to a 22-yard return to set the Blugolds up with a shortened field once again, this time at the River Falls 17, leading to another Eau Claire score.
The Falcons were limited to just 300 yards of total offense without their starting quarterback,
B.J. Letourneau (Falcon Heights, MN, Roseville) in the lineup. It was their lowest output since last year against Stevens Point. Letourneau missed the game with an injury.
"Not having (starting quarterback)
B.J. Letourneau in the game did hurt, but it's up to everyone to help pick
Wade Smethers (Dalbo, MN, Cambridge-Isanti) up and help him out.” Walker mentioned, “Wade struggled early in the game, but it was good to see that after a while he settled in and did better. But no team wants to go into a game without its starting quarterback."
Smeethers made his first career start at quarterback and connected on his first collegiate touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, finding
Nate Brandt (Lakefield, MN, Jackson County Central) in the corner of the end zone.
Brandt finished with four catches for 57 yards and the score. Heading into Saturday, he led the WIAC in receptions per game (7.5) and yards receiving per game (112). Brandt also took a handful of snaps at quarterback as the Falcons ran their version of the “Wildcat” offense starting in the second quarter.
The Falcons used a mixture of Brandt and Smeethers at quarterback in the final drive of the first half, marching 73 yards on 14 plays to set up the
Chad Blair (Oakdale, MN, Tartan) field goal. Blair's 26-yard field goal as time expired were the first points scored on the Blugolds in the first half all season.
Senior
Joel Yogerst (Richfield, WI, Slinger)led the Falcons with 84 yards rushing, including a career-long 51 yard run in the fourth quarter. Yogerst's big run set up a
Taylor Edwards (Janesville, WI, Parker) touchdown. Edwards finished with 63 yards on the ground, he was 10th in the nation in rushing entering Saturday's game.
Defensively the Falcons were led by
Lincoln Bjorklund (New Sweden, MN, Sibley East),
Alex Adams (Brooklyn Park, MN, Park Center) and
Lee Spohn (Albany, MN, Albany) with six tackles each.
Matt Ainsworth (Maple Grove, MN, Osseo) picked up his first sack of the season, while
Ryan Bartsch (Cameron, WI, Cameron) had five tackles and one for a loss.
Eau Claire is a team on the rise, just missing the top 25 in last week's poll, and have only trailed for a total of 13 seconds in 2011. Two weeks ago, the stunned St. Johns with a 49-17 win on the road before enjoying a bye last week.
"Eau Claire played well,” Walker commented on the Blugolds, “I think it showed that they had an extra week to prepare for the game."
This was the first non-conference meeting between the Blugolds and Falcons as part of the WIAC cost containment program. They will meet again in the season finale at Ramer Field in a WIAC contest.
The Falcons hit the road for the third straight week as they travel to Oshkosh for the WIAC opener on Saturday. Kickoff is at 1 p.m., at Titan Stadium.
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