Box Score

The UW-River Falls Falcons football team dropped their season opener at Saint John's University 27-8 this afternoon.

"This was a tough day for everyone involved in the program because of how much everyone put into and invested into this game. But, you will see a resilient group of young men recover and play next week," said UWRF Head Coach Matt Walker.

The Falcons got the ball first and showed promise early when Emmanuel Udeh took their first offensive play 25 yards to put UWRF around midfield. The Jonnies defense forced the Falcons to punt after they failed to convert another first down the next three plays.

Saint John's, one of the most storied programs in Div. III football, had a packed stadium of 8,863 for their home opener and never looked back after scoring on their first offensive drive. They were pushed back to try and convert it on third and fifteen from the Falcons 39 and did that and more when Sam Sura ran 39 yards on an option play to get his first of three touchdowns. He also finished with 168 yards rushing.  The scoring drive went seven plays for 75 yards.

The Falcons tried a new wishbone offense on a couple of drives including their second one of the game and had success out of it with Rance Ashley rushing for 32 yards but a couple fumbles killed the momentum they had out of it including one lost fumble and one fumble on a third and short play later in the half.

The Falcons had a tough day offensively with four turnovers. "Offensively we could never establish anything. Hats off to St. John's but we stopped ourselves with turnovers," Walker said.

The Falcons defense forced a turnover in the second quarter as SJU was driving when Nick Jacobsen punched the ball out but the Falcons could not turn it into points.

At the end of the first quarter Sura found the end zone again for the SJU plunging in foe one yard to cap off a seven play thirty yard drive.

Late in the second quarter Alexi Johnson booted in a 35 yard field goal to complete a 10 play 24 yard drive.

Down 17-0 the Falcons were not able to move the ball and Saint John's again marched down the field and scored a touchdown as Sura ran it in from seven yards out. SJU was expected to play two quarterbacks but mainly played junior Nick Martin who was smart all day running the option and taking care of the ball. He finished with 23 rush yards and went 11-17 for 72 pass yards.

In the third quarter UWRF only got off five offensive plays as SJU kept the ball on the ground to keep moving the ball. With 12 seconds left Johnson hit a 26 yard field goal to end a 14 play 53 yard drive.

"Our defense played their heart out and were on the field way too much," Walker said.

The Falcons had an exciting play early in the fourth quarter when Ryan Kusilek throw a deep jump ball up for Charles Dixon who caught it and took it 88 yards for the second biggest completion for a touchdown in UWRF history. Hear WRFW's Ryan Tibbitts on the call. 

Backup quarterback Sawyer Moon gave the Falcons life late in the game marching them down the field but two penalties killed the drive and they could not convert it into points.  Kusilek finished 3-12 for 99 yards and Moon went 2-4 for 67 yards.

Dixon led the Falcons in receiving with two grabs for 93 yards. Nick Zimmerman had a strong day for the defense with a couple big hits and finished with 13 tackles.
Derrek Tarter had two sacks in the game and finished with nine tackles while Christian Alvarado, Charles Register and Luke Radke all finished with eight tackles.

Will Jensen punted a strong game averaging 40.8 yards per punt with a long of 45 yards.

UWRF will head to Simpson, IA next weekend for their next game with kickoff set for 1 p.m.

Box Score