Explosive Plays lead to Falcon Homecoming Victory

Box Score

River Falls, Wisc. (uwrfsports.com) – In a packed house on homecoming weekend, the UW-River Falls football team cruised to a 42-22 win over Southwestern (TX). The Falcons scored six touchdowns, 21 points coming in the fourth quarter.

THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UW-River Falls: 42 Southwestern: 22
Location: Ramer Field at Smith Stadium, River Falls, WI
Record: UWRF: 1-2 (0-0 WIAC) Southwestern 1-3 (0-0 SCAC)

WHAT HAPPENED

Both teams exchanged drives early on in the game, Southwestern struck first with 2:43 in the first quarter. Frederick Hover recovered his own fumble in the endzone that capped off a 10 play, 63 yard drive that ate up six and a half minutes. The extra point was blocked and the Pirates lead 6-0.
The Falcons tied the game up in the second quarter with a seven play, 93 yard drive in just three minutes and eight seconds. The scoring play come on a trick play with wide receiver Tyler Halverson took a jet sweep and quarterback Travon Hearns caught the pass for a 25 yard touchdown. Hearns first as a Falcon. The extra point by Wade Malecha gave UWRF the 7-6 lead.
Facing their first deficit, Southwestern responded with a 10 play, 73 yard drive highlighted by a 47 yard rush. Southwestern's drive stalled and they settled for a field goal and took a 9-7 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, the Falcons held the Pirates on their opening drive and seized momentum with the first play of the drive when Sawyer Moon scampered for 48 yards to the Southwestern 30 yard line.
Junior running back Michael Diggins capped off the drive with a six yard touchdown that gave the Falcons the lead with 8:11 left in the third quarter.
On the ensuing drive, the Falcons senior Kyle Hunter sacked Southwestern's quarterback, then on the next play, Queety Badio forced a fumble and it was recovered by senior safety Robbie Flom and gave the Falcons the ball at the Southwestern 14.
The very next play, Diggins powered his way into the endzone for his second touchdown of the day on a 14 yard run. The Falcons led 21-9 after the touchdown.
The Pirates took over on the ensuing drive and took the ball 84 yards in 12 plays in five minutes and fourty seconds to cut the lead to 21-16.
The Falcons punted on the next drive, and Southwestern took over with a chance to take the lead back but Kyle Hunter bullied his way into the backfield and slapped the ball out of Hover's hands with the ball recovered all the way back at the Southwestern 10 yard line by freshman Jared Johnson and the Falcons were back in business.
The Falcons took five plays to go the 10 yards, but on fourth and goal from the one yard line, Hearns took the ball and jumped over the pile to score his second touchdown of the day. The Falcons then lead 27-16 halfway through the fourth quarter.
Now down 11, the Pirates quickly took their game to the air with a 42 yard strike from Hover to Matt Gillen for a touchdown bringing the score to 27-22.
With the Falcons looking to run out some clock, Rance Ashley broke into the second level of the Pirate defense and sprinted his way to a 54 yard touchdown to give the Falcons a double digit lead once again at 35-22.
After a three and out by Southwestern, the Falcons capped off the victory with Ashley breaking multiple Pirate tackles on his way to diving into the endzone on a 44 yard touchdown run. The drive was set up after an interception by junior cornerback Kyle Narges' first interception of the year. The Falcons getting one last extra point from Malecha won their first game of the year 42-22.

IN-DEPTH LOOK

River Falls finished with 434 total yards of offense in the game with 255 of them coming on the ground. The Falcons averaged 7.9 yards per play in the game.
The Falcons ground game was led by Ashley who finished with seven carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
Diggins had two touchdowns on the day on 13 carries for 62 yards. Diggins now has four touchdowns on the year, which leads the team.
Moon had a solid game both passing and running. He ran six times for 71 times and completed nine of 16 passes for 90 yards and was not sacked. The Falcons started two freshman offensive lineman and one sophomore.
Hearns finished his best day as a Falcon going perfect in the passing game six of six passes for 64 yards. Hearns scored both on the ground, and catching the ball.
In the passing game, the Falcons spread the ball around well. Halverson led with 43 yards on three catches. Griff Christenson had three catches for 32 yards. Diggins had three catches for 29 yards, and Trenton Monson caught three balls for 25 yards.
On the defensive side, the Falcons had 11 tackles for loss on the day with both Tyler Ledbeter and Kyle Hunter having three for a combined 22 yards.
Hunter finished with two sacks on the day and a forced fumble. Matt Ekman had the other Falcon sack, giving the Falcons three to the Pirates zero.
Junior Kyle Narges picked off his first pass of the year with an interception in the fourth quarter which he returned for 26 yards.

THE OPPOSITION

Southwestern finished the game with 400 yards of offense led by Hover. Hover had 208 yards passing and two touchdowns and one interception. He also ran the ball 17 times for 61 yards and a touchdown.
Wide receiver Matt Gillen had another big game against the Falcons, last year he caught 14 passes for 167 yards and a touchdown, and in this game he had 13 catches for 148 yards and a touchdown.
Dylan Wilburn also had a couple huge runs for the Pirates. He had a 47 yard rush in the first half, and finished with 78 total rush yards.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Falcons head back on the road with their first WIAC game of the year against Rival UW-La Crosse. The Falcons won last year's game, which was the 2015 homecoming, on an overtime blocked field goal by Nick Jacobsen 21-20. The Falcons last win on the road against UW-La Crosse was in 2011 when they won 28-21 in overtime. UWRF and UW-La Crosse have gone to overtime in four out of the last five meetings. Kickoff is set for 4:05 p.m. in La Crosse.

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