RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The No. 20-ranked UW-La Crosse Eagles handed the UW-River Falls football team its first loss of the 2021 season, defeating the Falcons 45-23 on Saturday afternoon from Smith Stadium at Ramer Field during UWRF homecoming.
UWL jumped out to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and showed consistent efforts on both sides of the ball, compiling 553 yards of total offense compared to UWRF's 468. The Eagles also limited the Falcons to a 7-of-20 conversion rate on third down and 2-for-7 effort on fourth downs.
Early on during the first offensive drive of the contest, UWL set the tone with a 60-yard rushing touchdown from Joey Stutzman. The visitors added a couple more scores to take a 21-0 lead early into the second frame.
Andy Groebner got the Falcons on the board in the second quarter with one of his two touchdown receptions, a 23-yard pass from
Kole Hinrichsen. He scored again near the end of the first half, a 27-yard reception from Hinrichsen for his team-leading seventh TD of the season to put UWRF down by just two scores at halftime, 28-14.
UWL opened the scoring in the second half to make any Falcon comeback hopes more difficult as Jake Simuncak hauled in his third TD reception of the game.
Cade Henry notched his second field goal of the season in response, but the Eagles scored twice in the final quarter to put the game out of reach.
Jager Reissmann scored his first career touchdown near the end of the game, a one-yard reception from
Kaleb Blaha.
Hinrichsen finished with 282 passing yards with 23 completions on 41 attempts. Blaha led the ground game with 56 yards and
Charlie Huschka collected 64 receiving yards.
Defensively,
Ben Ertz led UWRF with seven tackles, followed six from
Andy Metcalf which included one sack.
Michael Brown had one interception along with a pass breakup.
