RIVER FALLS, Wis. - The No. 10/11-ranked UW-River Falls football team erased a 21-point deficit to defeat UW-Stout 40-37 in overtime on Saturday afternoon at Ramer Field.
The Falcons, now 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the WIAC, trailed by 27-6 at halftime before rallying with 28 points in the second half to force overtime. After the Blue Devils opened the extra period with a successful field goal to lead 37-34, the Falcons answered with a
Cade Fitzgerald rushing touchdown to secure the win. It marked UWRF's first overtime game since 2016, and the program's first overtime victory since the Falcons defeated UW-La Crosse 21-20 on Oct. 3, 2015, in River Falls.
UWRF compiled 481 yards of total offense despite turnover and penalty trouble, conceding 115 yards due to penalties and turning the ball over four times. Conversely, the Falcons caused a trio of UW-Stout interceptions that resulted in 21 points.
On just UWRF's fourth play of the game,
Riley Warzynski - making his Falcon debut, completed a screen pass to
Austin Rush who ran 54 yards for a score to give the Falcons a 6-0 lead. From there however, the visitors took over, shutting out UWRF for the remainder of the first half while tacking on 27 points before the intermission.
UW-Stout, looking to carry its momentum in the second half, opened with the ball and a
Michael Brown interception stole the momentum away as UWRF scored on the ensuing drive, a
Cade Fitzgerald seven-yard pass to
Ben Wesolowski. Later in the quarter, the Falcons added another interception by
Aaron Borgerding and a Fitzgerald rushing touchdown trimmed the Blue Devil lead to 27-20. Riding the high of the pair of third quarter interceptions, another Falcon defensive back came into the mix in the fourth quarter as
Andrew Schumacher intercepted a Stout pass and ran 24 yards for the score, and a
Justin Scheberl PAT tied the game at 27-27.
The Blue Devils scored on the following drive to take back the lead, but UWRF answered again with another Fitzgerald rushing TD to knot the score at 34-34, where it stood until extra time, and Fitzgerald's heroics led the Falcons to victory.
UWRF completed a season-high 33 passes, led by the quarterback tandem of
Cade Fitzgerald and
Riley Warzynski. Warzynski passed for 193 yards while Fitzgerald had 272 yards of total offense, including a career-high 150 rushing yards.
Austin Rush led the receiving core with 10 catches for 108 yards.
Defensively,
Aaron Borgerding led the Falcons with 11 tackles (8 solo), including a pair of tackles for loss, an interception, a sack, and one pass breakup.
Gage Timm also guided the defense with nine tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.
