By Greg Thomas
D3football.com
UW-River Falls is headed to Canton after surviving and then delivering one of the wildest games of the Division III season, outlasting Johns Hopkins 48-41 in Saturday’s national semifinal. The Falcons erased deficits twice, traded haymakers throughout the second half, and finally broke through on a 79-yard strike from Kaleb Blaha to Blake Rohrer with 47 seconds remaining to secure the program’s first trip to the Stagg Bowl.
For UW-River Falls, the path to Canton required a different kind of resolve than it had for most of the season. The Falcons entered the semifinal having controlled games with margin and tempo, rarely forced to navigate four quarters of counterpunching against an opponent that refused to fade. Saturday demanded exactly that.
“It’s a game we haven’t been in a lot, to be honest with you,” head coach Matt Walker said afterward. “This was an absolute war. It showed that we can win any kind of football game.” Against a Johns Hopkins team that has spent its season being tested by as many playoff-quality opponents as River Falls has, the Falcons had to match execution with patience, absorb momentum swings, and keep answering until the final seconds.
The game detonated early and never really slowed. UW-River Falls scored on its opening drive when Blaha capped the game’s opening drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, but Johns Hopkins answered immediately. Geoff Schroeder broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run just 98 seconds later. After Blaha briefly left the game following a hard tackle on a run into the Johns Hopkins defensive line, the Blue Jays seized momentum. A 40-yard punt return by Alex Orecchio set up three straight Blue Jays runs and an 11-yard Bay Harvey touchdown, giving Hopkins a 14-7 lead.
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| UW-River Falls becomes the fourth member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to reach the Stagg Bowl, three of which have done it in the past decade. Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com |
Blaha returned and steadied the Falcons, engineering a 12-play, 77-yard response finished by a 12-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Reed. The second quarter shifted from methodical to explosive. After the teams traded punts, Reed scored once again, this time on a 72-yard catch and run. Johns Hopkins answered just over one minute later with a double-reverse flea-flicker that ended with Harvey hitting Jack Bechtel for a 33-yard score. When UW-River Falls failed on a fourth-and-4 at its own 42 with 2:30 left in the half, Hopkins cashed in the short field — Harvey plunging in from 2 yards with 13 seconds remaining for a 27-20 halftime lead.
The third quarter became a sprint. UW-River Falls needed just three plays to retake the lead with Rohrer hauling in a 20-yard touchdown after his 37-yard catch earlier in the drive flipped the field. Johns Hopkins answered right back with Harvey finding Cole Crotty for a 6-yard score to retake the lead 34-28. Confusion on the ensuing kickoff ended with UW-River Falls falling on the ball at their own 1 yard line. Blaha engineered a 9-play, 99 yard drive keyed by a 48 yard pass to Jake Hilton and finished with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Hilton. Hilton’s unsportsmanlike conduct penalty forced a long point after try that the wind pushed wide to the left, leaving the score tied at 34-34. After the Falcons forced a Hopkins punt, Blaha struck again quickly in the third quarter, this time a 25-yard touchdown to Rohrer to finish a drive that needed just three plays to cover 70 yards to give the Falcons a 41-34 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Hopkins refused to go away. A 13-play, 94-yard march ended early in the fourth quarter with Ty Pugliano scoring from 2 yards on his first carry of the game. The teams traded missed opportunities -- a Will Seibert sack pushing UW-River Falls out of scoring range, followed by a stunning fourth-and-12 decision by the Falcons after an illegal-touch penalty on the previous play carried a loss of down. After the fourth down mishap, one in which UWRF may not have realized it was fourth down, the River Falls defense responded by forcing Johns Hopkins to punt after just three plays and gave their offense one more chance to win in regulation. Pinned deep at his own 4 with under a minute left, Blaha trusted Rohrer again. On third down, Rohrer snatched the ball away in front of Blue Jay safety Jack Schondelmayer and raced 79 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Brady Block intercepted Harvey on the ensuing possession to seal it.
Blaha authored a performance that will live in program history, bouncing back from the first-quarter injury to throw for a school-record 520 yards and five touchdowns on 30-of-48 passing while adding a rushing score for good measure. Rohrer finished with nine catches for 236 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner. UW-River Falls piled up 632 yards of offense, while Johns Hopkins countered with 461 behind Schroeder’s 159 rushing yards and Harvey’s 287 total yards and four touchdowns. The Falcons (13-1) move on to the Stagg Bowl for the first time in school history, while Johns Hopkins’ remarkable season ends at 12-2, one win short of Canton.