The UW Oshkosh football team will face off against UW-River Falls for the 69th time in school history this Saturday (Oct. 4) in a matchup that has been tightly contested over the past few years.
Despite the Falcons leading the overall series with a record of 37-30-1, UWO holds a 16-8 record against UWRF since the year 2000. But, UWRF has beaten the Titans in three of the last four four matchups dating back to 2021. Three games in that stretch were also decided by a single score.
UWO tight end Clayton Schwalbe said that although this year’s contest against the Falcons is another big matchup for the team, they are only focused on the road ahead.
“Our team knows how good the WIAC is and we know that every conference game can be the difference between us making the postseason and not,” Schwalbe said. “We prepare and hold ourselves to the same high standard every week no matter who we have that week, every week is a chance to get better.”
Not only have three of the past four meetings between the Falcons and Titans been decided by single digits, but in all four games, the lower ranked team in each matchup won. UWRF beat the Titans at UWO in 2021 with a score of 28-21. In that game, the Falcons were unranked and the Titans were ranked No. 19, similar to last year when the Falcons won at home 28-14. In 2022, in a matchup at UWRF between the No. 16 Titans and No. 17 Falcons, the Titans fell 27-24 after coming back from a 17-3 deficit. UWO’s lone win over the Falcons in the last four years came in the final game of the regular season in 2023 when the unranked Titans upset No. 11 UWRF 38-31.
A big piece of River Falls’ resurgence this decade has been behind the play of fifth-year senior quarterback Kaleb Blaha. Blaha set the Falcons’ single season record for total offensive yards in 2023 and has been at the forefront of UWRF’s “Top Gun Offense,” which led the WIAC in 2022, 2023 and so far in 2025 in most offensive statistics. Blaha, who is a dual-threat quarterback, can affect a defense in many ways, UWO linebacker Kyle Dietzen said.
“(Blaha) is a very talented football player, he’s able to beat defenses with his arm as well as his legs,” Dietzen said. “By understanding and recognizing, he can make plays in the air and on the ground, our defense is talented enough to be dynamic.”
In the past four seasons, this matchup was the difference between one or both of the teams making the postseason. UWRF’s wins in 2021 and 2022 helped get them to back-to-back appearances in the annual Culver’s Isthmus Bowl. The Titans’ upset over the Falcons in 2023 not only ended any hope that the Falcons had at making the NCAA Tournament, but also kicked UWRF out of a third straight Isthmus Bowl due to the bowl game’s tiebreaker rules. When UWRF returned the favor last season, UWO lost its chance at possibly getting a berth in the NCAA tournament. The Titans also lost what would’ve been their first bid into the Isthmus Bowl.
This year’s edition of the No. 11 Falcons taking on the No. 15 Titans will be the second matchup between the two when both are in the D3Football.com top 25 since 2022.
The game will kick off at 1 p.m. on Oct. 4 at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium. The game can be streamed on the WIAC Network or on the radio on 90.3 WRST-FM.
