The No. 15 ranked UW Oshkosh football team won a 21-17 thriller on Saturday against the No. 11 UW-River Falls Falcons at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium.
It was the opener of the WIAC schedule for both teams. The Titans’ win was also the second straight time that UWO beat UWRF at Oshkosh (38-31 in 2023). With the win, UWO now has a game advantage over a team that could be challenging for the WIAC title in the Falcons.
UWO held a Falcons offense that scored a combined 169 points in its first three games and was also led by one of the best quarterbacks in the nation in Kaleb Blaha, to only 17 points.
“Beating (UWRF) who runs a very unique offensive system is very exciting,” coach Peter Jennings said.
The game was a defensive showcase between the Titans and Falcons. UWO was held scoreless on its opening drive. And during the Falcons first drive, the Titans stopped UWRF on fourth-and-nine deep in UWO territory after the Falcons drove all the way to the UWO 39-yard line. The first quarter ended at 0-0, with both teams only possessing the ball twice in the first quarter.
The second quarter began with UWRF in the middle of its second possession. The Falcons drive began with 04:17 left in the first quarter and ended just at the beginning of the second quarter with a QB keeper touchdown from Blaha to put UWRF up 7-0.
The Titans responded on their immediate possession. Behind a 39-yard run from wildcat quarterback AJ Korth, followed by a 23-yard run from running back Ben Vallefskey, those plays set up a Vallefskey 14-yard touchdown run to tie the game at 7-7.
Both teams went back and forth with scoreless drives until, with 35 seconds left in the half, Vallefskey had a 51-yard house call touchdown to put the Titans up 14-7 going into the half. The touchdown was big because UWRF began the second half with the ball and the Titans had the “Top Gun Offense” playing from behind, something that the Falcons offense has not done yet all year.
For most of the second half, after UWO held the Falcons to a field goal on its first drive to cut the Titans lead to 14-10, both teams went scoreless as neither team could take advantage of the opportunities given to them.
UWO came up with two big turnovers deep in its own territory during the third quarter. A blocked punt on the Titans first possession of the half set up the Falcons on UWO’s nine-yard line. Defensive back Taye Derrico came up with an interception in the endzone to erase the Falcons threat. On the Falcons ensuing possession, it was defensive back Ben Woellefer coming up with the second straight UWO interception. This one came on the five-yard line in UWO’s field territory.
Linebacker Kyle Dietzen credits the defense’s mindset of not cracking in the tough situations they were put in when they forced the two turnovers.
“Our mindset is to put the ball down,” Dietzen said. “(UWO’s defense) didn’t raise a heartbeat and panic.”
The Titans offense however, was unable to put the game away with all the opportunities it had, as a couple of missed throws and drops in late downs doomed the Titans.
Those missed opportunities kept the Falcons and their “Top Gun Offense” in the game. On the Falcons first drive of the fourth quarter, UWO was able to stuff the Falcons on 4th-and-inches on the UWO 21-yard line.
The Titans weren’t able to come away with points again and gave the ball back to the Falcons offense one more time. After all the stops that the Titans defense came up with, this time they could not stop the Falcons as UWRF took the 17-14 lead behind a Blaha TD run with 1:15 left in the game.
Needing a field goal to tie or a touchdown to win, the Titans offense which could not get much going, found itself in a do-or-die situation during its final drive.
UWRF had the Titans on the ropes with a fourth-and-7 on its own 37-yard line. UWO needed to convert to stay alive in the game, and got a big play when it mattered most. Quarterback Quentin Keene found wide receiver Londyn Little for a 43-yard gain to the UWRF 20-yard line to completely flip the field position and keep the game alive.
After another big catch from wide receiver Jon Mathieu to put the Titans on the Falcons seven-yard line, Keene found tight end Clayton Schwalbe in the endzone for a go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds left to go up 21-17. UWO stopped the Falcons last gasp, which was a last-second sequence of lateral passes, and ended up coming away with the win in its WIAC opener.
In the last drive, they had to score to stay alive after being held almost all game. Vallefskey credited the team’s composure to how the offense was able to stay focused and execute the task that was at hand.
“The whole team had composure the whole game so when we got to the fourth quarter, it was nothing for us,” Vallefskey said.
The Titans now turn their mindset to a road game at Menominee against UW-Stout. UWO will hope to avenge a 45-42 loss last season to the Blue Devils at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium. The loss to UWS eliminated the Titans from getting the WIAC automatic qualifier for the NCAA tournament.
The Titans game against the Blue Devils will kick off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Don and Nona Williams Stadium. The game can be streamed on the WIAC Network or on the radio on 90.3 WRST-FM.
