Sept. 16, 2006

Third Quarter Spurt Carries UW-River Falls Past PLU, 24-17

Game Statistics

PUYALLUP, WA – The Wisconsin-River Falls offense scored all of its points in the third quarter and the UW-RF defense forced six turnovers as the visiting Falcons defeated Pacific Lutheran, 24-17, in a sloppy non-conference football game played Saturday at Sparks Stadium.

The game was a turnover-fest with the two squads combining to give the ball away 11 times. Nonetheless, UW-River Falls will take the win and improves to 1-1 this season, while Pacific Lutheran falls to 0-2.

UW-River Falls turned the ball over on each of its first three possessions and Pacific Lutheran scored after two of them.

Taking the ball on the Falcons’ 30-yard line following a fumble recovery, the Lutes scored in two plays. Junior quarterback Brett Gordon connected with Craig Chiado on a 21-yard scoring play. It was the first collegiate pass thrown by Gordon. Later in the quarter and following a Brent Frank interception, the Lutes added three points on Pat Burke’s 25-yard field goal.

That margin held into the third quarter when a pair of Bruce Baillargeon interceptions on consecutive PLU possessions turned the momentum to the visitors.

Baillargeon’s first interception and 29-yard return gave the Falcons the ball at PLU 20-yard line, and on the next play UW-RF quarterback Jeremy Wolff broke through a tackle and went the distance to cut the Falcons’ deficit to 10-7. Following the second interception, UW-RF took over at its own 24-yard line. After a one-yard loss, Wolff hit Josh Grover behind the PLU secondary for a 77-yard scoring play. The extra point kick gave the Falcons a 14-10 lead.

They stretched the advantage to 21-10 after Gordon was sacked and fumbled. Nathan Renk recovered at the PLU 8-yard line for the Falcons, who scored three plays later on Wolff’s one-yard scoring run. On the ensuing kickoff, PLU ran some trickery on the return when Chase Reed threw across the field to Brent Frank, who raced down the left sideline for an apparent score. The play was called back, however, when it was ruled the Reed’s throw was an illegal forward pass.

With 1:41 left in the third period and following PLU’s fourth turnover—this a fumble—in as many possessions, Spasimir Bodurski kicked a 42-yard field goal to give the Falcons a 24-10 lead.

The Lutes got back into the game by driving 64 yards on eight plays and scoring early in the fourth period on Gordon’s 25-yard pass to Chase Reed. In their final four possessions, however, the Lutes punted twice, threw an interception and turned the ball over on downs.

Neither team did much on offense, a sharp contrast to last season when the two teams combined for 1,074 total yards in the Falcons’ 45-14 win. UW-River Falls managed just 242 yards on 59 plays, including 150 rushing yards. Pacific Lutheran, meanwhile, compiled 200 total yards, but had a negative three yards rushing.

Baillargeon was all over the field for the Falcons with two interceptions, a forced fumble and nine tackles. Chad Blau paced the PLU defenders with 10 tackles, including 4.5 for loss.

- PLU -