RIVER FALLS, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – The UW-Eau Claire football team finished the 2011 season on a high note, defeating UW-River Falls 27-21 at Ramer Field today.
While the Falcons jumped out to the early lead, the Blugolds were able to answer and eventually found their way to a lead before halftime.
Austin Goetsch (Jr.-Waunakee, Wis.) caught the Blugolds' opening touchdown in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7 and after another River Falls' touchdown in the second quarter, Josh Albrecht (Fr.-Eau Claire, Wis./North) nailed a 31-yard field goal to make the score 14-10 in favor of the Falcons.
With two minutes left in the opening half, Matt Olson (Sr.-Stratford, Wis.) ran seven yards to the end zone to give Eau Claire its first lead at 17-14.
In a back-and-forth second half that saw little scoring, Goetsch caught one more touchdown pass from Austin Neu (Jr.-Iron Ridge, Wis./Hustisford) in the third quarter to make the score 24-14. Albrecht tacked on a field goal midway through the fourth from 39 yards away to make the score 27-14.
River Falls turned it on at the end and scored at 2:04 in the fourth to make it 27-21. The Blugolds were able to recover an on onside kick attempt by the Falcons and then ran out the clock.
David Goodman (Sr.-Neenah, Wis.) finished his career on top of the Blugolds' all-time career reception yard's list. After leading the Blugolds with 93 yards today, he finished his career with 2,348 yards, surpassing Matt Evensen's record set five years ago of 2,293. Goodman also finishes third on the Blugolds' pass receptions list with 153 in his career and tied for third in pass reception touchdowns with 18 (record is 20).
Neu had a good day passing, going 24-for-39 with 239 yards and two touchdowns. He did however throw one interception and was sacked twice. He was able to set a new school record for best completion percentage in a season with a mark of 65.7 percent (199-303-7). The previous best was 64.7 percent, from 2005 by Jesse Krzyzanowski.
On the defensive side of the ball today, Tyler Janus (Jr.-Sussex, Wis./Hamilton) led the Blugolds with 10 tackles. Sean Graham (So.-Hales Corners, Wis./Whitnall) came up with a sack, which came at a good time, late in the first half as River Falls was just 29 yards from the Blugolds' end zone. The sack pushed the Falcons back four yards, and being outside of field goal range, they attempted one final pass to the end zone but it was knocked down to give the Blugolds a halftime lead.
The Blugolds end the season with a 5-5 overall record and a 3-4 record in the WIAC, tying for fourth place in the league with UW-Stout. River Falls completed the year with a 1-9 record on the season and finished 1-6 in the WIAC, in last place.
-KM-
