Definitely is a dream come true. I feel like I’m dreaming right now.”

senior quarterback Kaleb Blaha

Canton, OHIO — They have done it. For the first time in school history, the University of Wisconsin River Falls is the Division III Football National Champion. In a defensive Stagg Bowl finale, an interception from Prescott-native senior defensive lineman Jack Olson helped seal the deal 24-14 over North Central College on Jan 4.
“It was 15 years to get here. I had teams that won no games, I had teams that won one, I had teams that won two. Everybody just kept fighting and supporting and staying committed to this vision. I am speechless,” Head Coach Matt Walker said after the win on national television.
The dream game did not have the dream opening drive. On just the fourth offensive play of the game, North Central running back Donovan McNeal took a shotgun handoff up the middle and scored from 48 yards out virtually untouched as he faded down the left sideline.
From there, River Falls was stonewalled once, and North Central got the ball to the 7-yard-line in search of a second score. On first and goal, a botched exchange between the quarterback and running back took one hop before it was swiftly corralled by one of the nation’s best defenders in Gage Timm. To counter, River Falls got the ball inside the 10-yard-line, but this time North Central stood tall, forcing a chip shot field goal to maintain a 7-3 lead.
North Central kept up the pressure, going on a 15-play, nearly 10-minute drive that was capped with another McNeal score, this time from the 1-yard-line for a 14-3 lead with the clock reading 11:00 in the second quarter.
Whatever was said on the sideline after that score, it made a difference for the Falcons, keeping North Central away from pay dirt for the final 41 minutes. Walker said the defense never gets enough credit for how good they are, and this game showcased truly what they can do.
Offensively, the Falcons chipped away at the lead before heading to the halftime break, scoring on a magnificent 13-yard fade to the corner of the endzone where Blake Rohrer leaned back to make a nice catch and keep his feet in bounds. It was only a matter of time before senior quarterback Kaleb Blaha got going. It was announced Blaha won the Gagliardi Trophy earlier in the week (Division III Most Outstanding Player). During the game, Blaha passed former LSU quarterback Joe Burrow for single season yardage, a record that stood at an absurd 6,039.
“Definitely is a dream come true. I feel like I’m dreaming right now,” Blaha said. “I’m glad that I came back and played another year with my brothers. Feels really good.”
With eight seconds left in the half at the 13-yard-line, North Central took a shot at the end zone that was perfectly read by freshman Taylor Sussner out of Chaska, Minn.
“We made those big plays, those turnovers… Even when the first half was feeling a little rough, we made those two redzone turnovers,” Walker said. “When Taylor picked the one to walk off at half, I turned and I said, ‘Don’t forget, that play might win us the football game.’”
After grinding through much of the third quarter, Blaha took a quarterback keeper, muscled over a defender and scored a seven-yard run up the middle for a 17-14 lead with minutes remaining in the frame. On the Falcons’ next possession, they were in the red zone with a chance to put some insurance points on the board. On fourth and six, North Central swarmed Blaha for a sack for a turnover on downs. River Falls has been known all year as a team that is not afraid to go for it on fourth down rather than attempting a field goal, and they did not abandon what got them there just because the stage was bigger.
The trust in the defense was immediately rewarded. North Central quarterback Garret Wilson dropped back to pass with nine minutes to play, looked left where he had a man in the backfield, but Olson threw his arms up to pop the ball in the air, caught it himself and bulldozed his way to the 12-yard-line. From there, Blaha ran the ball into the endzone on the first play to put the champagne on ice.
It was the second week in a row where a defensive lineman from Prescott made the game-securing interception. Last week it was Brady Block, and this time the senior leader in Olson made the play.
“I was just waiting for him to go score,” Timm said. “Just a big momentum shift to get our offense the ball.”
Sussner said they knew North Central would look to run the football, so they had to swarm the ball quickly. When they did that, it caused trouble in both the run and pass games.
“I thought the game kind of was a reflection, reminds me of this football team. It wasn’t going our way early. It wasn’t easy early, and this group just kind of hung in there,” Walker said. “We were going to be unapologetically aggressive in all phases of the game whether we got beat 100 to nothing or won the football game. It looked foolish at times, but we never wavered from that approach.”
It has been a long road for River Falls to get to where they are from when Walker took over in 2011. The Falcons won three total games in Walker’s first three years. Many student-athletes helped lay the groundwork on this road who were not on the team for the championship moment, but Walker said they cherished every one of them. Those were the people the Falcons played for Sunday, in addition to the fans who supported in droves all year long.
“We didn’t look like a college football team when I got here, that was first. Then we weren’t competitive, we had to get competitive. And then we started to win some games, but could we really climb our way into the best league in the country,” Walker said.
During the pandemic, Walker and the rest of the staff made the decision to become a more aggressive team. They became as up-tempo as any team in the country and went for it on fourth down frequently.
“The biggest one I probably made decision wise was I stopped caring what everybody thought, we’re just going to do it our way,” Walker said. “It’s an easy thing to say. It’s a cool thing to say. It gets clicks and it’s trendy and awesome, but a lot of people still are a little conservative. You do think of what other people think, and what other coaches think and what dads will think. I finally said I just do not care. Not recklessly don’t care, but we’re going to do this all-in. Not dabble in tempo and be the fastest team in the world that snaps the football.”
Walker said even when they are failing to convert on fourth down, like Sunday, the different style keeps opponents uncomfortable.
“The cloud [of success] gets bigger and bigger, and underneath it is all this mud,” Walker said. “The mud is the process it takes to be in the clouds.”
There was plenty of hometown talent that got the Falcons to the peak of the sport. Champions from the Paperboy locations are: junior running back Ashten Quade of Ellsworth, junior defensive lineman Brady Block of Prescott, senior defensive lineman Jack Olson of Prescott, sophomore running back Trevor Asher of Elmwood, sophomore offensive lineman Payton Kopp of Plum City, freshman running back Diego Schmitt of Spring Valley, freshman defensive back Cal Usgaard of River Falls, sophomore linebacker Alex Carr of Cottage Grove, sophomore defensive lineman Jesse Truax of Cottage Grove, sophomore linebacker Owen Rose of Cottage Grove, freshman long snapper Logan Zywiec of Cottage Grove, junior wide receiver Stephen Reifenberger of Hastings and freshman running back Rudy Kletsch of Stanley-Boyd.