SUPERIOR — River Falls has now won twice in a row to improve to 2-2. The Wildcats scored a late touchdown with their backs against the wall and got a goal-line stand to win 20-16 in Superior on Friday.

“A gritty win. Had quite a bit of adversity and handled it really well. Found a way to win on the road,” Head Coach Ryan Scherz said.

Superior is a team that won its first game since 2022 back in August. Recent years were not kind to the Spartans, but they drastically improved this season, winning 58-28 over Eau Claire North and putting up a decent fight against a State contender in New Richmond in a 48-28 loss. The Wildcats played two extremely difficult non-conference games, though, which have prepared them for whoever they face moving forward.

“You find out what you have to do to get better,” Scherz said. “We learned a lot about ourselves in those couple games.”

River Falls got a quick stop to start the game and followed it with a promising drive down to the Superior 30. On first and 10, the Wildcats got a little too aggressive on a play action pass, looking for the end zone on a pass that was jumped and intercepted by the Spartans.

Superior running back Maxton Luzaich took the first play of the following drive all the way to the goal line on a run right up the middle. Superior cashed in on a read option quarterback run a few plays later, 6-0.

River Falls junior Trevor Bartlett put on a show on the following drive, converting a physical fourth down, trampling a defender on an 11-yard run on third and 10 and leading the Wildcats all the way to the one-yard line. On fourth and goal, quarterback Colton Nesbitt snuck it right up the middle for a 7-6 lead. Late in the half, Superior capitalized on good field position from a fumble, bouncing a field goal from 45 yards out off the crossbar and in for a 9-7 lead at the break.

The Wildcats tried backup quarterback sophomore Maxim Wahlquist in the second half, but penalties seemed to stall his drive out around midfield with a third down and 21 yards to go. That was not the case, as Wahlquist faked a pass and powered the ball up the middle, running all the way in untouched for a long touchdown, 13-9.

Early in the fourth, River Falls was stopped on fourth down on the Superior half of the field. The Spartans drove down the other way with the run game, and on fourth and eight, a missed assignment on a curl route was taken for a 21-yard touchdown. The touchdown was one of two completions for Superior on Friday, 16-13.

River Falls had 7:30 to get the lead back. They were not ready to quit ahead of a long drive home. Bartlett and freshman William Imrie took some solid runs, but the Wildcats stalled out. Fourth and six at the 26, with Wahlquist given a difficult task. Wahlquist took the snap, rolled out right and met a defender; however, a quick cut to the left plopped the defender on his face, and Wahlquist scampered all the way to the 15-yard line. River Falls knew just the man after that, going to Bartlett who took a carry for six yards then the next one for a touchdown, 20-16 with 1:38 remaining.

Bartlett had his work cut out for him this season, filling in for Joseph Tarasewicz who graduated after one of the greatest running back seasons in school history. Bartlett has been filling those cleats as best as possible, taking 33 carries for 204 yards Friday.

Superior worked fast, taking three long runs for first and goal with a minute remaining. The Spartans went from the 10 to the five on the first play before the Wildcats collapsed for a stop. Luzaich was stopped for a minimal gain up the middle on second down and again on third down, bringing on fourth and goal from the three. Superior went with a play action, and the quarterback had a window to run up the middle and in, but Bo Benedict recognized it, bringing him down from behind just shy of a touchdown on a great adjustment to seal the game.

“There’s a lot of really good football players on [defense] that came up with some big plays when we needed them,” Scherz said. “It was a good performance against a pretty good offense.”

Scherz said the road does not get any easier moving forward, so they will have to continue to improve from week to week to pick up wins.