If the University of Wisconsin- River Falls Falcons football team runs the Top Gun Ouense, then head coach Matt Walker is the Tom Cruise of the WIAC.

For years the Falcons’ coaching stau has spoken about its fast, aggressive – and sometimes reckless – Top Gun Ouense, which is designed to be one of the fastest-paced units in the country. The UWRF ouense certainly lived up to its name in the 56-3 thrashing of Stevens Point in front of an announced homecoming crowd of 3,779.

After the UWRF ouense stalled out on the opening possession at the Stevens Point 12-yard line, the Falcons proceeded to score touchdowns on their next five possessions to grab a commanding 42-3 lead going into the halftime intermission.

Coach Walker and the UWRF ouense were putting on an ouensive clinic. River Falls sophomore quarterback Kaleb Blaha got the Falcons’ scoring started with a 40yard quarterback scramble that found the endzone.

Then with less than a min- ute left in the first quarter, Blaha dropped back to pass, rolled out of the pocket and connected with sophomore wide receiver Mason Van Zeeland on a 31-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0, River Falls.

The River Falls defense wasn’t going to let the offense have all of the fun.

On the ensuing possession, senior defensive lineman Kenny Fesenmaier landed a hard hit on a Stevens Point ball carrier, which jarred the ball loose which the Falcons recovered deep in Pointer territory. Less than a minute later, Blaha had scored another touchdown on a oneyard carry to make it 21-0, River Falls.

River Falls proceeded to score three more touchdowns before the end of the half.

One of which was a picksix by sophomore defensive back Michael Brown. Coach Walker stated that although the ouense had nearly unhin dered success, the true key to the game was the defense holding the Pointers to three points.

"Our ouense is going to get all this talk with 56 points, but that’s as dominant of a day as I’ve ever seen in this league,” Walker said.

“I think it started at the line of scrimmage. We talked all week, whoever won the line of scrimmage was going to win this game. We just dominated on the front defensively.”

Although Blaha didn’t play the entire game because of the lopsided score, by the time his day was done, he had completed 18-23 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns through the air.

He also tallied 104 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns on 13 carries. Walker spoke about what makes Bla- ha so divcult to defend.

“You’ve got all these gifted receivers running around out there, if you put all your defenders out there, then you’re going to leave a light box and we’re so good up front and he’s such a great runner, then we’ve got them in a pickle that we want to put teams in,” Walker said. “He throws it well enough that you’ve got to be ready for it, and we saw that today.”

Coach Walker knows as well as any coach in the WIAC how tough of a league it is. For years he’s talked about how if a team isn’t prepared to play a WIAC game, they’re going to get beat – regardless of how talented the roster is. He spoke about the week of preparation leading up to the WIAC opener against Stevens Point.

“It’s kind of respect to faceless opponents and you have to get your butt ready or you’re going to get beat up,” Walker said. “We were ready.

As a head coach, you’re always careful to think you’re ready, but I thought we were ready. Our practice this week was as good as we’ve had and you saw the result of it.

I’m proud of everybody.”

With the win, UWRF improved to 3-1 overall for the season with a 1-0 record in the WIAC. The Falcons remained in the same position nationally, as they entered the week ranked No. 17 and remain there in the updated week four poll, according to D3Football.com.

River Falls will be put to the test next week when the Falcons host the No.

16-ranked University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Titans on Saturday, Oct. 8. Coach Walker spoke about how important the games are against the ranked WIAC schools, including Oshkosh, Whitewater and La Crosse.

“They’re all big, but those four or five of us ranked (WIAC schools), those are monster games,” Walker said. “You’ve got to think even with a new coaching stau, they will remember us beating them at their place last year. We’ve got to get ready to go again and we will.”

That week five game against Oshkosh is slated to begin at David Smith Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 8, at 1 p.m.

UWRF senior defensive lineman Frank Hartman gets a strip stack on Stevens Point junior quarterback Trey Schroeder. Hartman’s hit popped the ball out, which UWRF recovered moments later.Photo by Reagan Hoverman