RIVER FALLS — At 10-1 on the year, UWRF football won the WIAC conference for the first time since 1998. The team has ranked as high as No. 4 in Division 3 during the year and reached the playoffs for the third time in program history. Now, the Falcons are looking to further advance that history, moving into the top 16 of the bracket with a dominant win over Chapman (California) 58-7.

The weather outside was certainly frightful, with inches of snow pouring onto the field all game long. The plows and shovels were abundant, taking advantage of every break in the action to clear some of that snow out. It was the play on the field that was delightful, controlling both sides of the ball to take a low-stress win.

The Falcons were not easy to stop Saturday, with senior quarterback Kaleb Blaha out of Fridley completing 17 of 23 passes for 227 yards and four scores to pair with 15 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown. Five different Falcons caught touchdowns on the day, a mark of how versatile the offense is.

“We just have so many playmakers on our offense that you don’t know where the ball is going. You don’t know who is going to break away,” Blaha said. “It’s hard on the defenses because they’ve got to cover everybody.”

Blaha said with as strong of an offensive line as they have, someone is bound to get open. He said this offensive line is up there with the best in the country.

The defense was just as good, snatching four interceptions and scooping a pair of fumbles.

“It was indicative of a lot of our other games where we had all three phases playing pretty good. Every time we’ve won big, our defense has made teams one-dimensional. Hard to run the football against this group,” Head Coach Matt Walker said.

Once the pressure of a home playoff game started to wear off, River Falls got to enjoy a nice crowd of supporters that came out to watch them live out a childhood dream.

“I had a lot of fun. It’s kind of a dream that every football player has,” Blaha said of playing in the snow. “Especially from where we live in the Midwest.”

Members of the Chapman team also spoke on how it was like living out a dream, and coming from California, it may have been even more surreal.

“The feeling and charm of this town, it’s hard to put into words… it’s similar to our school,” Walker said of the packed crowd despite it being Thanksgiving weekend and a blizzard.

Walker said the team signed autographs downtown during the week and it was amazing to see how much support they have.

A lot of teams worry about withholding some of the celebration in favor of further preparation. This team is instead finding a balance. Walker said he does not want to be around someone that cannot enjoy a playoff win, yet this team is constantly locked in.

“Football is a crazy, monotonous one week war at a time type sport,” Walker said. “You wouldn’t have even known we got beat in the Oshkosh game. You wouldn’t have known we beat Whitewater by 40. The feeling in the locker room, the feeling at practice, the feeling throughout the week was the exact same.”

“I could talk on and on about how great it is to be here and what it means to be a Falcon,” freshman linebacker Noah Nusbaum, a Saint Croix Central graduate, said. “You have to be a part of it to understand it. I didn’t really want to go anywhere else. This was home even before I stepped on campus.”

Nusbaum credited fellow defender Gage Timm for aiding his quick progression, calling him the best defensive player in the country.

It has taken a lot of leadership to bring River Falls to historic levels, but they have reached those heights and are looking for more.

“We’ve been so close to making it happen,” Blaha said. “I knew we were close to getting over that hump. I wanted to be a part of that when that happened.”

The UW system had four schools in the 40-team playoff bracket, being River Falls, Whitewater, La Crosse and Platteville. La Crosse and Platteville join River Falls as the three from the state to make the final 16.

River Falls is set for another noon kickoff Saturday, this time taking on St. John’s.