RIVER FALLS — For the first time in school history, River Falls is an 11-win team, taking down Oshkosh North thanks to an unstoppable offense 52-38 Friday. The win moved the Wildcats into the State Semifinal, setting up a date with Green Bay Notre Dame on Friday at D.C. Everest.

“We have some super talented players that work incredibly hard. They have a vision and they have a collective belief in themselves and each other that it really doesn’t matter the situation, they’re going to be resilient,” Head Coach Ryan Scherz said.

Everything was going right early for River Falls, going up 28-0, riding both the run and the pass the whole way. Defensively, Oshkosh North’s frequently potent offense was kept at bay because the defenders were flying around the field.

The Spartans did get a touchdown, strip the ensuing kickoff and pick up another score right before the half to cut the deficit to 28-12, but River Falls’ offense was simply not going to be stopped.

“During the regular season, a lot of people were saying we were a second half team, but we showed here that we can come out in the first half, play our butts off and score some touchdowns,” offensive lineman Sam Simpson said.

Simpson said the fast pace of play makes the Wildcats a tough team to stop. Defensively, Simpson played a role in the great night, getting in the backfield to make a few sacks of his own.

“It felt awesome. I just try to do my job and let other people do their job,” Simpson said.

Statistically, everybody ate like it was Thanksgiving dinner. Massa was 14-of-25 for 324 yards and four touchdowns, running back Joseph Tarasewicz took 34 attempts for 210 yards and two touchdowns to go with 106 receiving yards and a touchdown on two catches, Todd Benedict caught six passes for 87 yards and two scores and Charlie Burke and Mason Novak each eclipsed 50 receiving yards with Burke finding pay dirt.

“I’m an offensive guy, so it’s pretty fun to have those weapons to work with, and a quarterback that can make great decisions and great throws, and a super physical running back and a Division 1 tackle,” Scherz said. “We’re really blessed with a lot of talent, but they’re really gritty.”

Scherz said the talent makes play calling both fun and a whole lot easier for the coaches.

“It’s great, and it all starts up front,” quarterback Tino Massa said. “They’ve been playing so well, and they give Joey some great holes to run through, and Joey can run through some guys.”

Massa said the team is as tight-knit as ever, which has been a major factor in the strong season. Even through some offensive line shuffling from injuries, they come to play each and every week.

“You can beat anyone. You can lose to anyone too if you’re not prepared, but there’s not too many teams that you can say that you can beat anyone if you play like you’re capable of playing, and they believe that,” Scherz said.

“We just needed to be us throughout the entire game,” Massa said. “There was points in time where I felt we were maybe trying to do too much, but we were really good on a lot of those scoring drives of just being us.”

The River Falls defense practices getting as many people to the ball as possible.

“We just have a lot of people running to the ball,” linebacker Thade Drier said. “That’s just really helping our ability to attack the ballcarrier.”

“Just our connection that we’ve built over the past four years is really incredible,” Drier said. “Everyone found a way to come together this summer and really push each other to the next level.”

Drier has had an unreal season as one of the defense’s leaders, topping the team in tackles.

Notre Dame is a perfect 12-0, setting up for a potential game of the year. The Tritons have two common opponents with River Falls this year in Oshkosh North and Rice Lake. Notre Dame had little issue taking care of Oshkosh North, winning 34-14 in the regular season finale. As for Rice Lake, the Tritons took them on in Friday’s Sectional Final, winning 28-20 despite being blanked in the second half. River Falls beat Rice Lake 40-28 Oct. 3.

“I’m going to enjoy this one for another six hours,” Scherz said Friday night. “Then I’ll start worrying about, I think, Green Bay Notre Dame tomorrow, because that will be a tremendous task.”