Falcon football falls to Platteville, 56-19
October 23, 2015
The Falcons couldn’t continue their winning ways this past Saturday, falling to the UW-Platteville Pioneers 56-19 at Ramer Field.
The No. 12 ranked Pioneers controlled the game from start to finish, wearing down the Falcon defense for 467 yards of total offense and five touchdowns on the ground.
Coach Matt Walker said, “The issue with Saturday was that we didn’t play well anywhere. We played mediocre on both sides of the ball and you can’t allow that against such a strong team.”
UW-Platteville’s high-powered offense came out strong right from the opening drive, taking the ball 72 yards down the field in less than 3 minutes to put the Pioneers up 7-0 early in the opening quarter.
The Falcon’s offense tried to respond, but failed to get much together on offense all afternoon. The Pioneers forced UWRF to three 3 and outs on their first three offensive possessions, and by the time the Falcons did start to have some success picking up first downs, the score was already 28-0.
That could be attributed to the Pioneers ability to capitalize on mistakes and score at an incredibly quick pace. All 4 first half touchdown drives for UW-Platteville took no more than about 2 minutes each. Running Back Kyle Whitman and Quarterback Tom Kelly each added rushing touchdowns for the Pioneers in the first half.
But no matter how bad it looked on the scoreboard, the Falcon’s clearly didn’t lack anything in effort throughout the afternoon. This came through when Junior Kyle Semann returned a blocked punt 33 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-6 with less than a minute left in the first half.
The story of the second half came down to turnovers. The Falcons fumbled the ball away on three straight possessions in the 3rd quarter, which UW-Platteville converted into 14 quick points to put the game completely out of reach. The Falcons hung in there and played strong till the end, but it just wasn’t enough to keep the game competitive on the scoreboard.
“It was obviously a frustrating day with us being unable to get anything going on either side of the ball. And even with the special teams scoring 2 touchdowns we didn’t completely win the kick game because of some other mistakes we made. But I was especially proud of how hard our guys played to the very end even when the game was out of reach. When we see that on film it really shows the level of commitment our guys have,” Coach Walker summarized.
Walker managed to find another positive in Saturday’s game, citing that “A lot of young guys came in late and took advantage of their opportunities, giving us confidence that we will continue to have depth in the coming years.”
But overall, it was definitely a disappointing day for Falcon players and fans alike. However, in the big picture, it only counts as one conference loss. The Falcons are still tied for second in the WIAC at 2-1 and are looking to pick up a big win on the road this coming week. The Falcons are already focusing on learning from their struggles and focusing on the next game.
“Like I told the guys this weekend, we can’t let UW-Platteville beat us twice by being down on ourselves and thinking too much about this loss. We have to learn from this and make a lot of minor adjustments that can make a big impact on what the scoreboard looks like,” Coach Walker said.
The Falcons travel next to Menomonie, WI, to play the UW-Stout Blue Devils. Stout comes in 2-4 overall and 1-2 in conference, coming off a big win this past Saturday 45-12 over UW Eau Claire. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.