Falcon Football Season Recap

By Nathan LoCascio
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The 2004 Falcon football season is best described as challenges conquered.

All season River Falls had to over come obstacles like playing their first five games on the road and starting two freshmen and one sophomore at quarterback. No matter what went wrong the Falcons still gave a 110 percent to try to comeback from any deficit. It was the never give up attitude that propelled River Falls to an 3-4 WIAC record, the most conference wins in two seasons.

River Falls overall record of 3-7 is mostly due to a rough non-conference schedule and an inability to hold onto the football. RF turned the ball over at least once in nine out of 10 games and had three or more turnovers in five games this season. "To me the turnovers were our major problem above and beyond anything else," said River Falls Coach John O’Grady.

Another problem was that all of the Falcons non-conference games were on the road. In fact RF did not play at the friendly confines of Ramer Field until Oct. 16.
River Falls non-conference road trips included traveling all the way to Seattle, Wash., to play Pacific Lutheran, a team that has not had a losing record in 32 years. For all of those years the Lutes were coached by the NCAA’s ninth most winning coach, Forrest "Frosty" Westrich (305-96-7). Frosty’s son Scott, who was the Lutes offensive coordinator for 20 years, is now the head coach after his father retired last year. RF put up a fight but ended up losing to PLU 28-24. Prior to the Seattle trip River Falls had dropped two games to Division II Concordia-St. Paul and Bemidji State.

The Falcons would continue on the road as the WIAC season began at Eau Claire, on the Blugolds homecoming. EC had little trouble handing River Falls their fourth straight loss to start the season. Eau Claire put up 393 total yards to RF’s 180. River Falls turned the ball over three times, all fumbles.

One of the Falcons most impressive wins was their first of the season at Platteville. The Falcons had dropped four straight and were trailing 21-3 at the half to the Pioneers who at the time were undefeated and ranked 20th in the nation. River Falls put together a second half to remember scoring 22 unanswered points to beat the Pioneers 25-21.

RF’s momentum from the win at Platteville was stifled when Whitewater ruined the Falcons home opener with a 42-3 trouncing. The Warhawks put up a total of 418 yards, 332 came on the ground.

RF quickly rebounded with a big homecoming win over rival UW-Stout, 28-10. For the first time in the 2004 season the Falcons did not turn the ball over. Freshman fullback Nathan Anderson carried the load rushing 29 times for 127 yards while sophomore running back Jeremy Wolff provided the fire works. Wolff lined up under center and completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to senior back field mate John Peterlik. The win over the Blue Devils put the Falcons at 2-2 in the WIAC with Oshkosh coming to town to complete RF’s three game home stand.

The Titans went up 12-3 on the Falcons in the first half. River Falls clawed back and in the third quarter Peterlik ran 50-yards to tie the game up at 18. The Titans responded on their next drive eating up almost seven minutes of clock to set up a 25-yard field goal from Lucas Raschke to go up 21-18 early in the fourth. On the ensuing possession the Falcons took the lead on a one-yard Peterlik touchdown run that capped off an 11 play, 61 yard drive that left just over six and half minutes on the clock. Titans answered on their next drive marching 81 yards on eight plays to have senior quarterback Nick Wara run in the winning touchdown.

The loss to the Titans made the game at La Crosse make or break for the Falcons. If they could beat the Eagles, who they have not beaten since 1994, then they would stay in the conference title hunt. It didn’t help that River Falls had to play the second half with true freshman quarterback Tim Bittner, who had never seen college playing time. The Falcons were efficient on offense driving into La Crosse territory on 11 of their 13 drives but could only come away with two touchdowns. Part of the reason was RF turned the ball over a total of six times, three coming inside the Eagle 20 yard line. None more devastating than a fumble by Peterlik on the UWL half yard line that if converted would have brought the Falcons to within seven early in the fourth quarter. Instead La Crosse recovered the fumble and on the ensuing possession fullback Robert Finco ran 60 yards for a touchdown putting the Eagles up 35-14. A late field goal made the final score 38-14.

With the loss River Falls had no chance at the WIAC title but could still make a huge impact on the title race. On the last week of the regular season Stevens Point rolled into Ramer Field needing a win to take the conference. If they lost than the winner of the La Crosse-Whitewater game would be conference champs. River Falls controlled the game by controlling the ball for almost 20 more minutes than the Pointers. Stevens Point battled from 14 points down in the second half to pull within two with seven minutes to play. The Pointers found themselves losing by two because of a missed extra point by freshman kicker John Ryan and then a failed two point conversion. Fittingly, in his final game as a Falcon, Peterlik led RF to the 24-22 victory with a game high 168 rushing yards. La Crosse would beat Whitewater and win their third straight WIAC title.

Once again the Falcons led the WIAC in rushing (298.2 yards per game) and for the second time in his career Peterlik led the Falcon rushing attack with 1143 yards on 180 attempts and 11 touchdowns. The conferences second leading rusher also led RF with nine catches for 116 yards and two TDs.

In the air as a team River Falls led the WIAC in pass efficiency (163.1 effic.), but no single quarterback qualified. Sophomore quarterback Andy Kolstad threw the most passes in just six games of play since his season was ended with an injury for the second straight year. Before the injury the sophomore completed 13-26 passes for 208 yards, two interceptions and two TDs. Kolstad also rushed the ball 68 times for 114 yards. Red shirt freshman Dave Affeldt split time with Kolstad until the injury and then took the job full time. On the year Affeldt threw for a total of 52 yards on 3-6 passing with one touchdown and no interceptions. Affledt’s biggest production was on the ground where he was the Falcons third leading rusher with 349 yards on 84 attempts and four touchdowns. When Affledt went down with an injury late in the first half at La Crosse, River Falls had to turn to its third string quarterback Bittner. In the loss Bittner threw for 29 yards on 1-3 passing and an interception. The true freshman also had two rushing attempts for 23 yards.

"I think not having a lot of experience at the quarterback and fullback positions played a roll this season," said O’Grady.

The Falcons most efficient passers were their running backs Wolff and Peterlik. The senior captain was 2-3 for 70 yards and a touchdown while the sophomore was 1-1 for 35 yards and a TD.

At the start of the season the big question in the backfield was who is going to replace 2003 leading rusher, fullback Owen Schmidt, who had gone to play for Div. I West Virginia. The answer came in Anderson. "He is just about as good of young fullback I’ve had here besides Schmidt, who was a phenom," said O’Grady, "but still he is very productive, very good and I am really excited about his future." The freshman fullback was second on the team and fourth in the conference (97.1 y/g) in rushing with 876 yards on 178 attempts and four touchdowns.

Blocking the way for Anderson’s runs were an offensive line led by All-WIAC honorable mention selection senior center Chris Ammann. While the person he was snapping too kept changing, the senior was a steady force in the middle playing every game.

Defensively two Falcons stood out on the field and in the post season awards. Junior defensive tackle Aaron Retzlaff was a first team All Conference selection while senior linebacker Ben Gillett was an All Conference honorable mention selection. Retzlaff only played in the first eight games of season before sitting out the final two due to injury. During the eight contests the 6-2 285 pound junior recorded 36 total tackles, 28 solo. Retzlaff was in the backfield disrupting plays by making five tackles for loss, forcing a fumble, recovering a fumble and recording one sack. Gillett had injury problems early in the season that forced him to miss two games. That setback didn’t stop the 6-2 210 pound linebacker from leading the Falcons with 78 tackles, 42 solo. Gillett also had four tackles in the backfield, one sack and forced and recovered a fumble.

The most impressive of River Falls All WIAC selections was first team all purpose back Peterlik. The senior completed a career that saw him rush for the second most yards in RF history, 3,454, and score the fourth most touchdowns, 34. "John rushed for 1,000 yards in two out of four years, he justed missed it as a jnuior, he will be sorely missed," said O’Grady. Peterlik's third selection to the All WIAC first team may have been the most impressive considering he was playing with an injured hip that kept him around 80 percent all season.

When O’Grady took over the special teams before the start of the season, everyone knew they would be improved but no one knew the impact they would have. O’Grady made the special teams aspect of the game one of the most suspenseful. This year's River Falls specialists did it all, they converted onside kicks at anytime, blocked punts, faked punts anywhere on the field, sprung big returns, and most importantly changed the outlook of games. "Special teams at times was one of the most fun things to watch," said O’Grady. The dynamic special teams play by RF forced opposing teams to think twice about their specialists.