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College football: Mistakes catch up with UW-Eau Claire in loss to UW-River Falls

jack goods, the leader-telegram, eau claire, wis.
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Oct. 16—There were few facets of the game that UW-Eau Claire football did not make mistakes in Saturday afternoon.

The Blugolds took 11 penalties for 69 yards against UW-River Falls, giving the Falcons three first downs and multiple free play opportunities in the process. Quarterback Harry Roubidoux threw three interceptions, and the usually reliable Austin Belot fumbled. Assignments were missed on both sides of the ball, leading to offensive lulls for the Blugolds and chunk plays for the Falcons. One of the team's punts went for five yards.

It culminated in another Homecoming loss for a program that has struggled on the marquee day. UW-River Falls secured a 41-24 victory at Carson Park, handing the Blugolds a seventh Homecoming defeat in the last eight tries.

"They beat us in every aspect of the game," UW-Eau Claire coach Wesley Beschorner said. "We played really poorly. Played poorly on special teams, played poorly on offense, played poorly on defense. That's the frustrating part. We could sense it a little bit. We didn't practice well enough. We didn't practice hard enough. That's the world that we live in. If you don't do those things, you're not going to be successful."

The Blugolds dropped to 1-2 in the WIAC and face a daunting road the rest of the way. The remaining schedule includes two ranked foes in UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater as well as UW-La Crosse, which just fell out of the D3football.com poll this week.

"That's the great thing about playing in the WIAC," defensive back Sam Burzynski said. "There's no weeks off. Every single team is going to bring it. If you don't bring it, you're going to get punched in the mouth."

UW-Eau Claire never led Saturday, allowing the first 14 points of the game in the first eight minutes of the second quarter. UW-River Falls held a two-score advantage the rest of the way after its early short touchdown runs from Luke Fugate and Kole Hinrichsen.

The Blugolds' best chance to get within a score came midway through the fourth quarter. After entering the break down 14-3 and going down 20-3 early in the third quarter, UW-Eau Claire was able to claw back to 27-17 and had the ball in UW-River Falls territory. That opportunity was erased with just under eight minutes left when Roubidoux threw his third interception of the afternoon to Andy Metcalf from the Falcons' 28-yard line.

That turnover resulted in a seven-play, 56-yard UW-River Falls scoring drive that made the deficit too large to overcome with the limited time remaining. Even after Roubidoux found Joe Swanson for a score to cut the deficit back to two scores with 2:02 left, Hinrichsen was able to run 48 yards to the house while UW-River Falls was attempting to run out clock.

"We turned the ball over too many times, didn't get enough turnovers," said Burzynski, a Stanley-Boyd graduate. "Too many missed tackles. I think it comes back to the fundamentals, taking care of the football, wrapping up, finishing tackles when you're at the ball."

Roubidoux threw two touchdowns in his second career start, also finding Nick Kudick in addition to the late Swanson score, but took a step back from last week's performance against UW-Stout. His 259 yards were overshadowed by the interceptions, especially the third that all but ended his team's hopes.

"I'll have to look at the tape on some of them to see what he saw," Beschorner said. "It's a little difficult when you're on ground level. However, there were some that were inexcusable and we can't have happen."

Beschorner was presented with opportunities to put in Jonathan Malueg and roll with the two-quarterback system he's discussed in media availabilities, but he kept Malueg on the sideline for a second straight week.

Burzynski snagged an interception for the defense's only forced turnover. Belot rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown, becoming only the 12th player in program history to surpass 2,000 yards in a career in the process.

"I'm blessed," Belot said. "That offensive line that I've had the last two years, they've put in a lot of work for me. Our run game with Coach (Michael) McHugh and Coach B, just getting that game plan ready for us, it's nice. It gets me confident."

Hinrichsen passed for 177 yards and rushed for 96 with three total touchdowns for the Falcons. Fugate ran for 100 yards and two scores.

UW-Eau Claire next travels to No. 22 UW-Oshkosh, which will be looking to bounce back from a 32-13 defeat to No. 2 UW-Whitewater.

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UW-River Falls 41, UW-Eau Claire 24

UWRF;0;14;13;14;—;41

UWEC;0;3;7;14;—;24

Second Quarter

RF: Luke Fugate 2 run (Henry kick), 14:38.

RF: Kole Hinrichsen 8 run (Henry kick), 7:12.

EC: Brady Frantal 27 FG, 3:25.

Third Quarter

RF: Ben Beise 1 run (kick blocked), 9:17.

EC: Nick Kudick 37 pass from Harry Roubidoux (Frantal kick), 3:36.

RF: Ben Beise 50 pass from Hinrichsen (Henry kick), 2:15.

Fourth Quarter

EC: Austin Belot 1 run (Frantal kick), 13:21.

RF: Fugate 26 run (Henry kick), 3:54.

EC: Joe Swanson 7 pass from Roubidoux (Frantal kick), 2:02.

RF: Hinrichsen 38 run (Henry kick), 1:42.

Team & Individual Statistics

RUSHING (att-yds): River Falls (49-267): Fugate 21-100, Hinrichsen 21-96, Beise 2-35, Anthony Silva 3-24, Jager Reissmann 1-12. Eau Claire (32-121): Belot 25-119, Trey Fittzgerald 1-4, Roubidoux 3-1, Will Adair 2-0, Ivan Ruble 1-(-3).

PASSING (comp-att-int-yds): River Falls (18-35-1-177): Hinrichsen 18-35-1-177. Eau Claire (24-41-3-259): Roubidoux 24-41-3-259.

RECEIVING (rec-yds): River Falls: Beise 3-78, Alex Traxler 3-26, AJ Morrison 2-25, Fugate 4-18, Andy Groebner 3-18, Charlie Huschka 2-13. Eau Claire: Swanson 5-64, Darius Jones 5-54, Kudick 5-52, Isaac Garside 3-39, Peyton Mayer 2-27, Brycen Froehlich 2-24, Adair 1-0, Belot 1-(-1).