Rolling on: Eagles are unstoppable on home turf

By Dan Manoyan

of the Journal Sentinel staff

Nov. 23, 1996

La Crosse -- University of Wisconsin-River Falls coach John O'Grady had barely stepped off the team bus when he knew it wasn't going to be his team's day.

"As soon as I saw that field, I knew we were in trouble," O'Grady said about UW-La Crosse's sloppy Memorial Stadium natural turf. "I knew the best we could hope for was to not make too many mistakes."

In a game played in conditions that only John Madden and a balanced offense could appreciate, defending NCAA Division III champion La Crosse took its first step toward a repeat with a 44-0 drubbing of Wisconsin State University Conference rival River Falls on Saturday.

The Eagles advance to the quarterfinals Saturday and will play host to St. John's (Minn.), a 21-18 winner over Simpson (Iowa).

The site of that game remains in limbo because of the condition of La Crosse's field and the forecast of more snow. A final decision won't be made until Monday morning.

La Crosse may be the heart of God's country, but never has Mother Nature been such a willing accomplice in the Eagles' game plan. The skies dumped 6 inches of snow on La Crosse on Friday night, but when temperatures nudged above freezing Saturday afternoon, the bare middle portion of the field was virtually unplayable.

Normally, sloppy conditions would affect both teams the same, but these are hardly cookie-cutter teams. The Eagles' high-powered multiple offense is predicated on balance.

The Falcons, on the other hand, run the wishbone and run it extremely well, but it's not the offense you want to run in sloppy conditions or when you are behind. O'Grady, whose one-dimensional offense came into the game Saturday with just 36 completions and 81 pass attempts for the season, seemed to face a crisis of confidence after the defeat.

"These are the kind of days that make me think that maybe we should get out of running the wishbone," O'Grady said. "The success of this offense is based on getting a push off the line of scrimmage; our linemen need to be able to dig in to get a push.

"There was no way that was going to happen today. This is the worst field I think we've ever played on."

But for La Crosse coach Roger Harring, who desperately wants to play his team's next game at home, it was a thing of beauty.

"I think it naturally favors the team that can throw the football because the receivers know where they are going and the defenders are slipping all over the place," Harring said.

If you happen to have a scrambling quarterback like Jeff Baker and a pair of nimble punt returners like Ric Mathias and John Barrett, it's an even bigger advantage.

Baker, who has struggled at times to fill the large shoes of predecessor Craig Kusick, had the game of his career, completing 10 of 19 pass attempts for 218 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns -- an 84-yarder to Brandon Hall in the first quarter and a 37-yarder to Troy Harcey in the second -- were the direct result of Baker scrambling out of the pocket and drawing in River Falls' secondary to support the run.

"I guess it's kind of like a basketball play," Baker said of his scrambles. "You draw in the defenders and then dish off."

Baker also had short touchdown passes of 6 yards to Dave Nagel and 5 yards to Harcey. After Baker took a hard hit in the third quarter, Harring substituted backup Rob Slavens for Baker, who suffered a minor separated shoulder last Sunday against Minnesota-Duluth.

Slavens added to the fun with a 15-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to Brian Steines.

The Eagles won the battle of field position the entire game, largely because of the punt returns of Mathias (three for 53 yards) and Barrett (four for 82). Their combined seven returns for 135 yards set a Division III playoff record.

Even La Crosse's defense got into the scoring act as senior linebacker Phil Dahlberg, thrust into the starting lineup by injuries, returned a fumble 54 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter. Mike Maslowski, recently named the WSUC's most valuable player, set up the touchdown when he jarred the ball loose from Falcons running back Ben Kolstad.

"I thought it was a dead ball but I scooped it up, and when I didn't hear anything, I kept running," Dahlberg said. "It was easy because I had 10 (teammates) with me on the way to the end zone."

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