Five-game classic features La Crosse, River Falls

From the Journal Sentinel

November 14, 1996

Imagine for a moment that Wisconsin's collective obsession with seeing the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XXXI is a dream fulfilled.

Now imagine the Packers scheduling an exhibition game against, oh, let's say the Chicago Bears, on the Sunday sandwiched between the National Football Conference Championship Game and the Super Bowl.

Palm trees will line Lombardi Ave. before that happens.

UW-La Crosse coach Roger Harring and UW-River Falls coach John O'Grady are relatively sane men, as football coaches go. But they are about to do something that some people might think is equally crazy.

As the defending NCAA Division III champion, undefeated La Crosse is a shoo-in for the playoffs. And River Falls, with the only blemish on its record a 42-31 defeat at La Crosse, looks like a playoff lock, as well.

But before either of them tees it up in the playoffs, there is the little matter of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Metrodome Football Classic, a five-game, day-and-night orgy of college football to be played Sunday at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

La Crosse plays Minnesota-Duluth, the champion of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, at 5 p.m. in the headline game. River Falls battles Morehead State in a matchup of conference runners-up at 2 p.m.

A third member of the Wisconsin State University Conference, UW-Stout, will play Winona State at 8 p.m. The morning games feature NSIC teams, with Northern State playing Minnesota-Morris and Bemidji State playing Southwest State.

The minuses of playing in such a game, especially for playoff bound La Crosse and River Falls, are obvious. The main drawback is injuries, a distinct possibility when on artificial turf.

It also could be argued that playing the extra game takes away from preparation for the playoffs. For La Crosse, which owns the longest current winning streak in the country at 23 games, there is the distinct possibility of having the streak broken against a quality Division II opponent.

But ask Harring or O'Grady if there are second thoughts about playing Sunday and they are adamant in their response.

"Not at all," Harring said. "It's important to our program that we play 10 games, but the problem is that nobody wants to play us.

"The teams from the Iowa conference (Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) and the Minnesota conference (Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) are both Division III, but they don't want to play anybody from our conference. It's important for those private schools to get in the playoffs, and it doesn't look good for them if they lose to teams from our conference.

"Last year we had Drake on our schedule, but they canceled us because we gave them their only loss the year before," Harring said of the Division II member. "It's very hard for us to find anybody to play."

O'Grady agreed with Harring's premise on finding opponents:

"Getting three non-conference opponents is a real challenge for us. We used to have St. Thomas (from the MIAC) on our schedule, and now nobody from the Minnesota conference will play anybody from the WSUC. The Iowa conference plays some games with our conference, but it's not easy.

"We played in this two years ago, but this time it's a little different because we have the playoffs to think about. It's not like we've had the playoffs to worry about every year like La Crosse. Last year was our first time in the playoffs, so this is kind of a unique situation for us."

O'Grady isn't particularly worried about injuries. In fact, he thinks playing at the Metrodome probably is safer than playing outdoors on the frozen tundra.

"Our practice fields are so frozen that guys are getting hurt, so we're not really too worried about playing indoors," O'Grady said. "The players are looking forward to playing indoors, and I know their parents are looking forward to it. About half our players are from Minnesota, so this is a big game for the parents.

"It's a fun game in a lot of ways. Last year, I was wearing Denny Green's headphones on the sidelines and I had my daughter helping me with the wires. She got a big kick out of that."

Harring, Ernst honored

UW-La Crosse's Harring and Ripon College's Ron Ernst have been named coach of the year of their respective conferences.

Harring, who coached undefeated La Crosse to the WSUC championship, has now won the award six times, including four times in the 1990s. La Crosse, which under Harring has won or shared 14 WSUC titles in his 28 years there, will be making its 14th post-season playoff appearance, including its 11th in 14 years.

Ernst coached Ripon to a 6-0 Midwest Conference record that included a 26-8 victory over Cornell College in the championship game. Ripon finished the season with a 9-1 record, setting a school record for victories in a season.

Ripon linebacker Brock Goehler, a junior from Appleton, was named the North Division's most valuable defensive player. In Ripon's victory over Cornell, Goehler had 19 tackles, including two for loss.

Novara breaks record

Lakeland College quarterback Mark Novara managed to outdo himself -- not an easy task -- in the Muskies' season finale last Saturday.

Novara, a junior from Kingsford, Mich., completed 22 of 33 for 268 yards and five touchdowns in a 67-18 victory over Crown (Minn). The five touchdown passes gave Novara 40 for the season, a new Division III record, but the Muskies can't be accused of running up the score on Crown.

"Obviously, with Mark that close to the record we wanted to see that he got it," Lakeland offensive coordinator Bill Unsworth said. "But when he got the record, he came out after the third quarter. We run a run-and-shoot offense, so we always throw a lot of passes."

Novara also set Lakeland season records for pass completions (258 in 410 attempted) and passing yardage (3,405). He threw just 12 interceptions.

The Muskies finished the season with an 8-2 record, winning their last eight games. Novara currently ranks third in Division III in total offense with 335.4 yards per game and ninth in passing efficiency with a rating of 159.7. His 507 passing yards against Franklin, Ind., were the second-most passing yards by a Division III quarterback this season.

Short yardage

UW-Stout coach Ed Meierkort on playing at the Metrodome on Sunday: "Instead of Reggie White and Warren Moon, it's Mike Olson and LaRue Pierce." Olson and Pierce are defensive players for Stout. . . . River Falls' O'Grady on La Crosse's 28-16 victory over Whitewater last Saturday that ensured the Eagles of the WSUC title: "I'm disappointed because I thought Whitewater could beat La Crosse. Apparently, La Crosse is the best in the league."

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