Reusse: Wisconsin-River Falls proves too rugged for St. John’s in Division III playoffs

RIVER FALLS, WIS. – John Gagliardi was famous for many reasons as the St. John’s football coach. One of those was that, on occasion, his team could be banged around for 50-plus minutes of game action, then a chance to win would appear, and somehow the Johnnies would seize it.

Decades ago, there was a game at O’Shaughnessy Stadium where St. Thomas was far superior through a breezy afternoon, and then Gag Magic appeared and the Johnnies defeated their archrivals in the last few seconds.

I don’t want to flatly state that Tommies coach Mark Dienhart made the decision right then, but I’ve long believed the nightmare loss contributed to his move from coaching to administration.

On Saturday, on a fine day for football, considering the other December possibilities in our north country, St. John’s was continuing with its 30th appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs, and its 10th in 11 seasons.

By contrast, host Wisconsin-River Falls had not been in the playoffs since 1996, before sending Chapman shivering back to California with a 58-7 victory last weekend.

There was also the fact that St. John’s was 9-1 all-time vs. UW-River Falls, with that lone Falcons victory coming in 1937.

And guess what? All the magic that the late, great Gagliardi could have mustered wouldn’t have bailed out the Johnnies on Saturday against this far superior opponent.

The Johnnies’ best threat, Caden Wheeler, never got fully healthy this season. Even with him, the Falcons defense would have been too much.

And Kaleb Blaha, a Fridley star quarterback way back in 2019, was the mature, physical, elusive presence who made the Falcons non-containable for the Johnnies defense, whether it was on the ground or airborne.

St. John’s elected to give Blaha the ball first by kicking off. The first 66 seconds after that decision were the best of the afternoon for the Johnnies.

Blaha started 1-for-2 for 6 yards, then threw a pass that Westin Hoyt, the outstanding sophomore D-back, intercepted and took 38 yards to the 2-yard line.

Right away, the Johnnies gave a no-confidence vote to their running game — lefty quarterback Trey Feeney throwing on all three downs, with a TD pass on an excellent catch by backup tight end Andrew Harren.

Blaha was at Winona State when the pandemic hit in 2020, and he went to River Falls in 2021 to be the quarterback, shepherding a no-huddle, quick-count offense that seeks to run over 90 plays per game. Blaha was injured after four games last season, and that gave him the option of a redshirt and a sixth year in college.

It was not his first thought to return, but teammates presented Blaha with a vision of what could be if he returned — and that grand view was played out with a 9-1 record to win the rugged WIAC outright for the first time since 1985, and now two home playoff wins, with two more required to reach the national title game.

Blaha is 6-foot-2 and just over 200 pounds. Watching a game, you get an early impression that, yeah, he’s pretty good, and then he grows on you. He will run and create first downs, then break a defense’s back with his throws.

St. John’s had one sign of life in the second half, when receiver Dylan Wheeler, playing the final game of an exceptional career, caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Trey Feeney late in the third to make it 28-14.

Presto! Blaha came back with a 38-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Reed, a 5-7 bolt of speed from East St. Louis, Mo.

Part of that could be the softness of the current MIAC. The Johnnies lost to Bethel 17-10 in a hard-nosed game Oct. 4 and didn’t have another opponent that presented a true physical challenge until Saturday.

As for the Falcons, there are a handful of teams in the WIAC that will trade whacks with a team, even one led by D-III’s best quarterback and with obvious talent most everywhere.