Hudson defeated River Falls 45-21 in the 107th meeting of the two rivals Friday night in Hudson to retain the Little Brown Jug.
A 10-point swing with a field goal on the final play of the first half and a touchdown return of the second half kickoff helped the Raiders win the traveling trophy for the second straight year by 17 points.
“It’s huge,” Hudson coach Adam Kowles said of the annual Jug Game against River Falls. Both sides in the ninth grade game yesterday played like they were competing for the jug. I mean, fantastic rivalry. There are two beautiful communities ten miles apart. Just a great tradition.”
River Falls opened the game with an 83-yard, seven-plus minute scoring drive capped by a three-yard touchdown throw from Tino Massa to fullback Josh Jenkins.
Hudson responded in one minute, driving 80 yards in five plays to tie the game on a 36-yard Cooper Adair-Aiden Jamieson touchdown connection.
The Raiders took a 21-7 lead after two Wildcat turnovers on consecutive possessions led to two touchdowns. After Raider linebacker Liam Mayer recovered the first at the River Falls eight-yard line, quarterback Cooper Adair scored on a 2-yard run.
River Falls reached midfield on its following possession before Hudson defensive back Ben Englund fumbled at the Wildcat 44-yard line. Running back Patyon Pingel scored on the next play to make it 14-point.
River Falls Wildcats coach Ryan Scherz says blunders have plagued the team this season.
He remarked, “I don’t know if we’ve been able to play from ahead this entire season, and that’s a difficult way to play football. I doubt we’ve won a turnover battle this year. It’s hard to win football games against good teams that way. That’s OK against bad football teams, but we don’t play them.”
The Wildcats responded with a 64-yard Massa-to-Charlie Burke touchdown pass over the top 1:09 before halftime to trim the Raider advantage to seven. Hudson then moved from their nine-yard line to the River Falls seven and scored on a 24-yard Matt Ousdigian field goal on the final play of the first half to lead 24-14.
“Big swing,” Kowles said of the halftime field goal. “They scored before halftime, so getting the field goal—I know it’s three points—really changed the momentum. We had the ball back to open the second half.”
They had it briefly. They didn’t need to when Tyler Lessard returned the second-half kickoff 90 yards from his own 10-yard line.
“Obviously that’s the worst way to start that half,” Scherz remarked.
Hudson scored two more touchdowns in the third quarter on Adair’s four-yard rush and Pingel’s 41-yard run to lead 45-14 before Charlie Loesch’s one-yard TD run with 4:29 left made it 45-21.
Kowles stated the Raiders had a rhythm with their fast-paced offense.
“We really want to play fast,” he remarked. “I think we’re better when we play fast, so I tell the offense it might not be the proper play call but it’ll be fast. If you’re speedy, you can take advantage of the D’s inability to align. We just get into a flow and improve. We attempt to accomplish that.”
Scherz said slowing the Raiders is difficult.
“They play fast,” he remarked. It takes some getting used to because you can’t imitate that in practice, but they didn’t do anything we weren’t ready for.
Hudson won the Little Brown Jug for the second year in a row, although River Falls leads the series 56-51. Kowles stated the two rivals always fight.
I told Ryan (Scherz) before the game that we respect them a lot. We prepare hard for them because they’re well-coached and play hard. It’s a wonderful rivalry and we respect them.
With the win, Hudson improved to 4-2 overall, 2-2 in the Big Rivers Conference and will host Superior (0-6, 0-4) Friday. River Falls fell to 2-4, 1-3 in the BRC and will play Rice Lake (5-1, 3-1) at home Friday.