International Falls’ football team had a victory within its reach Friday night at Virginia, but recording more than 400 yards of offense wasn’t enough when the Blue Devils tallied six more points.

Virginia broke a tie with less than a minute to play when Cole Skadsem caught an 8-yard touchdown pass from Cade Stackpool to defeat the Broncos, 32-26.

The loss dropped Falls’ record to 0-1 in the Sea-Range Conference and 0-2 overall.

The Broncos led for much of the game and scored first in the opening quarter when Nick Janttie ran into the end zone from 65 yards away. It was the first of three rushing touchdowns in the game for Janttie, who ran for 276 yards on 40 carries.

Falls recorded 373 yards rushing out of 413 yards in total offense.

Broncos quarterback Gunnar Anderson, who accounted for Falls’ other touchdown on a 1-yard run, ended up running for a yard more than he passed by rushing for 41 yards on 10 carries. 

Of the Blue Devils’ 367 yards on offense, 241 came from rushing and another 126 passing.

Broncos head coach Jay Boyle said the Falls faced a talented running back in Virginia’s Mitch Sella, who scored two touchdowns on runs of 10 and 24 yards.

Blue Devils quarterback Cade Stackpool also scored on an 8-yard run and threw two touchdown passes to Cole Skadsem from 13 and 8 yards away.

(Stackpool is) a very good football player,” Boyle said.

When the Falls lost 34-8 last year at home to Virginia, Stackpool ran for three touchdowns — including two from more than 30 yards away — and passed for another.

Boyle said the Broncos this year did a good job overall of containing Stackpool, except for a kickoff return with less than 2 minutes to play. 

That kickoff was preceded by the Broncos tying the game at 26-26 late in the fourth quarter when Janttie ran into the end zone from 4 yards away.

Instead of sending sophomore Hope Dunn on the field to kick the extra point to take the lead, the Falls ran for a two-point conversion, which failed.

Dunn had made two of three extra points in the game. However, Boyle said the Broncos’ extra-point unit didn’t do a good job of blocking on the kick she didn’t make, while he had a “lot of confidence” in the two-point conversion play the Falls ran.

Boyle said the Broncos went with a squib kickoff to try to keep the football away from Stackpool, who benefited from a favorable bounce and ended up with a return to Falls’ 16-yard line.

The 8-yard scoring strike from Stackpool to Skadsem with less than a minute to play made the Broncos’ decision not to kick the extra point a moot point as the Falls was unable to score again before time expired.    

The Broncos will seek their first win of the season Friday when they host Proctor.

 

I. Falls7766 — 26

Virginia66614 — 32

Scoring: IF: Nick Janttie, 65-yard run (Hope Dunn kick); V: Cole Skadsem, 13-yard pass from Cade Stackpool (kick blocked); IF: Gunnar Anderson, 1-yard run (Dunn kick); V: Stackpool, 8-yard run (pass failed); V: Mitch Sella, 10-yard run (run failed); IF: Janttie, 4-yard run (kick failed); V: Sella, 24-yard run (Skadsem pass from Stackpool); IF: Janttie, 4-yard run (run failed); V: Skadsem, 8-yard pass from Stackpool (run failed).

Team statistics: IF: 373 yards rushing, 40 passing, 413 total. V: 241 yards rushing, 126 passing, 367 total.

Rushing: IF: Janttie, 40-276, 3 TD; Nehemiah Olson, 5-47; Anderson, 10-41, 1 TD; Jakob Ettestad, 2-9.

Passing: IF: Anderson, 3-9, 40 yards, 1 INT.

Receiving: IF: Janttie, 2-29; Luke Spilde, 1-11.