CEDAR FALLS — On a night when the offense didn’t have its ‘A’ game, the Cedar Falls defense did.

The seventh-ranked Tigers forced five turnovers and converted three of them into touchdowns as they rallied to beat Cedar Rapids Washington, 21-7, Friday in Mississppi Valley Conference action at the UNI-Dome.

Cedar Falls (3-0, 1-0) was held under 200 total yards of total offense and committed two turnovers, but the Tigers forced two Warrior fumbles and picked off three Reid Snitker passes.

“It was a little sloppy,” Cedar Falls co-head coach Brad Remmert said. “We turned it over twice, but we talked this week about getting some turnovers.

“We only had two going into tonight, and we got five tonight and the offense did a good job of converting those into points and that was the difference in the game.”

Cedar Falls had little go right in the first half.

The Tigers had run just 14 plays when Washington (0-3, 0-1) recovered a fumbled punt at the Cedar Falls 36 with 6 minutes, 54 seconds left to halftime.

Mason Taylor, who led Washington with 90 yards on 21 carries, ripped off a 16-yard run on a fourth-and-1 to the Tiger 10, setting up a Snitker 5-yard pass to Clayton Bjornsen and the Warriors led 7-0.

It looked to get worse for the Tigers when Brian Cook was picked off by Isaiah Nimmers on Cedar Falls’ first play after the Washington touchdown. But the Warriors returned the favor, fumbling on their own 25 two plays later and Jared Farley, who also had an interception, recovered it.

Eli Berregaard plunged over from the 3 four plays later and it was 7-7 with 19 seconds left to half.

“We needed something to get us going and get that tied up, and we finally swung the momentum to our side with some turnovers in the second half, as well,” Remmert said.

Washington was poised to take the second-half lead after Snitker hit Nimmers for 14 yards to Cedar Falls’ 28, but he tried to force a pass over the middle on the next play and Danny Watters picked him off.

Farley burst over the right side of the Tigers’ line for a 40-yard gain to the Warrior 10 on the first play of the fourth quarter, and Dennison Harrington put Cedar Falls up for good with a 4-yard scoring run with 9:10 left in the game.

“That was a tough one,” Tiger co-head coach Pat Mitchell said. “Washington doesn’t look like an 0-3 team. Every time we play those guys it’s a battle, a struggle.

“We’re definitely happy to win.”

After controlling the clock for much of the first half behind Taylor, Washington couldn’t match that effort over the final two quarters, with four of its five turnovers coming after halftime.

The final, a Justin King pick of Snitker, led to a Berregaard touchdown from the one for an insurance tally for the Tigers.

“That was a big focus,” said Farley of producing turnovers. “That was a big emphasis this week.

“Getting points after those turnovers, whenever you do that, it is a good thing.”

Farley missed the final few minutes of the game as he injured his left ankle on a 10-yard run that put the Tigers at the Warrior 10, which set up Harrington’s score. He returned for one defensive play but limped off and was wearing a protective boot on his foot at the end of the contest.

“Don’t know what happened to him,” Remmert said. “We will evaluate him tonight and again tomorrow.”

Farley didn’t seem too concerned. “I should be good,” he said.

CEDAR FALLS 21, WASHINGTON 7

CRW     CF
First downs              9             9
Rushes-yards         38-104     41-173
Passing Yards           51            4
Passes                  8-15-3       1-7-2
Return yards             0             33
Penalties-yards         7-57         5-25
Punts-avg.              3-44.0      4-40.0
Fumbles-lost             2-2           2-1

Washington    0 7 0  0 -  7
Cedar Falls      0 7 0 14 - 21

CRW - Clayton Bjornsen 5 pass from Reid Snitker (Gunnar Lenzen kick)
CF - Eli Berregaard 3 run (Caleb Iehl kick)
CF - Dennison Harrington 4 run (Iehl kick)
CF - Berregaard 1 run (Iehl kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing
WASHINGTON - Snitker 6-minus 4), Mason Taylor 21-90, Connor Vincent 4-13, Johnny Dobbs 7-5.
CEDAR FALLS - Berregaard 22-68, Harrington 9-37, Trey Hansen 2-(-4), Sam Ahrenholz 1-2, Jared Farley 3-55, Jared Halterman 1-1, Brian Cook 1-9.

Passing
WASHINGTON - Snitker 8-15-3-51.
CEDAR FALLS - Hansen 1-4-0-4, Cook 1-3-2-0.

Receiving
WASHINGTON - Isaiah Nimmers 3-18, Bjornsen 1-5, Vincent 2-10, Landen Akers 2-18.
CEDAR FALLS - Ben Fienup 1-4.