Box Score
UW-Whitewater only led in the game for sixty-one seconds, but it came at the right time as Jake Anderson scored from one yard out to bring UW-W back from a 28-10 deficit as the Warhawks defeated UW-La Crosse 35-28 at Roger Haring Field at Memorial Stadium in La Crosse, Wisconsin Saturday.
Both teams are among the top ten in all three national Division III polls. Whitewater is now 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. UW-L is 2-1, and 0-1 in league play.
Whitewater has won the last four meetings between the teams. UW-W won 29-23 in La Crosse in 2005, 45-10 in last year's regular season meeting in Whitewater, and 24-21 in a NCAA III second round playoff game last November.
The victory extended Whitewater's win streak in WIAC play to 16 games, dating back to a loss to La Crosse in the final game of the 2004 season.
UW-L drove seventy yards on the opening possession of the game, with Griffin Moe completing a two yard pass to Jason Wagner to put the Eagles up 7-0.
In the second quarter Eagle defensive back Matt Winney picked off a Danny Jones (Pleasanton, CA/Amador Valley) pass and returned it sixteen yards to the Whitewater seven yard line. On the next play Moe found Chris Johnson for the touchdown, putting La Crosse up 14-0 with 11:46 left in the half.
La Crosse threatened to extend the gap, moving the ball to the Whitewater ten yard line, but after an incomplete pass, a running play that lost yardage, and a sack the Eagles missed a 40 yard field goal attempt.
Whitewater took possession of the ball at its own 23, then went 77 yards in seven plays, with Justin Beaver (Palmyra/Palmyra-Eagle) scoring from the one, to make it 14-7 with 3:08 left in the second quarter.
Moe and wideout Ted Everson brought the Eagles right back. UW-L went 60 yards in four plays, with Moe and Everson connecting for 37 yards on one pass and ending it with a 19 yard scoring strike to make it 21-7 La Crosse with just 0:34 left in the half.
UW-W's Jeff Schebler (Davenport, IA/Assumption) kicked a 33 yard field goal with 9:57 remaining in the third to make it 21-10. Schebler's field goal, the twenty-fourth in his career, moved him in to ninth place in the WIAC record book.
Again, La Crosse answered with a scoring drive. Again, it was Moe to Everson for the score, this time a 58 yarder at 7:57 to boost the margin back to 28-10 La Crosse.
Although no one in the stadium would have predicted it, that would be the end of the Eagles' scoring. And no one in the stadium would have predicted that Whitewater was about to score twenty-five points in the fourth quarter.
The comeback began, improbably, with La Crosse at the Whitewater 23 yard line. Moe's pass was intercepted by senior linebacker Jace Rindahl (Cambridge/Cambridge) at the 23 and returned to the 27. Fourteen plays later, with 11:00 left in the game, Schebler booted on through from 41 yards out. La Crosse 28, Whitewater 13.
After forcing the Eagles to punt, Whitewater got the ball back at its own 24. And just as Moe and Everson had been a thorn in the Warhawks' side all day, the UW-W duo of Danny Jones (Pleasanton, CA/Amador Valley) and Matt Gifford (Waukesha West/West) took center stage. Jones hit Gifford with a 29 yard scoring pass with 6:01 remaining to close it to 28-20.
UW-L was on their 21 when Rindahl came up with another big play, forcing a fumble that UW-W defensive back Andy Murray (Mount Horeb/Mount Horeb) recovered at the 25. Three running plays preceded another Jones to Gifford hookup, this time for 14 yards. La Crosse 28, Whitewater 26. UW-W elected to go for two, and Jones went back to the well, connecting with Gifford to knot the game at 28-28 with 3:55 left.
Moe went back under center for the Eagles and rushed for five yards on the opening play of the drive, but he was forced out of the game with an injury on the play. Three plays later replacement Gus Almonroeder's pass was picked off by UW-W senior defensive back Ben Farley (Brookfield/East) at the La Crosse 46, and returned to the 18 with 2:14 left in the game.
Three plays later Jake Andersen (Kansasville/Westosha Central), filling in because Beaver had left the game with a shin injury midway through the third quarter, punched it in from one yard out to give UW-W its only lead of the game.
UW-W's Jones, who went 1-9 in the first half, ended up 16-30 for 204 yards and the two TD's to Gifford. Senior wideout Neil Mrkvicka (Greendale/Greendale) caught eight passes for 92 yards, and Beaver rushed 26 times for 162 yards. Andersen carried the ball twelve times for 73 yards. Farley led Whitewater with nine tackles (six solo). Moe was 16-23 for 308 yards and four TD's, with Everson accounting for seven of the catches for 205 yards and two scores. Eagle running back Dan Hall carried the ball 22 times for 142 yards. Linebacker Dane Cordes had eleven tackles (eight solo) for UW-L.
The offensive yardage was as close as the score, La Crosse leading 436-418, but Whitewater had 24 first downs to 15 for UW-L. Whitewater also controlled the ball 33+ minutes to 26+ for La Crosse, with the margin even more striking in the second half when UW-W had the ball twenty of the thirty minutes. La Crosse was penalized twelve times for 97 yards, Whitewater five for 40.
UW-Whitewater will host UW-River Falls Saturday, October 6 at 1:00 in Perkins Stadium. Call 262-472-2222 for ticket information.
