UW-Whitewater defeated UW-Eau Claire 40-10 Saturday afternoon in Perkins Stadium in Whitewater, Wisconsin and stays tied with UW-Stevens Point, who defeated UW-Oshkosh. The Warhawks are ranked sixth in the D3football.com poll and tenth in the American Football Coaches Association Division III poll. UW-EC is ranked nineteenth by D3 and 23rd by the AFCA.
Although Whitewater and Eau Claire are both members of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, this was a non-conference game. Whitewater defeated UW-EC 16-14 in Eau Claire September 13 for the first meeting this year. Not being able to find opponents to round out a ten-game schedule, the schools agreed to meet twice this season.
Box Score
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Whitewater led 7-3 after one quarter, with Levell Coppage (Oak Park, IL/Oak Park) running the ball in from one yard out for the Warhawks, and Craig Kolb booting a 40-yard field goal for EC. Whitewater added ten points in the second, with another one yard run by Coppage and a 42-yard field goal from Jeff Schebler (Davenport, IA/Assumption).
Eau Claire cut the margin to 17-10 with the aid of an unusual play. Whitewater punter Kris Rosholt (Reedsburg/Reedsburg) went to his knee to field a low snap and the Blugolds set up their offense on UW-W's two yard line. On their first play the Warhawk defense tackled the runner for a ten yard loss, but EC came back with a 12-yard scoring pass from Kyle Paulson to Spencer Kehoe at 11:04.
Whitewater outscored the Blugolds 23-0 the rest of the way. Jeff Donovan (Wauwatosa/East) connected with Aaron Rusch (Hartford/Hartford) with an 18-yard score at 8:31 in the third. Jeff Schebler (Davenport, IA/Assumption) booted a 24-yard field goal with 1:59 left in the third. In the fourth quarter Coppage scored his third TD of the day, this time running in from 17 yards out with 10:39 left. And the scoring closed with Zach Christopherson (Hartford/Hartford) returning an interception 73 yards for a TD.
UW-W totaled 427 yards of offense to 216 for the Blugolds, with EC gaining just 96 yards on the ground. Coppage rushed for 173 yards on 27 carries for the Warhawks. Aaron Rusch (Hartford/Hartford) was the leading receiver in the game with 7 catches for 73 yards. UW-W scored all five times it was in the red zone in the game (three runs, a pass, and a field goal).
UW-W linebacker Jace Rindahl (Cambridge/Cambridge) led both teams with 12 tackles (6 solo) and one interception.
UW-Whitewater is 7-1 overall, 4-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. UW-EC is 5-3 and 3-2.
For additional information:
Lance Leipold, UW-W coach, 262-472-1453
WIAC football web site
