The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team dropped a road contest at UW-La Crosse 24-21 Saturday afternoon. 

The Warhawks found themselves trailing 10-0 at the break but battled back in the second half. The UWW defense forced a three-and-out in La Crosse's first possession of the second half. The Warhawk offense took over at their own 27 following the punt. 

The 12-play, 73-yard drive was bolstered by a 26-yard Jackson Chryst (Orinda, Calif./Palo Alto) to Tyler Vasey (Crystal Lake, Ill/Prairie Ridge) connection. On the final play of the drive, Chryst was hurried by a defender but found Drake Martin (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) in the endzone from four  yards out for the score. Jackson Fox (Kirkland, Wash./Lake Washington) nailed the point after to narrow the gap to three, 10-7. 

UWL pushed the lead back to ten, 17-7, early in the fourth after a touchdown capped an 11-play, 69-yard drive. UW-Whitewater responded in kind taking little time off of the clock. On the first play of the drive, Chryst found Brian Wilterdink (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) on a deep ball for a 43-yard gain down the Eagles 26. Nick Wind (Downers Grove, Ill./Montini Catholic) hauled in the next Chryst pass for 22-yards to put the Warhawks on the four. From there, Noah Battle (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove) punched it in. Fox split the uprights to make it 17-14 with just over two minutes elapsed in the drive. 

The 79-yard pass play on the second snap of the Eagles' next drive once again extended the margin, 24-14. 

The Warhawks continued the offensive onslaught from both teams with another quick scoring drive. This time it took just over a minute for UWW to hit paydirt. Chryst found Wind open in the middle of the field for a 33-yard connection on the first play of the drive. Vasey pulled in the next ball for an 18-yard reception. After an incompletion, Chryst hit Wilterdink from 21-yards out for the touchdown. Fox hit his third extra point of the day to make it 24-21. 

UW-Whitewater defense stiffened to give the offense the ball back with 4:18 left on clock, but an interception put the ball in UWL's hands with 3:57 to go. 

The defense held once again, this time turning the Eagles over on downs with a four-and-out. Coach Jace Rindahl expertly used his timeouts to give the Warhawk offense 2:58 to drive 75 yards. A personal foul on UWL on the second play had UWW on their own 30. A short pass to Wilterdink led to a gain of 10 and UWW went quickly with Chryst rushing the ball out bounds after a nine-yard gain to the 49. An Eagle personal foul and Warhawk unsportsmanlike offset on the play to give UWW a first-and-ten from the UWW 49. 

Chryst took off on the next play, gaining six before heading out of bounds but a holding penalty pushed the line of scrimmage back to the Warhawks' 39. Chryst registered back-to-back completions for 11-yards each - the first to Steven Hein (St. Charles, Ill./North) and the second to Wind - for another first down. 

A pair of incompletions forced a third-and-ten. This time the Eagles got to Chryst in the backfield forcing a fumble that was recovered by UWL. La Crosse was able to kneel out the clock for the final score, 24-21.

Chryst was 20-34 for 286 yards, a pair of interceptions and two touchdowns through the air. Ty Schultz (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) paced UWW on the ground with 42 yards on 12 carries. Wilterdink was the top receiver in the contest with 111 yards on seven catches including a touchdown grab. 

Defensively, Kyle Koelblinger (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) and Karsten Libby (Wheaton, Ill./North) shared team-high honors with nine tackles each. Libby added an interception while Koelblinger tallied a pass broken up. 

The Warhawks will head to UW-Eau Claire next Saturday for the regular season finale. Kickoff is set for 2 PM.