Box Score Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team, ranked 12th on D3football.com, fell 13-7 at third-ranked UW-Whitewater Saturday afternoon at Perkins Stadium. The Eagles drop to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Warhawks improve to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the conference. With the win, UW-Whitewater clinches at least a share of the WIAC title and earns the league's automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships. 

UW-Whitewater and UWL were both forced to punt on its opening possessions Saturday.  The Warhawks punted on their second drive of the game with the Eagles starting at their own 33-yard line. UWL had first-and-goal at the UW-Whitewater one-yard line after Jakob Parks connected with Cameron Sorenson for 27-yards on third-and-five. Parks throw on first down was incomplete to Sorenson and Joey

Stutzman was stopped on a pair of running plays on second and third-down. The Eagles were set-up to go for it on fourth-down, but a false start pushed UWL back to the six-yard line. Ryan Beirne's 23-yard field goal hit the right upright to keep the game scoreless.  

The Warhawks took a 3-0 lead with 6:44 left in the first half on Matt Maldonado's 27-yard field goal. UW-Whitewater went 65 yards in nine plays and 3:42. Alex Peete had a 25-yard running play on the drive. Maldonado gave UW-Whitewater a 6-0 lead with :26 remaining in the second quarter with his second field goal, this one coming from 49-yards out. The drive went 49 yards in nine plays and 1:13 as the Warhawks took a 6-0 halftime lead.

The third quarter featured five punts as UW-Whitewater maintained its 6-0 lead after 45:00. Maldonado missed from 35-yards out on the third play of the fourth quarter to keep it 6-0. UWL was forced to punt for the fourth straight time in the second half on its next possession with Sean Parker hitting a 71-yard punt for a touchback. The 71-yard punt ranks as the sixth-longest in school history. Jerry Faust had a school record 81-yard punt versus UW-Stout on September 27, 1997. On the first play of its ensuing drive, UW-Whitewater's Max Meylor hit Tyler Holte for 75-yards to UWL's five-yard line. Two plays later, Meylor scored on a one-yard run. Maldonado's extra-point made it 13-0 with 11:21 remaining in the game. The Warhawks went 80 yards in three plays and 1:18. 

UWL quickly responded on its next drive to cut the lead to 13-7 with Parks hitting Jack Studer with a two-yard touchdown pass with 6:17 left. The Eagles went 74 yards in 15 plays and 4:55. Jake Simuncak had 24 yards receiving on the drive while Parks had 19 yards rushing. Beirne converted the extra-point.  UWL forced a UW-Whitewater punt on its next drive and UWL took over at its own five-yard line with 2:26 remaining. Parks' 20-yard completion to Simuncak moved the ball to the 25-yard line. Parks had three straight completions with UWL moving to its own 46-yard line. He later had a rush for seven yards to the UW-Whitewater 36-yard line. The Eagles moved to the Warhawks' 30-yard line on a UW-Whitewater holding penalty.  After a pair of incompletions, Parks hit Sorenson for 12-yards to the UW-Whitewater 18-yard line with :03 left, but Parks throw was incomplete to Sorenson on the final play of the game.

UWL finished with 346 yards of offense on Saturday, including 102 rushing and 244 passing. The Eagles had 22 first downs in the game while going seven-of-16 on third-down and one-of-one on fourth-down. UWL won the time of possession, 30:18 to 29:42.   

Parks went 28-of-49 for 244 yards and one touchdown. Stutzman led the Eagles with 45 yards rushing on 14 carries and went over 1,000-yards for the season (1,038). He is eighth player in school history to rush for 1,000-yards in a season and first since Andrew Mocaldo had a school record 1,942 yards in 2003.  Simuncak caught 13 passes for 117 yards while Sorenson totaled 73 yards on seven catches. Simuncak's 13 catches are tied for sixth in single-game school history.  Parker averaged 40.7 yards on seven punts with a long of 71-yards. 

UW-Whitewater totaled 353 yards with 187 rushing and 166 passing. The Warhawks had 15 first downs and finished four-of-13 on third-down.  Meylor went 13-of-23 for 166 yards while Alex Peete rushed for 151 yards on 27 carries. Holte had five catches for 99 yards.  UW-Whitewater earned its 18th straight win over UWL with Saturday's victory.

Elijah Alt led UWL's defense with nine tackles while Rusty Murphy finished with seven. Egon Hein led UW-Whitewater with a game-high 11 tackles. 

UWL wraps up its regular season Saturday, November 13 hosting UW-Eau Claire at 11:30 a.m. at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.