La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team, ranked ninth on this week's D3football.com Top-25 Poll, improved to 6-1 overall and 3-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with a 55-13 win over UW-Stevens Point Saturday afternoon at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex. The Pointers drop to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the WIAC. 

It is UWL's fifth straight win over UW-Stevens Point.  

UWL quickly took a 7-0 lead after Tyler Stubbendick's 30-yard kickoff return to start the game. Joey Stutzman had three carries for 58 yards and Cade Garcia hit Ryan Beirne with a 12-yard touchdown pass with 2:08 left in the opening quarter. Beirne converted the extra-point. UW-Stevens Point was forced to punt on its first possession and it took six plays for UWL to go 80 yards for a 13-0 lead. Stutzman scored on a 13-yard run with 6:20 remaining. He opened the drive with a 31-yard run. Beirne's extra-point was missed. 

After another Pointers' punt, Garcia connected with Marko Rajkovic on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 2:06 left in the first quarter to give UWL a 20-0 lead. The drive went 75 yards in five plays and 2:34.

UW-Stevens Point got on the board with 10:29 remaining in the first half on Brycen Cashin's two-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-goal. The extra-point by Victor Ponterio cut the lead to 20-7. UW-Stevens Point went 75 yards in 14 plays and 6:39.

Garcia threw his third touchdown pass of the first half on UWL's ensuing drive, connecting with Rajkovic from 29-yards out with 5:44 left. The Eagles went 72 yards in eight plays and 4:37 to take a 27-7 lead. Ryan Bartol blocked UW-Stevens Point's punt on its next drive with Will Josten recovering the ball at the Pointers' two-yard line. On the very next play, Josten caught a two-yard touchdown pass from Garcia to make it 34-7 with 3:38 remaining in the first half. 

The Pointers' Larry Boh intercepted Garcia with 1:40 left in the third quarter and two plays later, Seth Forbes scored on a 16-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 34-13 with 1:08. UWL maintained its 34-13 lead at halftime. 
 

After forcing a UW-Stevens Point punt to open the second half, UWL went 49 yards in six plays and 2:43 as Garcia hit Matthijs Enters on a 16-yard touchdown pass. Beirne's extra-point made it 41-13 with 11:29 left in the third quarter.  The Eagles' Jack Anderson sacked Trey Schroeder on fourth-down at UWL's 13-yard line on UW-Stevens Point's next possession. Ten plays later, Dayo Oye scored on a one-yard run for UWL with 3:32 remaining for a 48-13 advantage. The drive went 87 yards in 6:03. 

UWL finished the scoring with 6:23 remaining in the game on Austin Larson's five-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Bowman. The Eagles went 80 yards in 13 plays and 7:01. 

UWL finished with 546 yards of offense, including 327 rushing and 219 passing. The Eagles totaled 30 first downs, finishing six-of-seven on third-down. UWL won the time of possession, 33:32 to 26:28, were seven-of-seven in the red-zone. 

Garcia went 13-of-16 for 206 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. His five touchdown passes was a career-high and is tied for fourth-most in single-game school history. Stutzman totaled 153 yards rushing on 14 carries (10.9 average) Saturday and one touchdown. Brant Bohman added 62 yards on seven carries. Rajkovic caught three passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns while Enters finished with three catches for 36 yards and a touchdown. Ten different players had a carry in the game for UWL while nine caught at least one pass. 

UW-Stevens Point had 224 yards on Saturday with 193 rushing yards and 31 passing. The Pointers were three-of-14 on third-down and totaled 11 first downs. Schroeder finished five-of-14 passing for 31 yards while also rushing for 94 yards on 17 carries. DJ Jacob led UW-Stevens Point with two catches for 10 yards. 

Anderson and Josh Dorschner led UWL with six tackles each, including five unassisted. Anderson also recorded 2.0 tackles for loss and a quarterback sack. Aaron Schmitz and Elijah Alt each had five tackles. 

Tysen White led UW-Stevens Point with seven tackles with Gavino Lopez finishing with six.  

UWL returns to action Saturday, October 29 at UW-Oshkosh at 1 p.m.