Pittsburgh, Pa. - In a match-up of nationally-ranked teams, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team opened its 2025 season with a 38-14 win at Carnegie Mellon University (Pa.) Saturday afternoon at Richard M. Lackner Field at Gesling Stadium. The Tartans drop to 1-1 on the season.

UWL entered the game ranked ninth on this week's D3football.com Top-25 Poll while Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) was ranked 17th. UWL snapped Carnegie Mellon's (Pa.) 24-game home winning streak with the victory, the second longest current streak in NCAA Division III.
 

The Eagles won 11th. straight season opener on Saturday with their last loss coming to the University of Dubuque (Iowa) in 2013 by the score of 35-24. 

In the first-ever meeting the two teams, UWL took the opening kickoff on Saturday and went 75 yards on 11 plays and 5:23 with Kyle Haas throwing a six-yard touchdown pass to Gabe Lynch with 9:37 left in the first quarter. Hass went five-of-five on the drive for 30 yards while also rushing once for 12 yards. Braedon Ott had a 25-yard run. Michael Stack converted the extra-point.

The game remained 7-0 as the teams traded five punts. UWL drove to Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) 18-yard line, but Maddox Pratt's 36-yard field goal was blocked by Mitchell Stokey. Two plays later, the Tartans' Joey McGinnis IV connected with Brendan McCullough for a 75-yard touchdown pass with 4:29 left in the second quarter. Justin Caputo converted the extra point to tie the game at 7-7.

UWL responded on its ensuing drive to take a 14-7 lead. The Eagles went 75 yards in 11 plays and 4:02 with Lynch scoring on a 11-yard run with :27 remaining in the first half. Stack's extra-point was good.
Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) drove to UWL's 26-yard line, but Caputo's 43-yard field was wide right on the final play of the first half.

UWL forced a punt on the first drive of the third quarter and extended its lead to 17-7 as Pratt hit a 34-yard field goal with 7:26 left. The drive went 12 plays and 72 yards in 6:09. Haas and Jack Janke connected on a pair of completions for a total of 46 yards on the drive.

After a first down run on the Tartans' next possession, Sam Baumgard intercepted McGinnis IV and returned it 41-yards for a touchdown and 24-7 lead with 6:32 remaining in the third quarter. It was UWL's first interception return for a touchdown since Charlie Kramer's 24-yard touchdown in a 42-7 victory over Dakota State University (S.D.) on September 3, 2022.

Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) drove to UWL's eight-yard line on its next drive, but a touchdown run from McGinnis IV was called back on a Tartans' penalty. Two plays later, McGinnis IV was intercepted by Trent Mullen at UWL's six-yard line.

The Eagles drove 94 yards in nine plays and 4:24 to extend their lead to 31-7 with 13:33 left in the game after Haas threw a 37-yard touchdown pass to Janke. 

Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) cut the lead to 31-14 with 6:04 remaining as Jackson Salters threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to McCullough. The Tartans used five plays and 2:04 to go 45 yards. After a UWL punt, Salters was intercepted by Henry Walsh who returned it 16-yards to the Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) nine-yard line. Three plays later, Haas and Keaton Arendt combined for a six-yard touchdown pass to make it 38-14 with 1:54 left. UWL forced a fumble on the game's next possession with Noah Gehin recovering the ball after a Ben Moore sack.

UWL finished with 445 yards, including 173 rushing and 272 passing. The Eagles totaled 25 first downs in the game and were 12-of-19 (63.2%) on third-down. Haas went 24-of-32 passing for 272 yards and three touchdowns. Lynch totaled 69 yards rushing and one touchdown on 18 carries while Janke finished with 107 yards receiving on seven catches and one touchdown. Arendt had six receptions for 70 yards and one touchdown.

Stack went five-for-five in extra-point attempts on Saturday, improving to 102-of-102 in his career.

Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) totaled 317 yards in the game with 27 rushing and 290 passing. The Tartans had 14 first downs and were three-of-nine (33.3%) on third-down. McGinnis IV finished 15-of-28 for 245 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions with Salters going four-of-six for 45 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Willem Bouma led the Tartans with 19 yards rushing on seven carries while McCullough had seven catches for 199 yards and two touchdowns.

UWL forced four turnovers, including three interceptions. Seven different players recorded three tackles for the Eagles while Walsh had a team-high 2.0 tackles for loss. Walsh recorded 1.5 quarterback sacks.
Ethan Ming led Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) with 13 tackles while Jack Lawson and Jacob Franze each recorded 11.

UWL returns to action Saturday, September 20 hosting NCAA Division II Wayne State University (Mich.) at 1 p.m. in the Eagles' home opener at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.