Menomonie, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team fell, 42-39 at UW-Stout Polytechnic Saturday afternoon at Don and Nona Williams Stadium. The Eagles drop to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blue Devils improve to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
RANKINGS:
* UWL entered the game ranked 20th on the D3football.com Top 25 Poll and receiving votes on the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Top 25 Poll.
SERIES RECORD:
* UWL leads the all-time series, 78-16-6, with UW-Stout Polytechnic.
* The Blue Devils snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Eagles with Saturday's victory. UW-Stout's last win over UWL came in 2011, 10-0 in Menomonie.
Braeden Ott scored a pair of touchdowns.
HOW IT HAPPENED – 1ST QUARTER:
* UWL took the opening kickoff and a 7-0 lead as
Kyle Haas threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to
David Emerich with 10:14 remaining.
Maddox Pratt made the extra-point. The Eagles went 75 yards in 11 plays and 4:46, converting a pair of third-downs.
* UW-Stout cut the deficit to 7-3 with 5:40 left on a Garrison Jackman 45-yard field goal. The Blue Devils used 11 plays and 4:31 to go 54 yards.
*
Najeh Mitchell's 51-yard touchdown run on UWL's next possession extended the lead to 14-3. The drive went six plays and 75 yards in 2:04. Mitchell's 51-yard run was the longest for the Eagles this season.
* After a Blue Devils' punt, the Eagles only needed two plays to take a 21-3 advantage as Haas threw a 63-yard touchdown pass to
Braeden Ott with :39 remaining. The 63-yard completion tied a team-high for the year.
HOW IT HAPPENED – 2ND QUARTER:
* Chase Pemberton's 12-yard touchdown pass to Keon Maggitt with 13:51 left cut the margin to 21-10. The drive went 67 yards in four plays and 1:42.
* Pratt's 26-yard field goal with 9:08 remaining extended UWL's lead to 24-10. The drive consumed 69 yards in 11 plays and 4:37.
* UW-Stout cut it 24-13 on Jackman's 38-yard field goal with 6:54 left. The Blue Devils went 54 yards in eight plays and 2:14.
UWL was forced to punt on its next possession, but
Cooper Mueller's 58-yard punt pinned UW-Stout at its own one-yard line. Two plays later, Pemberton was intercepted by
Jake Bova at the Blue Devils' 28-yard. UWL turned the ball over on downs as it lost a yard on fourth-and-one at UW-Stout's four-yard line.
Pemberton was sacked by
Noah Gehin on third-down on UW-Stout's ensuing drive, forcing a Blue Devils' punt. UWL ran out the final :25 of the half.
Maddox Pratt converted a 26-yard field goal.
HOW IT HAPPENED – 3RD QUARTER:
* UW-Stout took the second half kickoff and drove 75 yards in eight plays and 3:51 with Pemberton scoring on an 11-yard run with 11:09 remaining to cut it the 24-19. Pemberton and Joey Tumilty connected on the two-point conversion to make it 24-21.
* Ott fumbled on UWL's first possession of the second half with UW-Stout's Garet Rivord recovering at the Eagles' 30-yard line.
* The Blue Devils took a 28-24 lead as Pemberton scored on a one-yard with 6:22 left. UW-Stout went 30 yards in six plays and 3:34.
* UWL quickly responded to regain the lead with 4:37 remaining on Haas' 40-yard touchdown pass to
Calahan Miles. Pratt's extra-point made it 31-28. UWL went 56 yards in four plays and 1:40.
* The back-and-forth game continued as UW-Stout took a 35-31 advantage on Pemberton's 33-yard touchdown pass to Tumilty with 1:05 left. The drive went 75 yards in seven plays and 3:32. UWL was called for pass interference on third-down to continue the possession.
HOW IT HAPPENED – 4TH QUARTER:
* UW-Stout extended the lead to 42-31 with 6:23 remaining after Pemberton threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Jojo James. The Blue Devils went 68 yards in nine plays and 5:06.
* UWL came back with a 75-yard, 11-play drive in 2:53 with Ott scoring on an eight-yard run with 3:30 left to make it 42-37 and Haas threw to Miles for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 42-39.
* UW-Stout was forced to punt on its next drive with UWL taking over at its own 37-yard line with 2:17 remaining. Haas was sacked by Dre Bournes on third-down, forcing fourth-and-18. An completion to Miles turned the ball over on downs.
* The Blue Devils ran out the 1:43, including an incompletion from Pemberton on the final play of the game to run out the final :06.
UWL TEAM STATS:
* The Eagles finished with 443 yards, including 149 rushing and 294 passing. UWL had 22 first downs, finished five-of-13 on third-down and one-of-three on fourth-down.
* UWL was three-of-four in the red-zone.
UWL INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:
* Haas went 23-of-36 for 294 yards with three touchdowns. He became the second player in school history to surpass 6,000 career passing yards with 6,194. Dennis Goettl (1988-91) is UWL's career leader with 6,340.
* Ott finished with 81 yards rushing and one touchdown on 17 carries while Mitchell totaled 72 yards and one touchdown on six attempts.
* Miles caught six passes for 103 yards and one touchdown.
Jacob Koon had five receptions for 44 yards while Ott (79 yards, one touchdown) and Emerich (30 yards, one touchdown) each had four catches.
*
Colin O'Neil finished with a team-high 10 tackles, including 2.5 for loss.
Sal Balistrieri totaled eight tackles. Gehin finished with 2.0 tackles for loss, including 1.0 quarterback sack.
UW-STOUT POLYTECHNIC TEAM STATS:
* The Blue Devils also totaled 443 yards, including 182 rushing and 261 passing. UW-Stout finished with 25 first downs while going five-of-13 on third-down and missed its only fourth-down attempt. * The team was three-of-three in the red-zone and won the time of possession, 33:15 to 26:45.
UW-STOUT POLYTECHNIC INDIVIDUAL LEADERS:
* Pemberton went 15-of-27 for 261 yards with three touchdowns and one interception.
* Pemberton led the Blue Devils with 82 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
* Maggitt (86 yards, one touchdown) and Davonte Evans (74 yards) each had four receptions.
* Dawson Goodman had 10 tackles, including seven unassisted.
UP NEXT:
* UWL travels to UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, October 31 at 11:30 a.m.
