Titans Unable To Catch Eighth-Ranked Eagles

Despite turnovers on three of its first four possessions, the nationally-ranked UW-La Crosse football team held on for a 31-20 victory over UW-Oshkosh on Saturday (Nov. 11) at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium.

UW-La Crosse (8-1/6-1 WIAC), ranked eighth in the NCAA Division III by D3football.com, will find out Sunday (Nov. 12) if it has earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs.

UW-La Crosse had three turnovers in the first half, including two at the UW-Oshkosh one-yard line. The Eagles finally broke through in the second quarter as Mike Schmidt scored on a one-yard run with 9:21 left. Corey Geldernick rushed for 38 of UW-La Crosse's 39 yards on the possession, including a 25-yard run to the Titans' 14-yard line.

After forcing a UW-Oshkosh punt, UW-La Crosse drove 68 yards in seven plays scoring as John Schumann hit Jason Wagner for a 25-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-seven with 4:48 remaining.

UW-Oshkosh (5-5/3-4 WIAC) came right back on the next possession as Dieter Juedes (So. • Sheboygan Falls) hit Andy Heiman (Jr. • Clintonville) with a 23-yard touchdown pass with 29 seconds remaining in the first half.

UW-Oshkosh was forced to punt on its first possession of the second half and UW-La Crosse drove 49 yards to make it 21-7 as Schumann hit Scott Swanson on a 24-yard touchdown pass. After a Titans' fumble, the Eagles took a 28-7 lead with 6:46 remaining as Geldernick scored on an eight-yard run.

On the ensuing possession, UW-Oshkosh went 81 yards on 12 plays to cut the deficit to 28-14 as Tyler Jandrin (Jr. • Casco) scored on a one-yard run. Early in the fourth quarter, the Titans' blocked Brett Nagan's punt and returned it to the Eagles' 13-yard line setting up Andy Moriarty's (Jr. • Mequon) two-yard touchdown run to cut the margin to 28-20, but Lucas Raschke's (Jr. • Clintonville) extra-point was blocked by Steve Teeples.

After forcing a UW-La Crosse punt on the next possession, Juedes was intercepted by Jacob Buswell at the Titans' 36-yard line setting up Dylan Rude's 33-yard field goal with 5:12 left for a 31-20 UW-La Crosse lead. UW-Oshkosh then turned the ball over on downs and UW-La Crosse ran out the clock to end the game.

UW-La Crosse finished with 257 yards rushing, including 149 from Geldernick on 23 carries. Dan Hall had 85 yards rushing on 15 attempts. Schumann was nine-of-21 passing for 144 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while Eric Kettenhofen was the team's leading receiver with four catches for 45 yards. The Eagles totaled 401 yards of total offense.

UW-Oshkosh finished with 224 yards, including 140 rushing and 84 passing. Chris Kirch (Sr. • Lake Geneva) led the Titans with 59 yards rushing while Moriarty added 51 and Steve Levonowich (So.• Kenosha) 49. Juedes was 9-of-19 passing for 84 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

Heiman, Kyle Nakatsuji (So. • West Allis) and Kyle Kubasa (Sr. • West Allis) each had two catches for UW-Oshkosh.

Nick Ihde and Drew Kiefer each had nine tackles for the Eagles while Eric Stenbroten (Jr. • Monticello) had 11 for the Titans.