Big Plays Lead Blue Devils over Eagles

For Immediate Release: Saturday, October 27, 2007

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-Stout football team used big plays on offense and defense and stopped a late UW-La Crosse drive as the Blue Devils recorded a 31-28 victory over the Eagles Saturday afternoon at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field. UW-L falls to 3-4 overall and 1-4 in the WIAC while UW-Stout improves to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the conference.

After a scoreless first quarter, UW-Stout took a 7-0 lead in the second quarter as Tanner Kattre scored on a one-yard run with 6:54 left. UW-L came back to tie the contest at 7-7 with 1:10 left in the first half as Griffin Moe hit Ted Everson with a 12-yard touchdown pass. The Eagles' Billy Niggeman recovered a Blue Devils' fumble with :35 left in the first half and UW-L drove to the UW-Stout 16-yard line before Moe was intercepted by Jake Pomputis at the three-yard line to force a 7-7 halftime tie.

UW-Stout then scored 24 unanswered points in the third quarter to lead 31-7. Kattre hit Shawn Korth with a 45-yard touchdown pass with 9:06 remaining in the period and after UW-L's Dan Hall fumbled at UW-Stout's 39-yard line, Kattre hit Calvin White with a 61-yard touchdown pass on the next play from scrimmage to make it 21-7 with 6:24 left. Moe was then intercepted on the Eagles' next possession with Stephen Schils returning it 25-yards for a touchdown and UW-Stout led 28-7. Kyle Martin later hit a 27-yard field goal with 1:14 remaining in the third quarter.

UW-L cut the margin to 31-14 with 13:30 left in the game as Alex Seguin hit Jason Wagner with a 23-yard touchdown pass. Kattre then fumbled on UW-Stout's next possession and UW-L cut the lead to 31-20 as Hall scored on a four-yard run with 11:14 remaining. Seguin's two-point pass failed.

The Eagles then forced a Blue Devils' punt and drove to the four-yard line where Hall carried the ball to the UW-Stout one-yard line and fumbled, but Brian Edmiston recovered in the end zone for the touchdown. Hall scored on the two-point run to make it 31-28 with 8:04 remaining.

UW-L had two more possessions. The Eagles drove to the Blue Devils' 24-yard line with 1:23 remaining, but Seguin's fourth-down pass was incomplete. UW-L later forced a UW-Stout punt and took over at its own 35-yard line with :15 left. UW-Stout was called for roughing the passer on the first play and Seguin hit Wagner with a 25-yard completion to the Blue Devils' 30-yard line with just over :02 left. After a UW-L incompletion and two UW-Stout timeouts, Dylan Rude's 47-yard field goal was short on the final play of the game.

UW-L finished with 489 yards of offense, including 60 rushing and 429 passing. Hall rushed for 57 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Moe was 17-of-30 passing for 246 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions while Seguin was 15-of-23 for 183 yards with one touchdown. Wagner caught 14 passes for 200 yards for the Eagles while Everson had 11 catches for 135 yards. Both players caught a touchdown pass.

UW-Stout totaled 368 yards of offense, including 101 rushing and 267 passing. Kattre had 58 yards rushing on 20 attempts and one touchdown while finishing 12-of-17 passing for 249 yards with two touchdowns. Kyle Provos was two-of-four passing for 18 yards. Korth finished with four receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown.

UW-L had 27 first downs to UW-Stout's 16, but the Blue Devils controlled the time of possession, 31:45 to 28:15. UW-Stout was three-of-13 and UW-L six-of-17 on third-down.

Drew Kiefer led UW-L with seven tackles while Pomputis had 12 tackles for UW-Stout.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, November 3 at UW-River Falls at 1 p.m.