UW-Whitewater Rallies to Record Win over UW-L

For Immediate Release: Saturday, September 29, 2007

La Crosse, Wis. – UW-Whitewater recorded its 16th straight WIAC win with a come from behind 35-28 victory at UW-La Crosse's Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Saturday night. The Warhawks, ranked third on D3football.com, improve to 3-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference with the win while the Eagles, ranked sixth in the country, drop to 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the league.

UW-Whitewater rallied from a 28-10 deficit after the third quarter to score 25 points in the fourth period. Jeff Schebler connected on a 41-yard field goal with 11:00 left in the fourth period to make it 28-13. After forcing a UW-L punt, Danny Jones hit Matt Gifford for a 29-yard touchdown pass with 6:01 left to cut the deficit to 28-20. The Eagles' Eric Donoval then fumbled on the next possession, setting up another Jones to Gifford touchdown pass, this time from 14-yards out. The duo then connected on the two-point conversion and the game was tied 28-28 with 3:55 remaining.

On UW-L's next possession, quarterback Griffin Moe was knocked out of the game on a hit by AJ Raedel. Back-up Gus Almonroeder was intercepted three plays later by Ben Farley, who returned it to the Eagles' 18-yard line. Three plays later, Jake Anderson scored on a one-yard run to give UW-Whitewater a 35-28 lead. Jones hit Neil Mrkvicka with a 22-yard completion to set-up Anderson's winning score.

On the Eagles' final possession, Raedel sacked Almonroeder and forced a fumble on fourth-and-three at the UW-L 37-yard line with :22 left.

UW-L took a 7-0 lead on its first possession of the game as Moe hit Jason Wagner on a two-yard touchdown pass. Moe connected with Chris Johnson on a seven-yard touchdown pass early in the second period and it was 14-0. UW-Whitewater's Justin Beaver cut the margin to 14-7 with 1:03 left in the first half on a one-yard run, but Moe threw his third touchdown pass of the half as he hit Ted Everson with a 19-yard pass with :23 remaining. UW-L led 21-7 at the half.

Schebler hit a 33-yard field goal with 9:57 left in the third quarter to cut UW-L's lead to 21-10, but Everson and Moe gave the Eagles a 28-10 lead with 7:57 left in the third as they connected on a 58-yard touchdown pass, but UW-Whitewater would come back and score the final 25 points of the game.

UW-L finished with 436 yards of offense, including 121 rushing and 315 passing. Dan Hall led the Eagles with 136 yards rushing on 22 attempts (6.2 average). Moe finished 16-of-23 for 308 yards with four touchdowns and one interception while Everson had seven catches for 205 yards and two scores. His 205 yards receiving yards fifth in single-game school history.

UW-Whitewater totaled 418 yards in the game, including 214 rushing and 247 passing. Beaver led the Warhawks with 155 yards rushing on 26 carries (6.0 average) while Anderson finished with 73 yards and a touchdown on 12 attempts (6.1 average). Jones was 16-of-30 passing for 204 yards and two touchdowns, both going to Gifford. Gifford caught five passes for 82 yards while Mrkvicka had eight catches for 92 yards.

The Warhawks held a 33:29-26:31 time of possession advantage and were six-of-six in the red-zone. UW-L was three-of-11 on third-down and three-of-five in the red-zone.

Dane Cordes led UW-L with 11 tackles while Joe Troia and Nick Ihde both finished with seven. Troia had 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Matt Winney recorded an interception for the Eagles while Nick Ihde recovered a fumble.

Farley led UW-Whitewater with nine tackles to go along with his interception. Gabe Schultz and Jace Rindahl each had eight tackles. Rindahl also finished with an interception, fumble recovery, forced fumble and one sack. Ryan Orgizovich had two sacks for UW-Whitewater, who finished the game with four.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, October 6 at UW-Eau Claire at 11:30 a.m.