By Angela Kelm
Assistant Athletic Director for Sports Information
The No. 5 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team downed UW-Stout 37-20 on a brisk day at Perkins Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The Warhawks put up 24 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a hefty lead and never looked back. UWW senior quarterback Alec Ogden (Marshall, Wis./Monona Grove) eclipsed the 1,000 passing yard mark with 281 yards on 23-40 passing. He added another 90 yards with his feet in the game.
Jeff Isotalo-McGuire put the Warhawks on the board with a 30-yard field goal to cap a 13-play, 82-yard drive in the second quarter. Ogden was the next to enter the scoring column on a six-yard scamper that made it 10-0.
Just over five minutes later, Ogden found the end zone again, this time from 28 yards out to give UWW a 17-0 lead. With just under three minutes to go before the break, Ogden hit Steven Hein (St. Charles, Ill./North) in stride down the middle of the field for the biggest play of the game, an 80-yard touchdown.
UW-Stout hit a 19-yard field goal to send the teams into the locker room and the Blue Devils tallied another one, this time from 32 yards, for the first score on the other side of the intermission to make it 24-6.
The Blue Devils added seven more after capping a 10-play, 57-yard drive with a 20-yard passing touchdown to cut the margin to 24-13.
UW-Whitewater responded with three straight scores, a pair of Isotalo-McGuire field goals including a 33-yarder and 30-yarder, and a nine-yard touchdown catch by Tommy Coates (Chicago, Ill./De La Salle Institute). That pushed the lead to 37-13.
UW-Stout wrapped up the scoring with a touchdown run with 1:02 left. The Warhawks took a knee after the kickoff to run out the clock.
Alijah Maher-Parr (Wauwatosa, Wis./Arrowhead) added 71 yards rushing to lead the corps of running backs. Hein hauled in three catches for 103 yards including the 80-yard TD.
Defensively, Tyson Harvey (Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) had the Blue Devil receivers on lockdown with two tackles, three pass breakups and an interception. Caden Straka (Lancaster, Wis./Lancaster), Nehemiah Lomax (Park Forest, Ill./Crete-Monee) and Roy Panthier (Elgin, Ill./Elgin) all got to the Blue Devil quarterback in the backfield for sacks in the game. Panthier added three tackles and forced a fumble in the game.
Next week, the Warhawks host UW-Platteville for the team’s annual Homecoming and Hall of Fame game. The contest is also the annual George Chryst Bowl with the teams battling for possession of the pickaxe. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.
