Brian Wilterdink hauls in a touchdown catch at La Crosse. (Olivia Zinanni)
By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
La Crosse, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater football team dropped a road contest at UW-La Crosse 24-21 Saturday afternoon.
The Warhawks found themselves trailing 10-0 at the break but battled back in the second half. The UWW defense forced a three-and-out in La Crosse’s first possession of the second half. The Warhawk offense took over at their own 27 following the punt.
The 12-play, 73-yard drive was bolstered by a 26-yard Jackson Chryst to Tyler Vasey connection. On the final play of the drive, Chryst was hurried by a defender but found Drake Martin in the end zone from four yards out for the score. Jackson Fox nailed the point after to narrow the gap to three, 10-7.
UWL pushed the lead back to ten, 17-7, early in the fourth after a touchdown capped an 11-play, 69-yard drive. UW-Whitewater responded in kind, taking little time off of the clock. On the first play of the drive, Chryst found Brian Wilterdink on a deep ball for a 43-yard gain down the Eagles 26. Nick Wind hauled in the next Chryst pass for 22 yards to put the Warhawks on the four. From there, Noah Battle punched it in. Fox split the uprights to make it 17-14 with just over two minutes elapsed in the drive.
The 79-yard pass play on the second snap of the Eagles’ next drive once again extended the margin, 24-14.
The Warhawks continued the offensive onslaught from both teams with another quick scoring drive. This time it took just over a minute for UWW to hit paydirt. Chryst found Wind open in the middle of the field for a 33-yard connection on the first play of the drive. Vasey pulled in the next ball for an 18-yard reception. After an incompletion, Chryst hit Wilterdink from 21-yards out for the touchdown. Fox hit his third extra point of the day to make it 24-21.
UW-Whitewater defense stiffened to give the offense the ball back with 4:18 left on clock, but an interception put the ball in UWL’s hands with 3:57 to go.
The defense held once again, this time turning the Eagles over on downs with a four-and-out. Coach Jace Rindahl expertly used his timeouts to give the Warhawk offense 2:58 to drive 75 yards. A personal foul on UWL on the second play had UWW on their own 30. A short pass to Wilterdink led to a gain of 10 and UWW went quickly with Chryst rushing the ball out bounds after a nine-yard gain to the 49. An Eagle personal foul and Warhawk unsportsmanlike offset on the play to give UWW a first-and-ten from the UWW 49.
Chryst took off on the next play, gaining six before heading out of bounds but a holding penalty pushed the line of scrimmage back to the Warhawks’ 39. Chryst registered back-to-back completions for 11-yards each – the first to Steven Hein and the second to Wind – for another first down.
A pair of incompletions forced a third-and-ten. This time the Eagles got to Chryst in the backfield forcing a fumble that was recovered by UWL. La Crosse was able to kneel out the clock for the final score, 24-21.
Chryst was 20-34 for 286 yards, a pair of interceptions and two touchdowns through the air. Ty Schultz paced UWW on the ground with 42 yards on 12 carries. Wilterdink was the top receiver in the contest with 111 yards on seven catches including a touchdown grab.
Defensively, Kyle Koelblinger and Karsten Libby shared team-high honors with nine tackles each. Libby added an interception while Koelblinger tallied a pass broken up.
The Warhawks will head to UW-Eau Claire next Saturday for the regular season finale. Kickoff is set for 2 PM.
