By Angela Kelm
Asst. Athletic Director for Sports Information
Box Score | The UW-Whitewater football team [#11 d3football.com] opened Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play with a 21-14 win over UW-Oshkosh [#17] in front of a record crowd at Perkins Stadium Saturday afternoon.
The Warhawks set the Division III record (for games played on a college campus) and WIAC attendance record for the third consecutive season with 21,233 visiting The Perk Saturday. The mark breaks last year’s record by more than 1,000 fans.
The Titans struck first scoring on their first drive of the contest on a 33-yard touchdown pass. From that point, the Warhawk defense shut out the UWO offense until early in the fourth.
It took a few drives for the UWW offense to settle in, but the Warhawks got on the board early in the second quarter. In the team’s third drive of the game, Jason Ceniti found Steven Hein for a 16-yard gain up to the Warhawk 38. Tamir Thomas burst up the middle for a seven-yard gain on the next play – the final of the first quarter. On the first play of the second quarter, a late hit by the Titans on Ceniti resulted in a 15-yard gain to put the Warhawks in UWO territory. Three plays later, UWO was flagged once again, this time for a late hit out of bounds on Ceniti that gave UWW a 1st-and-10 at the Titan 14. Thomas was tapped for back-to-back carries before Drake Martin punched it in from two yards out. Jackson Fox split the uprights on the extra point to knot the game 7-7.
UW-Whitewater added seven on a long drive before the end of the half. The drive started with a 50-yard Ceniti to Brian Wilterdink connection. Ceniti capped the five-minute drive with his feet and the help of a big push from the backfield for a one-yard touchdown run. Fox’s point after made it 14-7.
The Warhawk defense came up with a quick stop to give UWW 46 seconds before the break, but the drive stalled near midfield as the teams went into the intermission with the seven-point margin.
UW-Oshkosh gained some momentum early in the third with an interception followed by a punt that rolled out of bounds at the UWW one-yard-line. Deep in their own territory, the Warhawks got some breathing room off of the goal line but were still forced to punt. Kamrin Hutt booted a 65-yard bomb to flip the field and push the Titans back to their own 25.
After a pair of short completions, Jakob Simmons burst through the line and got his hand on the Titan quarterback pulling him to the ground for a sack and a loss of nine on third down. The UWO punt was downed at the UWW 43.
The Warhawk backs in Thomas and Brian Stanton took over with six consecutive carries to end the quarter. Martin was tabbed for the carry to open the fourth and burst up the middle for five yards. Thomas broke loose on the next play making Titan tacklers miss before leaping over a defender at the goal line for the 16-yard touchdown. Fox nailed the extra point to give UWW a 21-7 advantage.
Oshkosh responded on their next drive with a touchdown as a short reception turned into a big gain and a score to narrow the gap to seven, 21-14.
The defense stole all of the momentum from the Titans on UWO’s next, and final, drive of the game. On 2nd-and-10, Paul Kim came flying off the edge for the sack, jarring the ball loose on the hit. The Titans recovered but faced 3rd-and-19. Simmons nearly got to the quarterback on the next play, forcing him to throw the ball away to avoid a sack.
Following a 45-yard punt, the Warhawks took over at their own 10 with 4:41 on the clock. UWW pounded the rock picking up a first down and forcing a UWO timeout. Another seven-yard gain had the Titans calling their final timeout with 2:42 remaining. Martin took the handoff on 3rd-and-1 and was stood up at the line of scrimmage as the clock ticked down to the two-minute warning.
Martin got the call again and this time he carried defenders forward for a three-yard gain and a first down. From there UWW was able to kneel out the clock to secure the win.
Ceniti was 8-18 for 119 yards. Thomas paced the Warhawks on the ground with 123 yards on 26 carries with a touchdown. Six receivers hauled in passes from Ceniti in the game with Steven Hein and Tyler Vasey recording a pair of catches each.
Defensively, Kim was phenomenal with seven tackles, two tackles for a loss, a sack and a forced fumble.
UW-Whitewater will be on the road at UW-Stout next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. in Menomonie. The Warhawks return to Perkins for a Friday game under the lights on October 18 when UWW will host UW-Stevens Point for a 7 p.m. kickoff
