UW-L Defeats UW-Eau Claire in Home Finale
La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team earned a 49-14 victory over UW-Eau Claire Saturday afternoon at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex. The Eagles improve to 3-6 overall and 3-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blugolds fall to 4-5 overall and 2-4 in the conference.
The win snaps a three-game losing streak to UW-Eau Claire for UW-L.
In head coach Larry Terry's final home game, UW-L scored on its first five possessions of the game to lead 35-0 at halftime. Terry announced his retirement effective Jan. 13, 2011 earlier this week.
Nick Anker gave the Eagles a 7-0 lead with 9:13 left in the first quarter, throwing the first of his four touchdown passes in the half, to Kyle Steffen from 22-yards out.
Lee Lauters made it 14-0 with 2:19 left in the first quarter on a one-yard touchdown run. Max Nicholson recovered a fumble for UW-L on UW-Eau Claire's next possession and Anker connected with Tony Bilderback on an eight-yard touchdown pass on the first play in the second quarter.
Anker threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Alex Maxinoski with 7:19 left in the half to give the Eagles a 28-0 lead. UW-L's Sam Riebau blocked a UW-Eau Claire punt on the next possession with UW-L taking over at UW-Eau Claire's 18-yard line. On the next play, Anker threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Lauters to make it 35-0.
UW-Eau Claire cut the lead to 35-7 on Joel Sweeney's 11-yard run with 6:42 left in the third quarter. Andy Neumann had recovered an Anker fumble at the UW-L 42-yard line. The Eagles improved their lead to 42-7 with 1:48 remaining in the period after Lauters' five-yard touchdown run. Jake Meckstroth had intercepted the Blugolds' pass at UW-L's 21-yard line and returned it 15 yards to set up the scoring drive.
The Blugolds' Alex Delebreau threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Austin Goetsch with 14:51 remaining to cut the Eagles' lead to 42-14.
Anker threw his career-high fifth touchdown pass with 4:59 left as Derek Kubicek scored from 10-yards.
UW-L finished with 433 yards of offense, including 122 rushing and 311 passing. The Eagles were nine-of-16 on third-down and six-of-six in red-zone chances.
Anker finished 32-of-47 passing for 311 yards and career-high five touchdowns. The 32 completions set a single-game school record. Anker also broke the school's career passing attempts record (854).
Lauters had 73 yards rushing on 15 attempts and two touchdowns while Travis Bordeau caught 12 passes for 143 yards. The 12 catches is tied for fifth in single-game school history.
UW-Eau Claire had 249 yards of offense, including 156 rushing and 93 passing. Sweeney had 88 yards rushing on 23 attempts and a touchdown while Austin Neu finished three-of-16 passing for 21 yards and an interception. Delebreau was seven-of-11 for 72 yards and a touchdown. The Blugolds were three-of-14 on third-down and fumbled three times.
Jim Litscher led UW-L with eight tackles while Nicholson finished with seven. Neumann, Ben Shea and Kyle Thorpe led UW-Eau Claire with seven tackles each.
UW-L wraps ups its regular season at number-one ranked UW-Whitewater Saturday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m.
