La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team earned a 42-7 home victory over UW-Eau Claire Saturday afternoon at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex. The Eagles, playing their regular-season home finale, improve to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blugolds drop to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the conference.
UWL improves to 5-0 at home, recording its first undefeated season at home since going 4-0 in 2006.
The Eagles' Evan Lewandowski and Cole Spieker each set school records on Saturday. Finishing with five touchdown passes, Lewandowski set a single-season school record with 27. He breaks the record of 25 held by Craig Kusick set in 1994. Spieker finished with a single-game school record 17 catches on Saturday, breaking the record of 15 held by Joel Oxton (vs. UW-Platteville on Nov. 12, 2016) and Nick Holcomb (vs. UW-Oshkosh on Oct. 21, 2017).
UW-Eau Claire was forced to punt on the first possession of the game Saturday, including a Rusty Murphy sack on Josiah Johnson on third-down. UWL took a 7-0 lead on its first drive, going 49 yards in seven plays and 3:01 with Lewandowski connecting with Cameron Sorenson on a 24-yard touchdown pass with 10:39 remaining. Ryan Beirne converted the extra-point attempt. After another Blugolds' punt, the Eagles made it 14-0 with Lewandowski hitting Spieker on a 13-yard touchdown pass with 5:36 left in the first quarter. Michael Pakos made the extra-point as UWL went 48 yards in seven plays and 3:08.
UWL took a 21-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter with Lewandowski and Spieker connecting on a 36-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-14. The drive went 68 yards in eight plays and 3:43 with Bryce Wesling making the extra-point.
Lewandowski hit Jake Simuncak with his fourth touchdown pass of the first half with 7:08 left, this one from 21-yards out. Beirne made the extra-point as UWL went 61 yards in six plays and 3:15. The Eagles took a 35-0 halftime advantage with 1:35 remaining as Sorenson caught his second touchdown pass from Lewandowski, this one going for 19-yards. Pakos converted the extra-point. UWL went 67 yards in eight plays and 4:18.
Jalen Clark's four-yard touchdown pass with 7:28 left in the third quarter gave UWL a 42-0 lead with Ezekiel Yaeggi making the extra-point. The Eagles went 66 yards in 10 plays and 3:40.
UW-Eau Claire got on the scoreboard with 2:02 remaining in the third quarter with Johnson hitting Darius Jones with a 45-yard touchdown pass. The Blugolds went 65 yards in four plays and 1:38. Edgar Ficke-Anderson converted the extra-point.
UWL finished with 405 yards of offense, including 70 rushing and 335 passing. The Eagles had 25 first downs while going five-of-11 on third-down and won the time of possession, 33:24 to 26:36. UWL was three-of-three in the red-zone.
Lewandowski finished 29-of-41 for 337 yards with fie touchdowns. Spieker caught 17 passes for 157 yards with two touchdowns while Simuncak had nine receptions for 93 yards and one touchdown. Sorenson totaled 69 yards and two touchdowns on four catches. Clark led the Eagles with 44 yards rushing on seven attempts with a touchdown.
UW-Eau Claire was held to 124 yards, including two rushing and 122 passing. The Blugolds had five yards on 21 plays and no first downs in the first half. UW-Eau Claire's initial first down came on its 10th drive of the game with 3:35 left in the third quarter.
Johnson finished 13-of-24 for the Blugolds with 122 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Jones (67 yards), David Butros (20), Killy Kitzmann (20) and Will Adair (9) each had three catches with Jones recording a touchdown. Conrad Bolz had 21 yards rushing on 12 carries.
The Blugolds were one-of-13 on third-down and one-of-four on fourth-down while finishing with seven first downs.
UWL registered a season-high 16.0 tackles for loss and tied its season-high with 8.0 quarterback sacks. The Eagles also had 8.0 sacks versus UW-Stout on October 12. Joey Bolda led UWL with nine tackles, including seven unassisted. He had a team-high 3.5 tackles for loss. Peter Kissling and Anthony Schumann each had 3.0 tackles for loss.
Vince Coenen led UW-Eau Claire with 11 tackles, all unassisted. He also had 2.0 tackles for loss. Jared Churak had nine tackles for the Blugolds with 2.0 for loss while Sam Burzynski finished with eight tackles, including 2.5 for loss.
UWL returns to action Saturday, November 16 in its regular-season finale at UW-Stevens Point at 1 p.m.