La Crosse, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse football team completed its regular season home schedule with a 31-14 victory over UW-Stout Saturday afternoon at Roger Harring Stadium at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex.
The Eagles, 4-0 at home, improve to 6-1 overall and 4-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blue Devils drop to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the conference. It is UWL's 13th straight win over UW-Stout. The Blue Devils last earned a win in the series, 10-0 in 2011.
UW-Stout took the opening kickoff and drove to UWL's 23-yard line, but Garrison Jackman's 40-yard field was missed. UWL went 77 yards in 14 plays and 7:49 on its first possession to take a 7-0 lead as Kyle Haas competed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Jack Janke with 1:06 left in the first quarter. Michael Stack converted the extra point.
The game remained 7-0 until UW-Stout's Adam Moen scored on a one-yard run with 11:03 remaining in the second quarter on fourth-and-goal. The Blue Devils used 10 plays and 75 yards in 5:03 to tie the game at 7-7 on Jackman's extra-point. UWL was forced to punt on the ensuing possession. Ethan Tranel's 52-yard punt was muffed by UW-Stout's Avron Carter at the Blue Devils' nine-yard line and recovered by the Eagles' Sal Balistrieri in the end zone for a touchdown. Stack's extra-point gave UWL a 14-7 lead with 9:06 left in the first half.
The teams traded interceptions later in the quarter with Gavin Goodman intercepting Haas for UW-Stout and Trent Mullen intercepting Moen for UWL. Stack missed a 50-yard field goal with 1:45 left in the first half and the Eagles led, 14-7, at halftime.
A 15-play, 64-yards drive in 7:12 to start the second half gave UWL a 21-7 lead with Nolan Mosier scoring on an eight-yard run with 7:45 left in the third quarter.
UW-Stout cut the lead to 21-14 on its first possession of the second half after Moen scored on a one-yard run with 2:52 remaining in the quarter. The Blue Devils went 75 yards in 10 plays and 4:53.
UWL led 21-14 after the third quarter and extended its lead to 28-14 with 14:08 left in the game on Josh Huber's 12-yard touchdown run on third-and-six. The drive 67 yards in nine plays and 3:40. After forcing a Blue Devils' punt, the Eagles took a 31-14 lead on Stack's 47-yard field goal with 6:46 remaining. UWL used nine plays and 5:33 to go 30 yards.
UW-Stout drove to UWL's eight-yard line, but turned the ball over on downs after a Moen incompletion. The Eagles ran out the final 2:29 of the game.
UWL finished with 359 yards, including 164 rushing and 195 passing. The Eagles totaled 21 first downs and went 11-of-17 on third-down and one-of-one on fourth-down. UWL won the time of possession, 34:37 to 25:23.
Haas went 10-of-18 for 87 yards with one touchdown and one interception while also rushing for 37 yards on eight attempts. Mosier finished five-of-10 for 40 yards while Huber went three-of-three for 68 yards. Both had one rushing touchdown as Mosier totaled 11 yards rushing and Huber a team-high 53. Tyler Bowman caught four passes for 92 yards with Janke finishing with six catches for 38 yards and one touchdown. Marko Rajkovic totaled five receptions for 30 yards.
UW-Stout totaled 265 yards with 90 rushing and 175 passing. The Blue Devils finished five-of-12 on third-down and two-of-three on fourth-down.
Moen finished 19-of-29 for 175 yards with one interception while rushing for 24 yards and two touchdowns. Chase Hughes had a team-high 44 yards rushing on five attempts. Davonte Evans had four catches for a team-high 83 yards while Carter finished with eight receptions for 50 yards.
Ben Ott led UWL with seven tackles while Christian Powell and Nicholas Jorndt each finished with six. Powell had 2.0 quarterback sacks in the game.
Brooks Brewer led the Blue Devils with 12 tackles with Walker Beyerl had eight tackles, including 3.5 for loss.
UWL returns to action Saturday, November 8 at UW-River Falls at 1 p.m.