The UW-La Crosse football team snapped UW Oshkosh’s four-game winning streak and dropped the Titans to 3-1 in conference in a 31-3 defeat last Saturday.

UWL got off to a fast start against UWO, scoring 21 unanswered points to open the game.
The Titans’ defense struggled to stop UW-La Crosse’s offense as sophomore quarterback Evan Lewandowski threw for 352 yards.

Head coach Pat Cerroni didn’t sugarcoat things when talking about the defeat on Saturday.

“We got our butts kicked pretty good,” Cerroni said, “We’ve got to move on and try to get better.”

UWO’s offense faltered to make an impact by scoring only three points, and gaining a mere 201 total yards on offense, compared to UWL’s 475 yards.

The Titan’s failure to move the ball effectively was compounded by their inability to convert on third down, only converting 3-15.

Despite the defeat, UWO had some silver linings to their performance on Saturday.

Sophomore Jaydon Haag remains perfect on the season completing six of six field goals, scoring the Titans’ only points against UWL.

Junior Nick Noethe recorded 10 overall tackles including a sack that resulted in a 13-yard loss.

This standout performance by Noethe was the third consecutive week that he led the Titan’s in tackles.

Noethe credited his success so far this season to good coaching and great overall team work.

“I mean it’s nothing I really do, it’s really just having a great game plan,” Noethe said, “Our coaches have a great game plan for us, and everyone around me does their jobs, it makes opportunities for us to make plays.”

The UWO defense was effective at forcing turnovers notching three interceptions and one fumble recovery.

Sophomore Kollyn Beyer also had a standout performance on Saturday, recording two interceptions and seven total tackles.

Despite this, Beyer remains focused on overall team improvement going into this Saturday.

“We’ve just got to keep focused on the basics; our coaches are going to put us in a position to make plays,” Beyer said. “We gave up a lot of points, more than we should have, so we’ve got to clean some things up.

Freshman quarterback Kobe Berghammer led the Titans in passing with 95 yards, and senior Riley Kallas led the Titans with 60 yards respectively.

Junior Chris Hess also was a team leader on offense on Saturday, leading UWO in rushing with 51 yards.
The Titans have a tough challenge ahead of them as they will travel to Platteville on Saturday to play the Pioneers who are 6-1 overall and 3-1 in conference.

UWO sits at 3-1 in conference, good enough for fourth place in the WIAC.

“We’ve just got to keep fighting,” Cerroni said. “This isn’t going to get any easier; we have a lot of work to do.”