In front of a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) record 18,951 fans, the UW Oshkosh football team fell to UW-Whitewater 17-3 Friday night at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater.

After a series of three and outs for both teams, the Warhawks found the endzone halfway through the first quarter when Preston Strasburg pushed his way into the end zone for a two-yard rushing touchdown.

Early in the second quarter, UWW struck again when kicker Jeffery Isotalo-McGuire connected on a 27-yard field goal to increase the Whitewater advantage to 10-0. With just under eight minutes to go in the half, UWO drove down the field but was stopped on fourth down at the Warhawk 22-yard line.

A total of three turnovers were committed by both teams before halftime, with UWO quarterback Kobe Berghammer and UWW quarterback Evan Lewandowski each throwing interceptions along with a muffed punt by Oshkosh’s Londyn Little.

UWW, ranked third in the nation by d3football.com, added another touchdown after halftime when Strasburg ran for his second touchdown of the night, this time a 9-yard score to increase the lead to 17 points.

Early in the fourth quarter, Berghammer led the Titans down the field, and kicker Nolan Mobley made a 39-yard field goal to put UWO on the scoreboard down 17-3.

Whitewater gave Oshkosh multiple opportunities to put more points on the board down the stretch, but UWO committed too many mistakes as the game finished 17-3.

Berghammer finished the game 18-for-38 with 193 yards passing, no touchdowns and one interception. He also finished as the leading rusher for the Titans, running for 53 yards, while running back D.J. Stewart added 21 yards on the ground. Trae Tetzlaff finished as the leading receiver for UWO, catching five passes for 84 yards.

Stewart, who transferred to UWO from Northern Michigan University and North Dakota State, said the record crowd, the fourth largest in NCAA Division III history, produced an electric atmosphere.

“It was really fun, it brought me back to my years playing games at Division I NDST,” He said.

On the defensive side of the ball, Oshkosh’s Carson Raddatz had a game-high 11 tackles, and Jared Saad recorded UWO’s only interception of the night.

For UWW, Lewandowski went 11-for-21 for 156 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. Whitewater dominated the running game with Jaylon Edmonson rushing for 107 yards, Tamir Thomas rushing for 31 yards and Strasburg finishing with 29 yards and two touchdowns.

Stewart said looking back at the film of the game, there wasn’t much to separate the two teams.

“One team just happened to find the end zone more than the other,” he said. “It was hard to pinpoint much of a difference.”

With the loss, UWO fell to No. 24 in the recent d3football.com Top 25 poll and dropped to sixth place in the WIAC standings.

“As an offense we are continuing to focus on the little things and working to be as efficient as possible in practice,” Stewart said.

The Titans (3-3, 1-2 WIAC) will be back home next week when they play UW-Stout (4-2, 2-1 WIAC) for homecoming at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium with kickoff scheduled for 1:35 p.m. Saturday.