Quarterback Kobe Berghammer threw a school-record eight touchdowns and set the program record for the most touchdown passes in a career as the UW Oshkosh football team cruised to a 66-28 victory over UW-Stevens Point on Homecoming Oct. 28 at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium.
Berghammer’s eight touchdown passes against UWSP put him at 95 for his career, surpassing former UWO quarterback Brett Kasper’s mark of 89 career touchdown passes set back in 2017.
Berghammer broke the record late in the first quarter when he tossed a 32-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jon Mathieu as Kasper, the honorary team captain of the contest, looked on from the stands.
Berghammer said it was really cool to be able to set the record in front of Kasper.
“I looked up to him a ton throughout my whole career here because that’s the guy I’m chasing for all the records,” Berghammer said. “He’s arguably the best quarterback to ever be in the WIAC and that’s who I want to be chasing. I got lucky enough to play here long enough to eventually break the record so its been an extreme honor to break the record. It was awesome to have him here and talk to him before the game and it was awesome for the team because those records don’t happen without the whole team coming together. I’m just doing my job and everyone has been doing theirs.”
Berghammer’s 95 career passing touchdowns puts him second place all time in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference behind former UWSP quarterback Kirk Baumgartner who has 122.
Berghammer said his eight record-breaking touchdown passes were a testament to the strong receiver group on the team.
“At times I was missing throws, I missed a couple of motions in the first half, but the wide receivers were there to help cover my mistakes,” Berghammer said. “There’s things that I need to be even better at because then as a team we would’ve played even better and would have been firing on all cylinders. I think really getting into the film room and really focusing on that stuff and just getting better on our standard will really help us.”
With 37 touchdown passes on the year, Berghammer sits in second place for the most touchdown passes this season among all divisions of NCAA football. Only Zach Zebrowski of the University of Central Missouri in Division II has more touchdown passes this season with 41.
UWO head coach Peter Jennings said that this win, and every other win this season, is really important no matter who the opponent is.
“We talk a lot about how winning college football games is very difficult so you need to celebrate it, you need to win it and you need to enjoy it,” Jennings said. “In front of a huge crowd and a great day, it was a great victory and it really sets us up to make some moves in these next couple of weeks.
Jennings said all the teams in the WIAC are well coached and can beat any other team on any given day.
“The teams in the WIAC are talented and have explosive players and even when a team is a little bit down on their luck and maybe not playing the highest level of football, any team can beat anybody in the league,” he said. “You have to prepare like you’re playing the Dallas Cowboys. And that’s something we talk a lot about. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, we’re going to prepare to our standard and I think our guys did that all week and the results showed today.”
Berghammer finished the game against the Pointers going 30-41 for 357 passing yards and was Oshkosh’s leading rusher, gaining 65 yards on the ground on seven carries. Running back Justice Lovelace ran for 40 yards and a touchdown on six attempts while Tristian Taylor carried the ball two times for 38 yards.
UWO wide receiver Trae Tetzlaff, who leads the WIAC in receptions, caught five passes for a game-high 97 yards and a touchdown. Mathieu finished the contest with five receptions for 73 yards while tight end Clayton Schwalbe had three touchdown receptions and caught five balls for 55 yards.
Kicker Nolan Mobley went 9-for-9 on extra points and added a field goal in the game to put him over 100 career points for the Titans.
Mobley said he didn’t want to focus too much on reaching 100 points during the leadup to the game.
“Coming after a tough loss, we were ultimately one field goal away from sending that game to overtime,” Mobley said. “That really hurt and I just had to keep my head down and work the entire week. I know my teammates have my back and at the end of the day I’m just doing my job.”
UWO jumped out to a fast start in the 120th matchup between the Titans and Pointers, scoring 21 unanswered points in the first quarter after Berghammer threw touchdown passes to Schwalbe (5 yards), Tetzlaff (2 yards) and Mathieu (32 yards).
The Pointers got on the board early in the second quarter when Jake Leair threw a 15-yard passing touchdown to Matt Getgen. The Titans added another touchdown to the board when Berghammer found wideout Noah Alford, who spun past a defender and dove for the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown reception.
Oshkosh and Stevens Point traded passing touchdowns to end the half and the Titans led 35-14 heading into the locker room.
The Titans scored on their first drive of the third quarter after Berghammer threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Fynaardt, but UWSP responded with a touchdown eight plays later after Leair completed a short pass to Brycen Cashin, who ran 15-yards for the score.—
Nolan Mobley added a 27-yard field goal and UWO scored once again after a blocked punt set up a 3-yard touchdown pass from Berghammer to Schwalbe. Leair threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Getgen with less than a minute left in the quarter to cut the Oshkosh lead to 52-28.
The Titans added two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter, a rushing touchdown from Lovelace and a receiving touchdown from Schwalbe, as UWO cruised to a 38-point victory for the fourth straight win over the Pointers.
UWO will hit the road to take on UW-Platteville at Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium Nov. 4, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m.
