The UW Oshkosh football team returned to action over the weekend beating the nationally ranked No. 6 UW-Platteville Pioneers. UWO, ranked No. 16 in the previous week’s D3football.com top 25 poll, took down the undefeated No. 6 Pioneers 24-17 in front of 2,366 fans at J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium on Saturday during homecoming weekend.
Although the Titans won the toss, they elected to defer to the second half and the Pioneers started the game on offense. UWP looked good on their first drive, going all the way down to the nine-yard line after converting a third-and-23. The UWO defense did not fully break on the drive as the Titans held the Pioneers to a field goal.
On the Titans first possession of the game, they put together a nice drive that went all the way down to the UWP 10-yard line. On second-and-10, running back Justice Lovelace caught a short pass that looked like he was going all the way to the endzone for a touchdown, only for it to be punched out of his hands right at the goal line and recovered by UWP.
The Titans defense did not break as they held the Pioneer offense to a punt. The UWO offense was able to get back to the Pioneer side of the field, although the Pioneers defense held them out of the end zone again. The Titans still were able to come away with points from a Nolan Mobley field goal to make it 3-3.
The second quarter was sloppy for the Titans. Despite starting with an interception from Titan defensive back Jose Munoz Dominguez, UWO turned it right back to the Pioneers thanks to another fumble. This time, the Titans defense was not able to hold as the Pioneers used the good field position to score the first touchdown of the game and go up 10-3. On their next drive, the Titans turned it over again thanks to an interception. Neither team scored for the rest of the quarter as they went into half with the Pioneers leading 10-3.
UWO started the second half with on offense. As the Titans were putting together a good drive, quarterback Cole Warren went down with an injury. Transfer quarterback Brooks Blunt had to come in and operate the offense.
The offense did not miss a beat. Blount found Londyn Little open for a short pass which Little took for 11 yards to convert for a first down. Later that drive on third and 12, Little was able to muscle his way for 14 yards and another first down. The Titans were able to score off of a jet sweep, where Little took it to the house to tie it at 10-10.
Blount said that when it’s his time to be called action, he just goes out and plays. “I have always carried that mentality when I have played that when my number is called to go out and make plays,” he said. After the Titans held UWP to another short drive, they were able to take the lead. On a second-and-three at the UWO 32-yard line, Blount found Little again for a short completion that Little took 68 yards to the house for a touchdown to give the Titans the lead at 17-10.
On the Titans ensuing drive, Trae Tetzlaff broke the team’s reception record and then caught a touchdown pass immediately after to put the Titans up 24-10. “It was so cool to catch (the record breaking catch) from my high school quarterback,” he said.
Although the Titans were up 24-10 heading into the fourth, it did not end easy for UWO. The Titans missed several opportunities to make the game changing turnover on defense and the Pioneers were able to score another touchdown to trim the Titan lead to 24-17.
With just under 3:50 seconds to go in the game, UWP took over deep in Titan territory thanks to a bad Titan punt that only went 4-yards. The Titans bent but did not break.
On fourth and one at the UWO 15-yard line, linebacker Bryce Hinn broke up a short Platteville pass and the Titans were able to drain the clock and win the game 24-17. With the win, UWO improves their record 4-2 and is tied for the lead in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings.
Tetzlaff said the team knows that they have to only focus on the next game.
“We know that anyone can beat anyone in this conference, so we just have to stick to ourselves and it’ll show.” Tetzlaff said.
UWO will hit the road for the second time this season as they will play at the UW-Stevens Point Pointers. It will be the first NCAA division three opponent that the Titans will play this year that is unranked in the top 25 poll. The Titans game vs the Pointers will kick off at 1 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 26 at Community Stadium at Goerke Park.
