The UW Oshkosh football team will have its 100th Homecoming game this Saturday when the Titans will face off against the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds. In honor of the 100th edition of the UWO Homecoming game, we will look back at our top three games in UWO Homecoming history.
- No. 5 Titans defeat No. 7 Platteville in top ten battle in 2016.
The 2016 UWO football team had one of the best seasons in program history. Led by head coach Pat Cerroni and quarterback Brett Kasper, UWO made its first and only appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championship that season. A big part of that team’s success was because of the win on Homecoming that year.
The Titans, who were ranked No. 5 at the time, hosted the No. 7 UW-Platteville Pioneers. Oshkosh, just two weeks removed from a heartbreaking last-second loss at No. 2 UW-Whitewater, had to grind out a 22-13 win over the Pioneers. Both teams went into the half tied 6-6, with both only scoring on two field goals, respectively. In the third quarter, both teams only got the ball once as both UWO and UWP’s drives were lengthy. However, the difference was that the Titans’ drive that took five minutes and 23 seconds ended with a field goal to make it 9-6.
Platteville’s only drive of the third lasted for five minutes and 20 seconds. The Pioneers had to settle for a field goal on their long possession but missed it to keep the score at 9-6 Titans. The fourth quarter was where both teams finally cracked the endzone. On UWO’s first drive of the quarter, two big passes from Kasper to wide receivers Dom Todarello and Chad Redmer for a combined 51 yards set the Titans up at the Pioneers’ 1-yard line.
UWO punched it in with a run from Dylan Hecker for the Titans first touchdown of the day. The score was 15-6 Titans after UWO missed the extra point. After UWP scored a touchdown on its ensuing possession, UWO responded with another touchdown run from Hecker to make it 22-13. The Titans used the gap to their advantage and cruised to the win. The win for the Titans let UWO begin the NCAA tournament at home, which helped propel the Titans in their run to the National Championship.
- Oshkosh defeats Whitewater to win the conference title in 1968.
The UW Oshkosh football team, then known as Wisconsin State College Oshkosh, won its first conference championship in 33 years after taking down Wisconsin State College Whitewater 21-14 in the Homecoming game in 1968 at Jackson Field.
It would be the first of three Wisconsin State University Conference championships for legendary Titans head coach Russ Young, who also led Oshkosh to conference titles in 1972 and 1976.
Over 10,000 people attended the game at Jackson Field, where Oshkosh played until Titan Stadium opened in 1970, to see UWO take down Whitewater for the first time in 11 years.
The Titans drew first blood in a cold and windy game early November, but by halftime, Whitewater had tied the contest 7-7.
In the third quarter, a short punt into the wind gave the Titans the ball inside Whitewater’s half of the field. On the first play from scrimmage, halfback Carl Alberti broke off a 29-yard run to set up a 3-yard rushing touchdown from Brain Burbey to put Oshkosh up 14-7.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Titans backed up inside their own half on third down, Alberti exploded for a 73-yard rushing touchdown to put UWO up 14 points.
Just three plays later, Whitewater cut the lead back to seven points after Dennis Zander connected on a 33-yard passing touchdown to Steve Hanaman.
With less than five minutes to play, the Warhawks looked poised to score once again, but Zander was picked off by Oshkosh defensive back Al Wilcox. Whitewater got one more chance to tie the game late in the fourth quarter, but Wilcox intercepted Zander once again to seal the game for the Titans.
Alberti finished the game with a career-high 125 rushing yards and a touchdown while also catching four passes for 48 yards. Running back Ron Cardo, a UWO Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, finished the game with 68 rushing yards, giving him 998 rushing yards on the season and breaking UWO’s single-season rushing record.
The Titans would have to wait to celebrate their conference title until the next week when they completed the fourth quarter of a game against Wisconsin State College Platteville that was postponed in October due to a power failure at Jackson Field during the contest.
- Titans shock undefeated Platteville in 2024.
Last year’s iteration of the Titans was a rollercoaster of ups and downs, unseating the undefeated Pioneers was the pinnacle of the season. Coming in at 4-1 and the Pioneers at 5-0, it was a matchup of WIAC behemoths. 2,366 fans packed the stands for a Top 20 matchup with the Titans set at No. 16 and the Pioneers No. 6, and they were not let down. Trae Tetzlaff also claimed the top spot for career receptions in program history. Tetzlaff hauled in 12 receptions with the record-breaking one happening on the last play of the third quarter, when he brought in a quick 6-yard pass going out of bounds. But that was just a side story to this one.
Freshman Cole Warren continued his rookie campaign, throwing for 190 yards in 23 attempts, completing 19 of them, but was unable to find the endzone, the story for the Titans in the first half. The half was a defensive struggle for both teams, with both teams trading field goals in the first quarter and Platteville taking advantage of a fumble by putting a touchdown on the board. The Titans turned it over three times, adding on two interceptions from Warren.
At the end of the half, it was 10-3 Platteville, and Warren had the Titans rolling out of the half until he was hit hard on a scramble and had to leave the game early. That meant that fifth-year transfer quarterback Brooks Blount had to step in for the first time in the season.
The Titans never looked back, later in the drive scoring on a reverse play to Londyn Little. And this quarter would quickly be known as the Londyn Little quarter, after a short Platteville drive, Londyn Little took a bubble screen 68 yards to the house to take a 17-10 lead.
Platteville couldn’t do anything in the third quarter, netting 23 total yards. But it wasn’t just the third quarter for the Titans, and on the first play of the fourth, Blount connected with his old teammate at Waukesha West for a 54-yard touchdown. The Pioneers would bring it within a touchdown after a score with just over four minutes to go and had a drive in the Titans redzone, but could not convert on 4th-and-1 from the Titans 15 thanks to a Bryce Hinn pass breakup, and would go on to win and end the Pioneers undefeated run.
Oshkosh would go on to win the next two games with Blount at the helm, almost guaranteeing a playoff spot with one win in the last two against UW-Stout and River Falls, but they could not win either, falling short of a bid in the postseason tournament.
