On a cold blustery Saturday morning, UW- La Crosse football team was able to jump out to a quick 14 to 0 lead and was able to overcome an injury to starting UW-L quarterback John Tackett to pull out a 27 to 25 victory over the visiting UW- Eau Claire Bluegolds in front of a crowd of almost 3,000 people.

The Eagles took the early lead with a 10-yard Tackett pass to Samuel Zwieg, UW-L was able to capitalize after a missed 43-yard field goal by UW-EC and drove down the field where eventually Tackett found Joel Oxton on a corner route for a 28-yard touchdown. UW-EC answered with a 15-yard run from Toure Wallace but once again Tackett had the answer as an 80-yard run from Austin Mancosky set up another Tackett to Oxton touchdown to make it a 21-7 Eagle lead.

UW-EC answered with a field goal to make it 21-10, the ensuing Eagle drive Tackett left the game with an apparent shoulder injury, and the Eagle offense stalled the rest of the game. UW-EC tacked on a field goal right before the half to make it a halftime score of 21-13. UW-EC opened up the half with another short field goal, but the ensuing kickoff Mike Santucci returned the kick for an 88-yard touchdown and after the extra point was blocked it was a 27-16 lead for the Eagles.  UW-L defense came up big continually forcing UW-EC to short field goals as UW-EC converted another short field goal to make it 27-19 to start the fourth quarter.

However the Eagle’s offense continued to stall without quarterback Tackett and could not put the game away. UW-EC scored on another touchdown run from Wallace midway through the fourth, but failed on the two point conversion to make the score 27-25. UW-EC had many chances to regain the lead they missed a 43-yard field goal with 2:32 left in the game and failed on a fourth down with 9 seconds remaining to ensure the victory for the Eagles.

The win pushed UW-L’s record to 3-4 and 2-2 in the WIAC they return to action at UW- Stevens Point on Saturday, Oct. 31 at 1 p.m.