The UW-La Crosse Eagles were able to secure their first WIAC win of the season against fellow cellar dweller UW-Stout Saturday afternoon, Oct. 10, at Veterans Memorial Field.  

UW-L was debuting a new quarterback after the departure of senior Trent Cummings due to health reasons and was looking forward to getting back into playoff contention.  Illinois State freshman transfer Drew David drew excitement from the crowd as he led the team down the field on his first drive as an Eagle.  His debut was ended abruptly on an errant pass on 4th down in which David limped off the field after the pass.

The UW-L defense was able to contain the Blue Devils and force a change of possession, which brought out backup quarterback John Tackett.  Tackett has seen action for UW-L before as he took snaps in their previous games and also made some appearances as a true freshman last season.  Tackett made his impact felt in the second quarter as he engineered a touchdown drive that was capped off on a two yard scoring run by Tyler Jenkins.

Tackett had his chance to run the two minute drill as UW-L received the ball on their half of the field with just under a minute remaining to go before half and he came out slinging.  The sophomore quarterback threw for 41 yards on the drive and hit sophomore receiver Noah Bargender for the two yard score just before halftime.

UW-Stout turned to a ground and pound style that they didn’t have in the first half.  It worked with success as they were able to punch the ball into the end zone and cut UW-L’s advantage to one score.  On UW-Stout’s next possession, senior John Becker came up with a huge fumble recovery in Stout territory which led to a next play touchdown pass from Tackett to Joel Oxton.

UW-L was driving early in the fourth quarter and looking to put UW-Stout away when a Matt Van Druten field goal was blocked and returned 80+ yards to the house by the Blue Devils to once again cut into the UW-L lead.

Responding with the poise of a veteran, Tackett led UW-L down the field on the next possession and threw his third touchdown pass of the day to Samuel Zwieg.  UW-Stout would once again answer quickly as they would punch the ball into the end zone again to make it a one score game.

UW-L would recover the onside kick, convert third-downs, which has troubled them on the season, and enter victory formation to secure the victory.

Ryan Weber was once again a force on defense as his name was called seemingly after every play with pass breakups and tackles.  Junior Running back Tyler Jenkins broke the century mark, the first time a UW-L running back has done so in 2015.

The win put UW-L at 2-3 overall and 1-1 in WIAC conference play.  The very difficult schedule the Eagles have faced all season doesn’t ease up as the team heads to UW-Whitewater this Friday evening.