The UW-La Crosse Eagles fell in its home opener Saturday evening, Sept. 20, against the number two ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor Crusaders.
The Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex was packed with fans and the tailgate zone was filled with supporters of both teams enjoying beverages, brats and beanbags.
The game opened with a low scoring affair with both teams trading punts back and forth. The scoreless drought ended with three minutes remaining in the first quarter, as Mary Hardin-Baylor tacked on a field goal from 40 yards out. UW-L’s defense was proving to be stout in keeping the Crusaders out of the end zone. This, however, did not last as Mary Hardin-Baylor punched the ball into the end zone on a four yard run.
UW-L was quick to respond as they put up their first points on the board courtesy of a field goal by sophomore kicker Joshua Fischer. The highlight of that drive was a 42 yard pass from freshman John Tackett to senior wide receiver Chris Stackhouse. With the score now being 10-3 in favor of Mary Hardin-Baylor, hopes were high for UW-L as they looked to score the upset. The dreams were dashed as Mary Hardin-Baylor scored on a receiving touchdown with a minute left until halftime.
The weather, which had held up so far, unloaded on the field and a rain delay was called. The delay lasted almost an hour, as fans sought shelter inside of Mitchell Hall and students returned to their dormitories.
Coach Reed Hoskins credited the Sports Performance and Athletic Training staff for their work on keeping the team cool and loose during the down time. Hoskins said, “The delay allowed us to spend more time with our players to talk through adjustments. This really was a great benefit for our young quarterback and gave him more confidence when returning to the field in the second half.”
After the rain stopped and play continued, the Crusaders unloaded with quick strikes scores shortly after they tacked on another field goal to hold a somewhat commanding lead of 27-3. UW-L’s offense playing with desperation and urgency found the end zone for the first time on the first play of the fourth quarter. Tackett worked with senior receiver Tony Bilderback on a 16 yard scoring play. UW-L’s defense then held the Crusaders to a punt and Tackett, once again, threw his second touchdown pass of the day to senior receiver Tony Favre.
This would be the closest the comeback was going to get as Mary Hardin-Baylor had back to back scoring drives by keeping the ball on the ground. Freshman running back Austin Mancosky’s garbage time score at the end wrapped up the scoring and Mary Hardin-Baylor knelt the ball to end the game. The loss moved the Eagles to 1-2 in the season.
Looking back at this game, UW-L will have to do a better job of converting on 3rd downs as they went 3-15 on their attempts. If the Eagles can clean up their minor miscues, they might be able to steal some thunder in the WIAC conference and dealing with such stiff competition early in the season will only serve to toughen up UW-L.
Hoskins said, “If we can rally behind the positives and correct the mistakes this should be a great experience for us.”
UW-L returns to action Saturday, Oct. 4, against top ranked UW-Whitewater to start the WIAC season.