The UW-La Crosse football team stepped up this weekend and led their team to a 21-7 victory over UW-Stout last Saturday afternoon at the Roger Harring Stadium on the Veterans Memorial Fields Sports Complex.  After this decisive victory, The Eagles improve to an overall 2-4 while also gaining their first victory in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), thus bringing their conference total up to 1-2.  Overall, this has led to UW-L winning the last three games in a row versus UW-Stout.
During the first quarter, the score remained tied at 0-0 with both teams missing field goal attempts.  With 8:21 left on the clock, UW-Stout’s Taylor Pahl was wide right of his 43-yard field goal attempt while UW-L’s Joshua Fischer had his own 44-yard field goal deflected by the Stout’s Iyen Ogbomoh with 2:59 left on the clock.
Pahl would once again miss another field goal that was to the right of the post on a 30-yard attempt with 8:39 left in the second quarter.  After a few exchanged punts from both teams, UW-L would eventually take over at their own 29-yard line with 4:45 remaining in the half.  The Eagles would then spend the next several minutes marching 74 yards down the field with 12 plays, eventually leading to a 19-yard touchdown pass from Trent Cummings to Scott Shewmon.  This would leave 35 seconds left in the half with Fischer’s extra point sailing through the post, bringing the lead up to 7-0.
The crowd was abuzz at the second half, with over 3,300 fans in the stands pounding their feet hoping to keep the momentum going.  On the first possession of the third quarter, UW-Stout’s Garrett Peterson was intercepted by UW-L’s Zach Wall and driving the crowd into a roar of approval.  However on the next big play, the Blue Devils’ James Van Thiel intercepted Cummings and set the ball back to the 50 yard line.  Stout drove the ball down the UW-L’s own 15-yard line, where on a 4th and seven attempt, UW-Stout would be intercepted by Jacob Flegner in the end zone and return it to The Eagles’ 26-yard line.  Eventually, Cummings was sacked and Stout recovered the ball on the Eagles’ 13-yard line.
UW-Stout would soon go on to move 13 yards down the field with Adolfo Pacheco scoring on a one yard run with 4:14 left in the third quarter.  Pahl’s extra kick would also find its mark tying the game at 7-7.
UW-L soon took the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter with Ben Hertrampf scoring on a single yard run brining the lead up to 13-7.  Fischer missed on the extra point.  This began to drive The Eagles’ leading them to march 65 yards down the field on the next drive with Cummings and Hertrampf leading the way.
The Blue Devils would be forced to punt on their next drive, bringing the ball to The Eagles own two-yard line.  UW-L would then answer the challenge by moving 98 yards down on nine plays with a 53-yard touchdown run by Hertrampf.  The Eagles then attempted the two-point conversion with Cummings landing the pass to Tony Favre thus pounding the last nail in UW-Stout’s coffin with 5:34 remaining in the game.
Stout attempted to retaliate with a drive down to the Eagles’ 28-yard line; however, this only assisted in draining the clock by leading 2:44 for UW-L to stall the remaining time away.  UW-L walked away with their first home victory of the season and left a satisfying buzz in the stands, with both parents and students alike yearning for more.