By Kevin Cunningham

En route to UW-Whitewater’s 65-0 victory over the Waldorf College Warriors on Saturday, the defense recorded six turnovers and held its third straight opponent to less than 200 yards of total offense.

The 65-point margin of victory marked the largest in school history.

A week ago, the Warriors’ offense showed its cards as to how they wanted to come into Perkins Stadium and play the Warhawks.

“They ran 102 plays against Presentation,” head coach Lance Leipold said. “So, that’s what they were going to try to do, but try to keep it simple. I think a big part also was that we got the wind in the first quarter. We sat there and decided, ‘Should we take the ball because of how well we started last week?’ And thank goodness we didn’t.”

The first quarter proved to be the ’Hawks’ best friend for the second game in a row, as the No. 12-ranked team in the country, according to D3football.com’s latest top-25 poll, rung up 27 points on the Warriors.

The second field goal that senior kicker Eric Kindler made in the first quarter marked a career long 50 yards. The 2011 and 2012 All-WIAC Place Kicker award winner may have had the wind at his back, but the kick had room to spare.

“With the wind, it probably would’ve been good for a 55-yarder, easily,” Kindler said. “I actually didn’t even hit it that well, but a 50’s a 50.”

In the last two games combined, the ’Hawks have outscored their opponents 51-0 in the first quarter and 89-7 by the end of the first half. The team also held its opposition to less than 10 first downs for the second consecutive game, holding the Warriors to eight.

In the first quarter, the Warriors attempted eight rushes, mustering a total of -3 yards. Warriors quarterback Sam Fisk also completed three of 11 passes, totaling 22 yards, while being sacked once and intercepted once.

The interception was made by junior defensive back Brady Grayvold. The interception gave Grayvold his third of the season, and he has intercepted a pass in each game so far this year.

The two other interceptions the ’Hawks made on the day were by senior linebacker Ryan Cortez and senior defensive back Andrew Keister. Keister’s interception was returned 88 yards for a touchdown, which marked the second longest interception return by a Warhawk in school history.

“I don’t even remember where I was,” Keister said. “I cut back, looked to the right and saw a bunch of black jerseys, then let them throw some good blocks and got into the end zone.”

The longest interception return for a touchdown in school history is a 94-yarder by Daryl Schliem against UW-Oshkosh in 1982. The ’Hawks also forced and recovered three fumbles to go along with their three interceptions on the day.

Cortez, senior linebacker Joe Paulus and junior defensive back Zach Nellis each had one fumble recovery. The ’Hawks only had one sack in the game, made by senior defensive lineman Loussaint Minett, who also forced a fumble.

Offensively the ’Hawks out-gained the Warriors, 421-189. Junior quarterback Matt Behrendt completed 12-of-22 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown.

Five different running backs scored touchdowns for the ’Hawks, each having one. The leading rusher for the team was sophomore running back Jordan Ratliffe, who amassed 73 yards on 10 carries.
Behrendt said the offense as a whole played well, especially playing with an up-tempo mentality.

“We wanted to start fast,” Behrendt said. “We’ll do whatever’s working. If we have to play fast, then we will. We’ve gained a whole lot of confidence [from the past two games], and we hope to bring that into conference play.”

Senior linebacker Cole Klotz, who led the ’Hawks with nine tackles in the game talked about how the defense as a whole looked on Saturday.

“Defensively, we’re a very momentum-driven force,” Klotz said. “When you have an offense you can rely on and everything is going your way, everything meshes on defense. They did exactly what we were game-planning for, and we just executed well.”

The ’Hawks’ next game is against UW- La Crosse at 1 p.m. Oct. 5 in La Crosse. The Eagles enter Saturday’s game with a 0-3 record but will have had 13 days to prepare after coming off of a bye week.