A crowd of 10,622 was on hand Saturday at Family Fest to witness the Warhawks rout the Pioneers 34-14, in their first conference game against UW-Platteville.
Next week the team travels to UW-River Falls with kickoff at 1 p.m.
It was a close game in the first half, where the ’Hawks went into halftime with a 14-14 tie. It wasn’t until the second half when they put the game out of reach.
In the ’Hawks first possession of the game, senior Matt Blanchard threw a pass just out of reach of his receiver, and into the arms of the Pioneer defense in the back of the end zone.
The Pioneers would capitalize three minutes later with a 26-yard fade in the corner of the end zone, which was set up by a 47-yard completion.
The ’Hawks responded with a 10-play drive that was capped with a two-yard touchdown run by Levell Coppage with 23 seconds left in the first quarter.
Following a Pioneer punt, the ’Hawks went 92 yards in five minutes and scored on a 17-yard, back-shoulder reception by Tyler Huber, who finished the day with 82 yards and a touchdown off seven catches.
The methodical drive left the Pioneers with 59 seconds before halftime. It took them 49 seconds to go 58 yards for a touchdown. Platteville scored off of a 35-yard flea-flicker thrown by receiver Chad Roscoe.
“I have to take my hat off to Platteville, I mean they came in banged up and gave us everything we could handle for a while,” Head Coach Lance Leipold said.
That play would be the final bright spot for the Pioneers that afternoon. They would have five possessions in the second half and the only one that did not end in a failed fourth-down conversion ended with an interception by junior Ryan Wenkman.
The ’Hawks took the lead with a pair of Eric Kindler field goals, from 47 and 44 yards. Junior Desmin Ward would then run over Platteville’s defense on a 12-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds left in the third quarter to put the ’Hawks up by 13.
Whitewater’s final score came off an electric 41-yard touchdown run from Coppage with nine and a half minutes to play. At first it looked as though he would be tackled for a loss, but then Coppage followed Blanchard up the right side, turned the corner and was gone. He would finish the game with 168 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.
Leipold was pleased with the way his team responded in the second half but said there is room for improvement.
“We had a bust on that double pass and had some penalties that shouldn’t have happened,” Leipold said. “We talked about it as a team and agreed that going into River Falls we need to have a better week of practice, but there were plenty of positives today.”
As per tradition, the ’Hawks won the George Chryst Pick-Axe trophy for the seventh straight time. Seniors Coppage and Greg Arnold were named the team’s offensive and defensive MVPs for the game.
