By Jake Steen, UWEC Sports Information
Eau Claire, Wis. (blugolds.com) – The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Men's Football team (0-3, 0-0 WIAC) ended their non-conference schedule Saturday night with a 56-17 loss to the No. 7-ranked Wheaton College Thunder (Ill.) at Carson Park.
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The Blugolds played well considering the final score, and competed with the Thunder into the second half. Down 21-10 at halftime the Blugolds forced a fumble on the opening kickoff of the third quarter. After recovering the ball at the Wheaton 17-yard line, it took the Blugolds just three plays to score- a one yard touchdown run from starting quarterback JT Denhartog (Fr. – Hopkins, MN) to make it a 21-17 game.
But Wheaton, ranked seventh in Division III coming into tonight's game, closed out the second half with five straight unanswered touchdowns to put it out of reach, and hand Eau Claire their third straight loss to start the season.
"I thought we did a good job on both sides of the ball and even on special teams. But then we started spinning our wheels," said Blugold Head Coach Todd Glaser. "We can't do that when we start league play here."
The Blugolds had their best day offensively so far this season with 283 total yards of offense, 15 first downs and 17 points. Denhartog finished 12-23 passing with 130 yards through the air and 15 yards rushing, including two touchdown runs.
The second Eau Claire touchdown was designed as a run play to running back Toure Wallace (Fr. – Chicago, Ill.). But when he was bottled up behind the line of scrimmage, he improvised by pitching it to Denhartog who was able to make a dash for the end zone and give Eau Claire six points.
"It was awesome. I wasn't expecting the pitch but when he did it was wide open backside," said Denhartog. "Really selfless play. He helped me scored another touchdown too - pushed me in. So that's two touchdowns I owe him."
Wallace finished with 58 yards on 16 carries in his second game as a Blugold. Matthew Knapp (Jr. – Eau Claire, WI) led the way with 60 yards receiving on two catches, one being a 52 yarder. He also made a 16-yard completion to Denhartog as the Blugolds pulled off a flea-flicker on the opening play of the game.
"We started out really good and it showed, gave us a lot of confidence," said Denhartog. "We can play with anyone. This team is really good, defensively and offensively which makes us really excited for conference play."
Linebacker Erik Hulman (Sr. – Milwaukee, WI) led the Blugolds on defense with seven solo tackles and two assists including one tackle for loss. Cornerback Bo Casper (Jr. – Freedom, WI) added five tackles and two assists for the Blugold defense who didn't allow any points in the first quarter. Casper said seeing such tough competition gives them things to work on but has the defense feeling ready for conference play to start.
"We definitely got to focus better," said Casper. "But we're feeling a lot more prepared now. You see games like this where we play three good quarters, we know we can stick with good teams like that, and that's the kind of teams we have in the conference."
The Blugolds are off next week as they head into their bye week before starting WIAC play. They'll be back in action Oct. 3 when they head to UW-Stevens Point for their first road game and conference opener at Goerke Park. Kickoff is set for 2:00 p.m.
"I think the bye week is coming at a good time," said Glaser. "We've got some kids healing up so they should be good by next week, get back to practicing again, get back to fundamentals and clean up some of the things we need to do to be successful."
