STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point football team looks to build off last week's strong defensive effort in a 31-3 win over UW-La Crosse with a matchup against UW-Stout and its potent offense on Saturday in Menomonie.

THE BASICS
Who: UW-Stevens Point (4-4, 2-3 WIAC) at UW-Stout (2-6, 1-4 WIAC)
When: Saturday, Nov. 7 – 1 p.m.
Where: Williams Stadium – Menomonie, Wis.

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LAST TIME OUT
The UW-Stevens Point defense shut down UW-La Crosse, holding the Eagles to 17 rushing yards on 38 rushes and 143 total yards in a 31-3 victory on Saturday at Community Stadium at Goerke Park. Aaron Karlen (Edgar, WI/Edgar) led the defense with 12 tackles, 7.5 for a loss and four sacks.

Offensively, the Pointers scored a pair of first-quarter touchdowns and used a balanced attack to score at least 27 points for the seventh time in eight games this season. Of UW-Stevens Point's 340 yards of offense, 179 came through the air and 161 came on the ground.

ABOUT UW-STEVENS POINT | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

HISTORIC DEFENSIVE EFFORT
In the win over UW-La Crosse, the Pointers' defense recorded eight sacks, the team's most since in 173 games going back to Nov. 14, 1998 when UWSP had 8.5 sacks against Southwest State University.
It was the fifth time since the 2008 season that UW-Stevens Point has held a WIAC opponent under 200 yards of offense. The 143 yards allowed are the fewest the Pointers have yielded to a conference foe in 47 games since they held UW-La Crosse to 120 yards on Nov. 15, 2008.

KARLEN'S CAREER DAY
Karlen's totals of 12 tackles, 7.5 tackles for a loss and four sacks were all career-best numbers for the senior defensive end. His four sacks are the most by any WIAC player in a game this season.

The senior now leads the WIAC in sacks (9.0), tackles for a loss (14.5) and forced fumbles (3) this season and he ranks 14th in the conference in tackles (49). Karlen's nine sacks are a big reason why the Pointers rank in a tie for 20th in the country with 26 sacks.

Karlen's nine sacks are a career-high after he logged 8.5 sacks last season and rank fourth in the UWSP record book. Karlen needs one more sack to move into third and two more to tie for the program record. His 18.5 career sacks rank fifth in program history and he will move into fourth with one more solo sack
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NEW FACES AT QUARTERBACK
Sophomore Ryan Swigart (Winnebago, IL/Winnebago) and freshman Cooper Kerner (Eagle River, WI/Northland Pines) split time under center for UW-Stevens Point last week. Both Swigart and Kerner were playing in their second game of the season. Swigart played in one game as a freshman in 2014.

Both young quarterbacks threw the second touchdowns of their careers in the game. Kerner finished 7-for-10 for 162 yards, including a 66-yard touchdown to Matt Sosinsky (Princeton, WI/Princeton), while Swigart found Jared Pankow (Mosinee, WI/D.C. Everest) for a two-yard score.

AMONG THE BEST
Sosinsky recorded his fifth game with at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown this season by hauling in seven passes for 148 yards and a touchdown against UW-La Crosse. He now has 11 such games in his career.

Sosinsky's 951 receiving yards rank 12th in the country this season and are 234 more than any other WIAC receiver. With 49 more receiving yards, the senior will become WIAC's 12th 1,000-yard receiving since 2009.

Sosinsky is also looking to become the first player to lead the WIAC in receiving yards in back-to-back seasons since UWSP's Jared Jenkins, currently an assistant on the Pointers' coaching staff, did so in 2009 and 2010. Sosinsky's average of 118.9 yards per game is the highest by a WIAC player since Jenkins' averaged 121.0 yards a game in 2009. UW-Stevens Point has had a receiver lead the WIAC in receiving yards per game in four of the last six seasons.

With 2,568 career receiving yards, Sosinsky needs 143 yards in the final two games to move into sixth place in the UWSP record book. He needs 157 yards to move into sixth in single-season program history and could conceivably finish as high as second in that category with two games remaining.

RECORD WATCH
Senior kicker Jesse Vervelde (Oostburg, WI/Oostburg) needs 11 points in the final two games to record the third-highest scoring season by a kicker in program history. He currently has 58 points this season and, at his current pace, is on track to record the second-highest mark in program records. Vervelde, who is already UWSP's all-time leading scorer among kickers, needs three field goals to tie Ryan Graboski's program record of 34 career made field goals.

ABOUT UW-STOUT | HOME | ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
UW-Stout enters this week's game with a 2-6 overall record, including a 1-4 mark in WIAC play. The Blue Devils have lost their last two conference games and are coming off a 43-10 loss at No. 16 UW-Platteville on Saturday. The Pioneers opened up a 29-0 halftime lead and limited the Blue Devils to season-low 258 yards of offense.

In the loss, UW-Stout's senior quarterback Hank Kujak was held to a season-low 138 yards and did not throw a touchdown for the first time this season. Kujak leads the WIAC in total offense (298.1 ypg) and is second in passing yards per game (272.6) and has four 300-yard passing performances through eight weeks.

Kujak's favorite target, senior Brian Alvarez, leads the Blue Devils in receptions (32), receiving yards (551) and receiving touchdowns (8) and is fifth in the WIAC with an average of 78.7 yards a game.

Prior to the loss to the Pioneers, UW-Stout had scored a combined 93 points in its last two games, a 54-48 loss to UW-River Falls and a 45-12 victory at UW-Eau Claire. In their eight games, the Blue Devils have scored over 45 points three times and have been held to 21 points or less on four occasions.

THE COACHES
Tom Journell is in his fourth season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and has an 18-20 career record at UWSP. His teams have steadily improved from 2-8 in 2012 to 5-5 in 2013 and 7-3 last season. In 2014, he led the Pointers to a 5-0 start that saw the team ranked No. 13 in the country, the team's highest ranking since early 2009. Prior to becoming the Pointers' head coach, Journell was the team's defensive coordinator for four seasons, helping UWSP to a 19-9 record. He was the head coach at Elmhurst from 2004-07 and compiled a record of 22-18 over the four seasons. Journell also spent 15 seasons at UW-River Falls as the Falcons' defensive coordinator and assistant head coach.

UW-Stout is led by sixth-year head coach Clayt Birmingham who took over as the Blue Devils' head coach in 2010 after being the team's defensive coordinator for three seasons. As the head coach, Birmingham has amassed a 22-36 record and has coached 43 All-WIAC selections. In his playing days, Birmingham was a four-year starter and two-time All-WIAC defensive back at UW-Stevens Point. His previous coaching stops include five seasons as defensive coordinator at Division II Emporia State and two seasons on the defensive staff at Division I Western Michigan.

SERIES NOTES
UW-Stevens Point and UW-Stout first met in 1913 and the Pointers hold a 50-18-2 advantage in the all-time series. The teams have split the last four meetings with the Pointers picking up wins in the last two years.

Seven of the last nine meetings have been decided by seven points or less but the Pointers have won six of those games. Last season, UW-Stevens Point closed its season with a 31-24 win over UW-Stout on a two-yard touchdown run by DeJuan Wright (St. Petersburg, FL/Keswick Christian) with 53 seconds remaining.

The Pointers have won five of the last six meetings in Menomonie.