OSHKOSH, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point football team held a 10-7 lead after three quarters but No. 5 UW-Oshkosh scored a pair of touchdowns early in the fourth quarter to defeat the Pointers 21-10 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's (WIAC) oldest rivalry on Saturday afternoon at J.J. Keller Field.
Box Score After UW-Stevens Point (3-3, 1-2 WIAC) led 10-7 entering the final 15 minutes, UW-Oshkosh (5-1, 3-0 WIAC) scored on a 20-yard end around by Zach Kasuboski on the first play of the final quarter. After a three-and-out by the Pointers, the Titans went up by two scores on a 74-yard pass from Jayden Essman to Sam Mentkowski, who got behind the UWSP secondary.
Trailing 21-10 with 12:55 remaining, UW-Stevens Point put together a 13-play, 52-yard drive that got as far as the UW-Oshkosh 20-yard line but the Titans' defense stopped the Pointers on fourth and six. UW-Oshkosh then ran more than four minutes off the clock to thwart any chance of a late comeback.
The game was the 114th all-time meeting between UW-Stevens Point and UW-Oshkosh and was televised locally on the CW23. The Pointers now lead the all-time series 59-47-8.
After a scoreless first half, UW-Stevens Point put the game's first points on the board 2:11 into the third quarter on a trick play 36-yard pass from
Matt Sosinsky (Princeton, WI/Princeton) to
Jared Pankow (Mosinee, WI/D.C. Everest). It was the first pass attempt of Sosinsky's career.
UW-Oshkosh then capitalized on a short field with a two-yard touchdown run by Dylan Hecker to tie the game at 7-7 with 8:05 to go in the third. The Titans had to go just 14 yards after a fumbled punt.
The Pointers came right back with a 10-play, 51-yard drive, capped by a 31-yard field goal by
Jesse Vervelde (Oostburg, WI/Oostburg), to go up 10-7 late in the third quarter. However, the Titans totaled 172 of their 308 yards in the game on their two fourth-quarter scoring drives to seal the win.
UW-Stevens Point recorded 319 yards of total offense, led by
DeJuan Wright (St. Petersburg, FL/Keswick Christian), who ran 26 times for 124 yards. The 124 yards are the second-highest total of Wright's career and are the most the Titans have allowed to any individual this season.
Pankow caught a game-high five passes for a career-high 90 yards, including the 36-yard score from Sosinsky. The Pointers were 7-for-16 on third down in the game and controlled the ball for 33:41, but were just 1-of-4 in the red zone and 0-for-3 on fourth down.
In the first half, UW-Stevens Point was deep in UW-Oshkosh territory on three occasions but a missed field goal, a fourth-and-one stop by the Titans and a fumble in the red zone kept the game scoreless.
Blake Lehman (Edgar, WI/Edgar) and
Mike Longmeyer (Manitowoc, WI/Lincoln) each had first-half interceptions for the Pointers' defense.
Dan Brown (Pewaukee, WI/Pewaukee) added two sacks and a forced fumble in the game.
Essman was 8-for-13 passing for 132 yards and threw two touchdowns and two interceptions. Mentkowski's lone catch was the 74-yard touchdown, while Hecker ran 27 times for 148 yards and a touchdown.
UW-Stevens Point returns home to face No. 6 UW-Whitewater (5-1, 2-1 WIAC) on Saturday, Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. at Community Stadium at Goerke Park. The game is the third in a row for the Pointers against top-15 teams.
