STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point football team put up 24 points in the first quarter and recorded its first shutout in over seven years to close its season with a 44-0 win over UW-River Falls on Senior Day on Saturday at Community Stadium at Goerke Park.
Box Score UW-Stevens Point (5-5, 3-4 WIAC) scored on its first five possessions of the game and the defense did the rest, holding UW-River Falls (4-6, 3-4 WIAC) to 171 yards of total offense. It was the second time in three games that UWSP has held its opponent under 200 yards of offense and the shutout was the Pointers' first since a 3-0 win over UW-Platteville on Oct. 11, 2008.
Kyle Larson (Clayton, WI/Clayton) was 10-for-17 for 269 yards and four touchdowns.
Matt Sosinsky (Princeton, WI/Princeton) caught just three passes but all three went for touchdowns, totaling 120 yards. The three touchdowns were a career-high for Sosinsky and give him 12 on the season, matching his career total entering the season and. The 12 touchdowns are the most by a UWSP receiver in a season since
Jared Jenkins caught a dozen touchdowns in 2009 and are tied for third in program history for a single season.
Leading 10-0, UW-Stevens Point broke the game wide open with touchdowns of over 75 yards on back-to-back plays late in the first quarter. Sosinsky started the explosion with a 76-yard touchdown reception from Larson, who ran for UWSP's first touchdown, with 2:49 remaining in the quarter. After the defense forced a punt, Larson threw a 75-yard touchdown to
Christian Almonte (Menomonee Falls, WI/Menomonee Falls) with 31 seconds left in the quarter.
Larson connected with Sosinsky for a 31-yard touchdown in the second quarter and again for a 13-yard score early in the third quarter. Three field goals by
Jesse Vervelde (Oostburg, WI/Oostburg) accounted for the rest of the scoring, as the senior was good from 41, 26 and 26 yards.
UW-Stevens Point accumulated over 500 yards of offense for the third time this season, finishing with 537 yards. The Pointers ran for 270 yards, their second-highest total of the season, and threw for 267 in the game.
Defensively, UW-Stevens Point tallied a season-high nine sacks.
Dan Brown (Pewaukee, WI/Pewaukee) had a career-high three sacks, while
Aaron Karlen (Edgar, WI/Edgar) and
Adam Wachowiak (Stevens Point, WI/SPASH) each had a pair.
Grant Parsons (Green Bay, WI/Southwest) added his first-career sack and
Tanner Beaman (Phelps, WI/Northland Pines) also had one. The sack yardage helped the Pointers limit the Falcons to 23 yards on 32 rushes.
The Pointers' defense forced three turnovers, as
Jamonte Robinson (Hillside, IL/Proviso West) had an interception and Wachowiak,
Brice Bergner (Shawano, WI/Shawano Community) and
Matt Gaffney (Menasha, WI/Menasha) each recovered fumbles.
DeJuan Wright (St. Petersburg, FL/Keswick Christian) carried the ball 17 times for 109 yards for his fifth-career 100-yard performance. Almonte rushed for 82 yards on just eight attempts, including a 55-yard scamper, giving the sophomore 157 yards in the game.
Michael Diggins had 11 rushes for 58 yards and Matt Woller caught eight passes for 95 yards for the Falcons, who used three quarterbacks in the game. Matt Ekman had a game-high 13 tackles for UWRF.
The game marked the final contest in the UWSP careers of 14 seniors, who went 17-13 in their final three seasons.
Sosinsky finishes his career sixth all-time at UW-Stevens Point with 2,761 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns. VerVelde now holds program records in career extra points (125), field goals made (35) and points by a kicker (229). Karlen concludes his career with 19 sacks, which ranks tied for fourth in program history.
VerVelde's 79 points and 43 made extra points this season both rank second in program history, while his 12 made field goals are third. Karlen's 11 sacks tied the UWSP single-season record, while Brown's nine rank fifth. Sosinsky's 1,144 receiving yards this year are the sixth-most by a UWSP receiver in a single season.
