By Adam Johnson
D3sports.com
In what will be a rare matchup of two conference teams playing twice in the same regular season, the UW-Whitewater Warhawks prevailed in their Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener with a 16-14 win over UW-Eau Claire at Carson Park on Saturday.
The Warhawks (2-0) and the Blugolds (1-1) will play again this season on Nov. 1. The second meeting between the two teams will not count toward the WIAC standings. The Warhawks struggled to find an opponent for their Nov. 1 opening but were able to fill it with UW-Eau Claire. In order to keep a level playing field with the other WIAC teams, it was decided that the first matchup between the two schools would count towards conference standings. This way, knowledge gained from this game on each opponent could not be used later in the season in a game that affected the standings.
Jeff Schebler kicked three field goals, none bigger than the 47-yarder he hit with 7:16 left in the game to give UW-Whitewater a nine-point lead. It came after the Warhawks lost 13 yards on three downs, pushing the field goal back to the edge of Schebler's range, with a wet ball and field to contend with.
"I don't know what happened," Schebler said afterward. "My holder held it, as soon as I kicked it I said oh no. My holder was like, oh it's in, it's in. We were talking the whole way."
Battle of the Burgs
Augsburg knocked off a ranked Wartburg for the second consecutive year, rallying from a 17-10 deficit to force overtime and eventually beat the Knights 30-24 in the second extra period. While Royce Winford (eight catches, two TDs) and Muneer Al-Hameed (14 catches, 95 yards and a touchdown) were the big attention-getters, it was Jason Potts scoring the game-winner on just his third carry of the game. His 23-yard score doubled his yardage for the night.
Three-headed monster
The Carleton trio of Shane Henfling, Chris Gardner and Matt Frank continue to rewrite the program's record book.
Henfling's 374 passing yards is tied for the sixth-highest single-game total in program history. He now has 26 career touchdown passes, moving him up to eighth all-time. This was his second five-touchdown game.
Gardner is now fourth in school history and is only six yards shy of reaching the 2,000-yard milestone. He has 112 receptions, moving him up to seventh on the program's career list. He is also third in the record book with 21 touchdown receptions, while Frank jumps to fourth with 17 career scores and fifth with 1,880 receiving yards.
Loggers get their kicks
Puget Sound freshman Wyatt Evenson's field goal in the first quarter of Saturday's win at Pomona-Pitzer was the Loggers first field goal since the second quarter of a 48-7 win over Menlo on Nov. 4, 2006, ending a streak of 42 quarters without one. The Loggers went the entire 2007 season without attempting a field goal but picked up three in the first game of 2008, thanks to the foot of Evenson.
Rewriting the record books
Gustavus Adolphus senior Chad Arlt made nine catches for 101 yards in Saturday's 27-19 victory over Coe. Arlt's 40-yard catch in the first quarter moved him past Ryan Hoag into first place in career receiving yards at Gustavus. Arlt's current career receiving yards total now sits at 2,307 yards. Hoag's previous mark was 2,232 yards. Hoag was drafted in 2003 as Mr. Irrelevant -- the last pick in the NFL draft -- by the Oakland Raiders.
Woo, who?
Willamette senior Merben Woo had a breakout game on Saturday totaling 113 yards rushing and two touchdowns helping the Bearcats push to 2-0 on the season. Woo, who totaled just 280 yards rushing in all of 2007, already has 171 rushing yards this year with an impressive 9.5 yards per carry average. His 60-yard scamper in the fourth quarter helped seal a 31-17 victory over Cal Lutheran.
News, notes and things you might have missed
• St. Olaf earned its first shutout since 2005 with a 17-0 win over visiting Pacific Lutheran on Saturday at Manitou Field.
• UW-La Crosse drops to 0-2 for the first time since the 2000 season.
• Unable to find a rhythm in their running game, the Dubuque Spartans were held to minus-30 yards rushing by the Redlands defense.
• Macalester's Tony Jennison picked up career win number one with a 17-7 victory over Crown moving his career head coaching record to 1-1.
• Whitworth held a 269-6 advantage in rushing yards over La Verne in a 22-13 victory.
Quote Machine
"Today was one of those days that we learned a lot about ourselves," said Simpson head coach Jim Glogowski said. "There were things that we did that we can't simulate during practice and no matter what the stats say, we learned about winning football games."
