12-6 Book to Upload - UW-Whitewater Athletics

came into the game averaging 6.6 yards per rush as a team, was limited to 67 yards on 21
carries (3.2/rush) in the first half.
Salisbury junior wide receiver Juma Richards set up the Sea Gulls first score with a 64 yard end around
that put the ball at the Whitewater 10. Three plays later junior quarterback Dan Griffin rushed for nine
yards to put Salisbury on the scoreboard, trailing 17-7 with 8:27 left in the third.
After an exchange of punts, Whitewater started on its 11. After two plays gained nine yards, Coppage
broke up the middle and out-raced Salisbury defenders for an 80 yard score, the longest run from
scrimmage in his career, topping a 75 yard run in the 2010 Stagg Bowl against Mount Union. His
previous long this season was 60 yards September 17 against Campbellsville. Whitewater led 24-7 with
3:46 in the third quarter.
Warhawk Junior defensive back Chris Pendergast (Hartland/Arrowhead) ended the Sea Gulls' next drive
with an interception, his first of the year, at the UW-W 12.
The UW-W defense came up with another turnover the next time SU had the ball, with junior DB Ryan
Wenkman (Wisconsin Dells/Wisconsin Dells) forcing a Griffin fumble that sophomore defensive end
Loussaint Minett (Whitewater/Whitewater) recovered at the Whitewater 29.
Whitewater's offense followed that up with a ten play drive that included back to back 20+ yard rushes by
Blanchard and Coppage to set up Kindler's 37 yard field goal with 8:43 left in the game, putting
Whitewater ahead 27-7.
Salisbury's next drive lasted two plays, the second a pick of a Griffin pass by junior defensive back Noah
Timm (Two Rivers/Two Rivers), his team-leading seventh, which gave UW-W the ball at the Sea Gulls'
16. Three Coppage runs, the last for six yards, put UW-W in front 34-7 at the 6:19 mark.
The Sea Gulls mounted their best drive of the day as the clock wore down. They covered 80 yards in ten
plays, 50 of them coming on four Tyler Curley rushes, the last of them a six yard score to make the final
margin 34-14.
Salisbury came into the game leading Division III in scoring at 47.5 points per game, and with the top
rushing average at 364.8 per game. They finished Saturday with 244 yards on 45 attempts, 5.2 per
carry. Sixty of those yards came on the last drive. Senior running back Randal Smedley came in
averaging 91.0 per game and 6.8 per carry, and he wound up with 27 yards on 9 carries (3.0). The Sea
Gulls were also averaging 23.8 yards per reception, on just eight attempts per game, but Griffin
completed just 2-7 for 49 yards -- and his first two interceptions of the season. Junior DB Chris Everett
topped Salisbury with nine tackles.
Coppage carried the ball 31 times for 213 yards, the ninth time in his career he's gone over 200 yards,
including four times in postseason play, twice in 2010 and twice this year. Blanchard finished 11-17 for
134 yards, and Huber led both teams with five receptions for 67 yards. Arnold topped Warhawk
defenders with eight tackles.
The win increased Whitewater's college football (all divisions) leading win streak to 43 games. That is the
fifth longest in NCAA football history, four short of Oklahoma's 47 game streak under Bud Wilkinson
(1953-57). UW-W is 30-6 in NCAA in ten postseason runs, with 2011 the seventh in a row that the
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