12-6 Book to Upload - Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks

The Warhawks travel to Franklin, Ind., next on Sept. 10 to face Franklin College and will play their home
opener at Perkins Stadium Saturday, Sept. 17, at noon against Campbellsville University.
#1 Warhawks Throttle #21 Grizzlies
9/10/2011
UW-Whitewater, ranked number one in Division III, used five consecutive possessions to score 35 points
in seventeen minutes to roll over #21 Franklin College 45-0 Saturday afternoon at Faught Stadium in
Franklin, Indiana.
The win ups UW-Whitewater’s win streak to 32 consecutive games, longest in any Division of NCAA
football. That string includes 18 straight non-conference wins.
The game started slowly, each team trying to establish identity, the Warhawks methodically running the
ball, Franklin throwing the ball out of a no huddle attack. Neither team put any points up early, but the
groundwork (no pun intended) laid by the offensive line paid off later as Franklin wore down.
Whitewater’s final possession of the first quarter began at 5:21 on their own 32. Six plays later, five of
them Levell Coppage (Oak Park, IL/Oak Park) rushes, senior quarterback Matt Blanchard (Lake Zurich,
IL/Lake Zurich) caught the Franklin defense biting on a play action pass to Steve Morris (Racine/Horlick)
for a 25 yard touchdown with 2:03 left in the quarter.
The Warhawk defense ended Franklin’s next drive prematurely when cornerback Jesse Hamilton
(Racine/Park) forced FC back Craig Reece to fumble, and safety Ryan Wenkman (Wisconsin
Dells/Wisconsin Dells) recovered it at the Franklin 29. UW-W used five straight runs to punch the ball in,
the last two yards supplied by Desmin Ward (Milwaukee/Hamilton) on the first play of the second quarter
to make it 14-0.
Franklin faced a third and ten on their 28 when UW-W linebacker Ryan Cortez (Palatine, IL/Palatine, IL)
picked off a West pass and returned it to the 15. On the next play Coppage went 15 yards to up
Whitewater’s margin to 21-0.
After a Jake Keeser (Fort Atkinson/Fort Atkinson) sack, Shane Covington (Milwaukee/Riverside)’ provided
a 20 yard punt return to set up Whitewater’s next possession on the Franklin side of the field at the 47. It
took just five plays, ending with Coppage’s five yard scoring run, to up the lead to 28-0 with 9:42 left in the
half.
The next score began when Whitewater went for the block of a Franklin punt and junior Jaren Borland
(Fort Atkinson/Fort Atkinson) got a piece of the kick, causing the ball to roll dead at the Franklin 34.
Seven plays later, with 4:44 left in the quarter, Ward powered over for his second touchdown of the day to
increase the lead to 35-0, ending the one quarter blitz that also trapped the Grizzlies last year when the
teams met in the first round of the NCAA playoffs at Perkins Stadium. In that game UW-W used 21 fourth
quarter points on the way to a 52-21 win.
Coppage was already over 100 yards by intermission, with 119 on 18 carries. Blanchard complimented
the run with 9-14 passing for 91 yards. UW-W piled up 269 yards in the half while limiting Franklin to
90