The Titans’ football team was unable to overcome an array of mistakes on both sides of the ball Halloween night, suffering a loss to UW-Eau Claire 44-35 on J.J. Keller Field at Titan Stadium.
After jumping out to a 14-0 lead early in the first half, the Titans allowed the Blugolds to rally back and capture the win.
Eau Claire’s comeback was due in large part to the costly mishaps of the Titans.
Ahead 14-7, quarterback Tyler Wegner fumbled the ball away on the Titans’ own six-yard line, which set up an easy tying score for the Blugolds.
While the fumble was the turning point in the game, three blocked kicks (two field goals, one punt), nine penalties, five sacks and an interception didn’t help the Titans, either.
“We made a lot of mistakes, and you just can’t overcome that many mistakes to win a football game,” head coach Pat Cerroni said.
Their fates were sealed when quarterback Nate Wara was stopped short of the end zone on a fourth and goal attempt from three yards out and only 42 seconds remaining in the game.
Wara said that it was frustrating to see big gains and promising drives taken away by things within their control.
“As soon as we get things going, we’ll have little things kick us in the butt and pull us back a step or two,” Wara said. “So it’s hard to keep rolling and rolling if we keep knocking ourselves down like that.”
Despite the loss and throwing an untimely interception in the third quarter, Wara statistically had his best game of the season and even broke a school record in the process.
Wara threw for 358 yards, three touchdowns, and completed a record-setting 21 consecutive passes at one point while adding another 64 yards on the ground.
Wara has seen a substantial increase in playing time in the past two games over Tyler Wegner, whose only action during the game resulted in a fumble.
Coach Cerroni said that both are important to the team and Wara’s increase in playing time was purely situational.
“We need both our quarterbacks,” Cerroni said, “but [Wara] was scoring touchdowns so we stuck with him.”
Juston Wara was on the receiving end of two touchdowns thrown by his younger brother and totaled eight catches for 98 yards.
Jamie Braasch grabbed five passes for 101 yards, while Paul Coburn snatched a 10-yard touchdown pass from Nate Wara.
On the ground, Jeremy Roach scored twice while rushing 12 times for 49 yards.
Overall, the Titans posted their second-highest amount of total offense this season with 527 yards.
On defense, the Titans allowed 375 yards of total offense and six touchdowns to the Blugolds.
Cerroni said the high score was not overly reflective of the play on the defense.
“Take away a few of those big plays -- the fake punt and some great catches-- and we weren’t that bad defensively,” he said.
Linebacker James Taraboi came into the game averaging 14 tackles per game, which led all of NCAA Division III football, and continued his high production with 15 tackles and one for a loss.
Taraboi said that although the offense sometimes failed to put up points after a defensive stop, blame rested on both sides of the ball.
“I can’t get mad; we’ve got to stay as a team,” Taraboi said. “On top of that, we make our mistakes on defense where [the offense] makes up for us, so it goes both ways.”
Junior linebacker Cameron Heilman also had a good game with 10 total tackles and a forced fumble.
Cerroni said the team has the skills to be great, but is still learning and developing.
“We have a talented bunch of guys, but are not quite there yet,” Cerroni said. “We won’t be there until we grow up as a team and learn from our mistakes.”
The team will need to learn fast as they go on the road next week to try and knock off the second- ranked team in the nation, UW-Whitewater.
Oshkosh’s miscues lead to shootout loss vs. Blugolds
Published: Thursday, November 5, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 00:11
 "Photo: Photo by Josh O'Bright")
Photo by Josh O'Bright
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