The Lakeland University football team takes on the top-ranked team in the country when it faces perennial power University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the first round of the NCAA Division III playoffs Saturday afternoon at noon at Perkins Stadium in Whitewater.
The Muskies are making their second straight and fourth-ever appearance in the playoffs. Lakeland is looking for its first-ever playoff win, and will face a UW-Whitewater team that is a six-time Division III champion and this year is 10-0 and ranked number one nationally in the AFCA Division III top 25 coaches poll.
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The Muskies (7-3 overall) qualified for the postseason by jumped on Rockford in the first half and then cruising home for a 52-30 win last week. Lakeland scored on its first seven possessions and raced out to a 50-0 halftime lead as
Michael Whitley (
Jr.-Vidalia, La.) threw four touchdown passes-including three to
Kezlow Smith (
Sr.-Pontiac, Mich.)-and also rushed for another. The Muskies defense also shut down the Regents in the first 30 minutes, holding them to 96 yards and forcing two turnovers, and
Dajuan Darling (
Jr.-Detroit, Mich.)Â finished the game with two interceptions. Lakeland finished in a tie with Aurora for the top spot in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, its third straight year with at least a share of the NACC title, and the Muskies won the conference's automatic berth to the playoffs based on a 55-25 win over Aurora on Nov. 5.
UW-Whitewater completed a perfect regular season record with a 34-16 win on the road at UW-Stout last week. It wasn't easy as the Blue Devils held a 16-10 halftime lead before the Warhawks scored 24 unanswered points in the second half to pull away. Cam Naly rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns, and the UWW defense held Stout to 227 yards of offense, including just 10 completions in 37 pass attempts, and also forced four turnovers.
UW-Whitewater won six national championships in eight years between 2007-14, and since 2005 has reached at least the national semifinals 10 times and the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl championship game nine times.
This is the eighth meeting ever between the schools and UW-Whitewater has won all seven, most recently a 70-7 win in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. Lakeland has a 5-21 record all time against schools from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, last defeating UW-Platteville in 1998.
Live video of Saturday's game will be available atÂ
http://reslife.uww.edu/stream/. Live audio will be available from WFAW AM 940 in Fort Atkinson and online atÂ
http://www.940wfaw.com/. Live statistics will also be available atÂ
http://sidearmstats.com/uww/football.
For the rest of this week's game notes please click
here.
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