Lakeland University will take its best shot at one of the nation's premier teams in the NCAA Division III playoffs again when it travels to face undefeated UW-Oshkosh Saturday afternoon at noon at Titan Stadium in Oshkosh.
The Muskies (8-2 overall) will make their third consecutive trip to the playoffs and fifth overall, and will be looking for their first-ever win in the postseason. UW-Oshkosh (9-0 overall) also is making its third straight trip and was the national runner-up last year, losing a narrow 10-7 decision to Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas) in the title game.
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Lakeland rolled to a 57-31 win over Rockford to finish an undefeated run in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference this year. Freshman quarterback Johnathan Hagerty threw six touchdown passes in his first collegiate start, leading Lakeland to a 37-6 halftime lead. Fellow freshman Larry Rivers rushed for 155 yards and Dez Eddie added 129 yards rushing to give the Muskies two 100-yard rushers in the game.
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UW-Oshkosh also closed out an undefeated season in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and a perfect regular season record overall with a 31-0 shutout of UW-Stout on the road. Brett Kasper completed 18 of 24 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns, Mitch Gerhartz rushed for 96 yards and a score, and the UW-Oshkosh defense held the Blue Devils to 207 yards of offense and forced three turnovers.
This will be the fifth meeting ever between Lakeland and UW-Oshkosh. The Titans hold a 3-1 lead in the series, though the Muskies' one win came by forfeit from their first meeting in 2002, a game won by the Titans 33-14 before they had to forfeit later due to the use of an ineligible player. All four meetings came between 2002-07, and UW-Oshkosh won the last meeting 62-7 back on Sept. 15, 2007. Easily the most memorable game in that span was a Titans' 26-23, four-overtime victory on Sept. 20, 2003 in Oshkosh, a game that was tied 14-14 at the end of regulation and what is the longest game in Muskies history.
UW-Oshkosh will have live video and live statistics available at
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/uwosh/. WRST 90.3 FM in Oshkosh also will have an audio broadcast of the game, available over the air or online at
http://www.uwosh.edu/wrst/.
For the rest of this week's game notes please click
here
NCAA Division III playoff bracket
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