The UW-Eau Claire Football team showed little fight Saturday against 18th ranked UW-Oshkosh, losing 50-13 in the team’s second conference game of the season, dropping their WIAC
record to 1-1.
Oshkosh racked up an astounding 442 yards rushing and didn’t turn the ball over on way to their rout of the Blugolds.
Eau Claire Head Coach Todd Glaser said his team underperformed from the get go.
“We just plain didn’t play well from snape one,” Glaser said. “It was frustrating from the coaches all the way down to the players. There’s a reason why they’re ranked.”
“We just plain didn’t play well from snape one,” Glaser said. “It was frustrating from the coaches all the way down to the players. There’s a reason why they’re ranked.”
Eau Claire was shut out in the first half by a stingy Oshkosh defense. Their inability to move the ball created a large hole the Blugolds never managed to climb out of.
Senior quarterback Austin Neu said Oshkosh deserved their national ranking and proved it against his offense.
“You’ve got to give lots of credit to them,” Neu said. “They tackled well and covered our receivers downfield all day. We had a different game plan, but saw a lot of different looks from them than we prepared for in practice.”
At least some of the blame falls on the Blugolds themselves. Neu said the team lacked intensity from the very beginning, and never seemed to get going.
“We didn’t really come out to play,” Neu said. “We lacked the energy that we practiced with all week.”
Eau Claire started the second half with their best drive of the day, culminating in a touchdown pass from Neu to sophomore Cody Gerver from 24 yards out. However, with the turn of possession came another Oshkosh score, stymieing the Blugold comeback effort.
Senior offensive lineman Jake Holterman said the game left a sour taste in the mouth of the entire team.
“It got away from us out there,” Holterman said. “They beat us in every aspect of the game. All that’s left now is to take a look at the film and see what we did and didn’t do well and practice hard all week to get ready for La Crosse.”
For seniors like Holterman and Neu, a big part of that preparation is playing the leader and making sure the younger players stay focused and driven. A big loss can make it feel like the sky is falling, but Holterman said that definitely isn’t the case.
“One game doesn’t make a season,” Holterman said. “We need to stay positive with the guys. We’re 1-1 in the conference with five to go. We need to take it one game at a time and make sure we’re better prepared next time.”
Neu said success in their five remaining games is going to come down to how the team responds to the Oshkosh loss.
“We have to flush this game and move on,” Neu said. “We are confident and believe in ourselves. We just need to get back to playing football more loose and have some fun out there again, and get back to basics.”
Moving forward, Glaser plans to emphasize just that as the team prepares for their final five games, all of which are in conference.
“Football is a pretty easy game when you break it down,” Glaser said. “It comes down to fundamentals and that’s what we will focus on. We need to keep working to improve every day and every week as we go along.”
Eau Claire’s will look to rebound Saturday when they host UW-La Crosse in the Hall of Fame Game.
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