The UW-Eau Claire football team went into the halftime locker room with a 20-14 lead on the road against No. 6 UW-Platteville, giving the Pioneer faithful quite a scare at the possibility of an upset on their home turf.

The Pioneers were up by just one entering the fourth quarter, but that’s when their quarterback, senior John Kelly, took over to cap off a remarkable day throwing the ball.

Kelly got to the Blugold secondary for seven touchdown passes and 442 yards as the Pioneers scored 21 fourth quarter points to seal a 49-27 victory over Eau Claire.

“He’s just real poised in the pocket,” Blugold head coach Todd Glaser said of Kelly. “A couple of those balls he threw, we had somebody right in the receivers face.”

But matching Kelly nearly stride-for-stride, at least in the first half, was Eau Claire quarterback Mark Munger, who finished the day 11-for-15 passing with three touchdowns of his own, all in the first half, to open up the passing game for Eau Claire and take some pressure off running back Joel Sweeney.

Munger said the Blugolds tried to throw the ball more vertically down the field, which opened up the shorter passing game they have had success with all year. He also said the team-effort in the passing game helped bolster his stats and made him successful.

“I was just seeing the field well, and my o-line was doing a great job of blocking,” Munger said. “I had a good time, and my receivers were just making plays.”

Senior Alex Plaster, freshman Drew Davis and junior Cody Gerver all had touchdown receptions in the first half for the Blugolds, giving Glaser the opening spark he was looking for.

“They came out of that locker room and played real well the first two quarters,” Glaser said. “I thought Mark did a good job of putting the ball where it needed to put, and our receivers made great plays, too.”

Glaser said all three receivers made spectacular plays on their scoring catches. Gerver, who opened the Blugold scoring late in the first quarter, had a defender in his face when he came down with the 15-yard reception. He said Plaster’s touchdown, which came in the second quarter, was meant to be a 5-yard gain before Plaster turned it into a 63-yard touchdown and Davis had a one-handed catch just before halftime to give Eau Claire the lead.

After the Pioneers scored right away to regain the lead in the third quarter, sophomore Clint Larsen made history in the third quarter by returning a kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, the longest kickoff return in Blugold history.

“There was a huge hole, basically just ran right up it, and I had blockers all the way down the field,” Larsen said.

Larsen, who was later named the WIAC Special Teams Player of the Week as well as grabbing a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week, said while it was cool to quiet down the loud Platteville crowd, seeing the reaction on the Eau Claire sideline was pretty special, especially drawing a congratulations from the usually subdued Glaser.

“The most exciting thing to me was the expression on your teammates’ and coaches’ faces,” Larsen said. “Coach Glaser kind of smiled at me and gave me a nice little arm around the back, which is kind of out of character for him. That was the biggest thing for me was to see how it helped out the team.”

Kelly and Platteville scored 21 fourth quarter points to seal the deal late against the Blugolds, who only trailed 28-27 headed into the last period.

Even though it was a loss, Larsen said the Blugolds can take a lot from Saturday’s game against one of the top teams in the country.

“It boosts up our confidence,” Larsen said. “Number six team in the nation, and we were right there with them until the last quarter. We just need to finish games, and we’ll be right there in the pack.”

Eau Claire will return home for Homecoming Saturday to try and win its first game of the year against the UW-Stevens Point Pointers at Carson Park.

“Excited is probably an understatement,” Munger said of the team’s feeling toward Saturday. “Especially, coming back after a decently played game, we’re just ready to get home and show everyone what we can actually do.”

Homecoming kickoff is set for 1 p.m.