There are goals and then there are dreams. When Adrian College backed out of the second year of a two year agreement to play UW-Whitewater, Franklin coach Mike Leonard jumped on the opportunity. "Why not show your college what a national champion looks like?" said Leonard. "If you want to compete with the best, why not play the best?'' Certainly, exposing a program and its supporters to a championship level program with the intent of learning what it takes to compete for a championship is a worthy goal. It is a part of the approach UW-Whitewater used to rise to national prominence.
Coach Leonard allowed himself to dream just a little, too. "If we win this thing, I just might retire" joked Leonard. "That's how big it would be. It would just do wonders for our program, for our recruiting. There are so many positives that would come out of it." When the Grizzlies held UW-W scoreless on their first two drives Saturday afternoon, Leonard's dream seemed alive and well. But as it turns out, the dream of an upset was relatively short lived, but the goal of exposing his program to championship level football was more than accomplished.
UW-W lined up for their third possession in a scoreless game with 5:21 left in the first quarter. Three plays later, UW-W elected to go for a first down on fourth and one from their own 41 yard line. Quarterback Matt Blanchard ran for two yards and a first down. Having moved the chains, the Warhawks moved to the Grizzlies' 25 yard line when Blanchard hit a wide open Steve Morris on the left side for a 25 yard TD pass. As it turns out, this drive was the first of five consecutive touchdown drives in the first half for the Warhawks. Two rushing touchdowns each by Desmin Ward and Levell Coppage propelled UW-Whitewater to a 35-0 halftime lead. The UW-W defense was dominant in the first half as they held Franklin College to 118 yards and 6 first downs. A fumble recovery by Ryan Wenkman and an interception by Ryan Cortez killed two of the Grizzlies first half drives. Both takeaways led to Warhawk touchdowns.
The Warhawks' defense continued their dominant play in the second half. Four second half possessions by the Grizzlies ended with two punts and two Warhawk takeaways. On the first possession of the second half, UW-W took over at their own 39 after a 29 yard kickoff return by Shane Covington. The Warhawks drove to the Grizzlies two on the strength of four Blanchard completions for 35 yards and five Desmin Ward rushes for 24 yards. Blanchard connected with Bernie Tamsett on a two yard TD pass and UW-W led 42-0 with 10:46 remaining in the 3rd quarter. The rest of the way, Lee Brekke replaced Blanchard at quarterback and the Warhawks pulled in the reigns, running on 23 of their final 31 plays, with Eric Kindler providing the final 45-0 margin with a 31 yard field goal.
The Warhawks held a 473-198 edge in total yardage. UW-W had 27 first downs and averaged 5.8 yards on their 82 offensive plays. Franklin College finished with 12 first downs and averaged 3.1 yards per play. Part of the focus of the UW-W coaching staff this week undoubtedly was to limit penalties after being flagged 9 times for 85 yards a week ago. They cut down their penalty total to 5 for 45 yards. Uncharacteristically, the Warhawks did fumble twice, losing one inside Franklin's red zone.
By any measure, Whitewater's venture into Indiana was a successful one. The Warhawks shut out the 21st ranked team in the nation who averaged 45.6 points a game a year ago and scored 49 points last week. The Warhawk running game rushed for 307 yards, paced by Levell Coppage with 119 yards and Desmin Ward with 71 yards. Matt Blanchard completed 13 of 18 passes for 128 yards and 2 TD's, while Lee Brekke chipped in 4 of 7 for 38 yards. And while UW-W's 45-0 whitewashing may have denied the fulfillment of a coach's dream, they certainly did their part in exposing his program's supporters to championship level football.
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