Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Whitewater's Win-Streak Ends in Sobering Defeat


Homecoming fans left solemnly from Perkin’s Stadium Saturday following a 17-16 loss to University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Point’s offense brought in the win with a touchdown followed by a two-point conversion.
Whitewater scored a touchdown on a 33-yard pass from Jeff Donovan to wide receiver Aaron Rusch with 13:02 left in the first quarter. Rusch made UW-Whitewater player of the week. Stevens Point answered several minutes later with a 20-yard field goal by kicker Ryan Graboski bringing the score to 3-6 Whitewater. With 4:02 left in the first quarter Graboski evened the score with a 43-yard field goal.
Paul Wick, also UW-W player of the week, picked off a pass by Jared Beckwith and returned it to Stevens Point’s 49-yard line. Freshman running back Levell Coppage scored on a 35-yard run and was followed by a one-point conversion by UW-W kicker Jeff Schebler with 7:10 left in the second quarter taking Whitewater to 6-13. This would be the last score of the half.
Graboski once again shined at 12:58 in the fourth quarter with a 22-yard field goal on five plays and 38-yards to bring Stevens Point within four points of Whitewater. With less than five minutes remaining on the clock, Schebler scored on a 19-yard field goal attempt taking Point’s tantalizingly close hope further from them.
Fate would prove to be on Point’s side when, with less than fifteen seconds on the clock, quarterback Jared Beckwith passed to receiver Jared Jenkins for a touchdown. UW-SP brought in another two points with a diving catch by Jenkins on a conversion wining the game at 17-16.
The loss to Stevens Point ended UW-W’s Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference 25 game win-streak and their WIAC home field win-streak of 27 games.
Whitewater’s last two homecoming losses have come at the hands of Stevens Point; the last loss being in 2004 with a 15-12 score.
Whitewater will host UW-Eau Claire Saturday, Nov. 1 at 12 p.m. in Perkins Stadium. UW-W is 6-1 and 4-1 in the WIAC and will end their home field schedule against UW-Stout the following week.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Local College Students Impart Love of Baseball to Youth

I wanted to let you know something pretty cool that happened after class on Thursday. My Public Opinion professor mentioned that he felt baseball represented everything that is good and pure in America (I agree wholeheartedly). Now, I am always in the mood to play catch so leaving class with that discussion in mind made me really want to play catch when I got home. None of my roomates were home but our friend Joe had arrived at our place about 30 seconds before I did so he and I decided to go play catch.
When we were outside playing, one of the neighbor kids named Roman ( a 7-8-9 year old boy) came by and was watching us. After a little while he decided he wanted to play with us. So there we were playing catch with one of the little neighbor children. After a short while, four of the neighbor girls (aged between 4-7) came by to watch. They too wanted to play. Joe and I stood in the street gently tossing balls to the kids as they threw them to us. Boy did those kids get a kick out of that! Honestly my readers, it's amazing that my professor would talk to us about the importance of baseball for children in class only to be immediately followed by my buddy and I imparting the love of baseball to those kids. In some small way, both of us felt that we made a difference.
I love baseball very much. It means so much to me on many different levels.
May the gods of baseball bless you,
R. Church Donahue