BELTON – No. 10 Wisconsin-Whitewater believed they needed to be very physical to defeat No. 1 Mary Hardin-Baylor on Saturday afternoon.

The Warhawks were the physically dominant team at Crusader Stadium as they upset the defending national champions 26-7 in the NCAA Division III national quarterfinals.

UWW advances to the national semifinals for the second consecutive season where they will meet No. 8 St. John’s at a site and time to be determined on Sunday afternoon.

“We came in here confident in what we had to do, and we had a great week of practice,” UWW safety Nate Tranel said. “This is a huge accomplishment for us.”

“Very disappointing loss,” UMHB head coach Pete Fredenburg said. “You have to get some opportunities and you have to take advantage of them. They played hard and they played well, and we didn’t play our best game.”

OWNING THE FIELD

The Warhawks dominated the time of possession from the start of the game as their first scoring drive lasted 16 plays, covered 79 yards and took 10:46 off the clock.

“We felt it was vital. You look at the weapons they have offensively, we felt like controlling the clock was going to be huge,” UWW head coach Kevin Bullis said. “We felt like if we could control the football that we would be able to move the ball on the ground.”

UWW certainly controlled the clock as they finished with an incredible 25:30 advantage in time of possession for the game.

“We felt it was vital. You look at the weapons they have offensively, we felt like controlling the clock was going to be huge,” Bullis said. “That first quarter I was giddy like a little kid. I knew at that point that we just had to minimize their offensive opportunities.”

“We came out with that mentality right away. We knew that right out of the gate that we had to be the more physical team,” UWW running back Jarrod Ware said.

“We knew that was going to be their game plan to keep their offense on the field and keep our offense off,” UMHB senior linebacker Tevin Jones said. “That’s exactly what they did.”

“We couldn’t get the defense off the field and couldn’t get our offense on track and that was the difference in the ballgame,” Fredenburg said.

AMAZING RUN

The loss on Saturday afternoon ends an incredible run of success for the UMHB program.

The Cru entered with a 42-game home winning streak with their last home loss occurring on Nov. 29, 2014.

UMHB also had a three-year run of consecutive trips to the Stagg Bowl end with this loss. The Cru have won two of the last three national titles including last season.

“I have so much pride in this program and it’s just been an incredible experience for me and our seniors,” Fredenburg said. “This is a devastating loss to all of us but when you think back to the successes these guys have had – it’s pretty unbelievable.”

“It’s been a blessing to come here,” UMHB senior quarterback Jase Hammack said. “Transferring here has been the best thing that’s happened to me. We have great coaches and great teammates and hopefully we laid a good foundation for the younger guys.”

“It’s been a blessing these past four years and I wouldn’t rather have done it with another group of men,” Jones said. “I’ve learned so much. I’ve grown so much. It’s been a special time for me, and this will forever be in my heart.”

LEARNING LESSONS

UWW improved to 6-1 all-time against UMHB with their only loss being in last year’s national semifinals. The Warhawks used that loss as an opportunity to learn and improve.

“That game last year was a great moment for our program in the sense of learning,” Bullis said. “I’m proud of this group of young men and this staff – they take adverse moments and grab from it what they can.

“It’s not so much the loss last year, it’s the lessons that were learned from it. “We learned that we had to play the game more physical up front.

“That Sunday when I got home, the first thing I looked at was who was kicking who off of the line of scrimmage. Last year’s game was an adverse moment for our team, but they took great growth from it and I think that’s been a huge push for us this season.”

Fredenburg explained that his team will also learn and improve after this defeat.

“We’ll take away a good lesson,” Fredenburg said. “We’ve always learned so much from the hard times. We’re always so happy to win, but I remember what was the catalyst to this last big surge was the loss at Linfield (Ore.) and we felt like we fell apart.

“I don’t think we fell apart; I think we had guys that were playing really hard – they just ran out of gas. That is a very physical football team. We always take pride in being real physical – I don’t know if we were.”

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