The Saint Xavier Cougars football team came up just short against the Wisconsin Whitewater Warhawks in a tightly contested game. While some could see this potential upset as a moral victory it is clear that SXU should have won this game.
While beating Wisconsin Whitewater would have been a clear upset, as they are a highly ranked NCAA Division III team, Saint Xavier should have come up with the win.
SXU outgained the Warhawks by more than 2 yards per play, and by more than 150 yards in total. They even had 172 more passing yards than the Warhawks. Out gaining a team like this will usually lead to a win, if not a blowout, but the Cougars ended up losing this game by eight points. How?
The main causes for the loss were inefficiency on 3rd and 4th down. The Cougars were 3 for 15 on third down, only converting on a putrid 20% of third downs. Now, contrast this to Wisconsin Whitewater converting 41% of third down, and the reason for the loss start to get much more clear.
Things didn’t get better on 4th down either, while the cougars did convert half of their 4th down conversion, it is the 4th down field goal attempts that I want to highlight. Kicker,Mike Iturbe, had a rough game only going 2 for 6 on field-goal attempts. If all these field goals are made then the entire complexion of the game is changed, and the Cougars likely win.
Another reason for the loss is the lack of rushing attempts. Saint Xavier only ran the ball 23 times the Wisconsin Whitewater’s 48 attempts, and despite SXU’s attempts still gained nearly the same amount of rushing yards.
The Cougars averaged a decent 3.4 yard per attempt. The lack of SXU rushing attempts meant that the cougars lost the time of possession battle. This caused the Cougars defense to play a lot of snaps. This wore down the defense, and could have been a major cause that the Warhawks offense marched down the field in the last drive of the game.
Some positives have to be taken out of the game, and an obvious positive is Quarterback play. Alex Martinez was incredible, and went 36 for 57 for 357 yards against likely the best defense Saint Xavier will play all year. What makes these stats even more impressive is that he didn’t throw a single interception against a Warhawks secondary know for forcing a lot of turnovers.
More key performances include pretty much the entire receiving core, Wide Receivers: Harold Davis, Nick Czeszewski, and Chris Simmons caught a combined 22 catches for 271 yards, and 2 touchdowns. Running Back Vance McShane, also had a good day catching passes catching 11 balls for 80 yards. On defense, the clear standout was Josh Hettiger who had 12 total tackles and 2 tackles for loss.
The Cougars will have to rebound next week as they are playing the highest-ranked NAIA team left on their schedule in the Concordia Cougars.