Lakeland College

Muskies Fall Prey to Titans

Athletics - posted on 9/16/2006

Missed opportunities haunted the Lakeland College football team's offense in a 31-10 loss to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Saturday at Taylor Field.

The Muskies (0-3) failed to score on three trips into the red zone and couldn't capitalize on turnovers forced by the defense, allowing the Titans (2-1), ranked 30th in this week's d3football.com national poll, to pull away in the third quarter.

"They made one or two catches when they needed to and we couldn't," said Lakeland head coach Jim Zebrowski. "Other than that it was an 'even-steven' game."

Trailing 7-0, Lakeland sophomore defensive lineman Stephan Johnson recovered an Oshkosh fumble at the Oshkosh 25 with 13:50 left in the second quarter, but a sack of junior quarterback Brad Wilk and a penalty forced the Muskies to punt.

Oshkosh had a 14-0 lead at halftime after cornerback Bryan Kent picked off a Wilk pass and returned it 74 yards for a touchdown with just over six minutes left in the second quarter.

Trailing 21-0, Lakeland linebacker junior linebacker Phil Sims recovered an Oshkosh fumble at the Oshkosh 11 midway through the third quarter, but the Muskies had to settle for a 27-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Billy Hughes.

The Muskies lone touchdown came with less than a minute left in the contest when Wilk scored on a QB sneak.

Lakeland's defense was solid as it recovered three Oshkosh fumbles on the day, junior defensive back Josh Schramm picked off an Oshkosh pass on the Titans' first offensive drive of the day and the Muskies had three sacks.

Junior wide receiver MacArthur White had a big day for Lakeland's offense with 13 catches for 117 yards. Wilk was 20-for-41 for 140 yards with two interceptions, the second in Oshkosh's end zone near the end of the third quarter. Lakeland had 241 total yards to 357 for the Titans.

"You take away his picks, though you can't take them away, and I thought Brad did well," Zebrowski said. "Mac ran well too. Our defense forced some turnovers and created some opportunities for us. We were always right in the position to make some plays."

The Muskies will look for their first win when they open the Illini-Badger Football Conference portion of their schedule against Greenville on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 1 p.m. at Taylor Field.

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