UW-La Crosse built a 21-3 first-quarter lead Saturday at UW-Stout Polytechnic but lost 42-39 at Don and Nona Williams Stadium in Menomonie.
Kyle Haas threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to David Emerich and 63 yards to Braeden Ott in the opening quarter, and Najeh Mitchell added a 51-yard touchdown run, the longest run by an Eagle this season. A Maddox Pratt field goal sent UWL into halftime ahead 24-13.
Stout took control in the third quarter. Quarterback Chase Pemberton scored on runs of 11 yards and 1 yard around a UWL fumble to give the Blue Devils a 28-24 lead. Haas answered with a 40-yard touchdown pass to Calahan Miles to put UWL back in front 31-28, but Pemberton threw a 33-yard touchdown to Joey Tumilty late in the third and a 25-yard score to Jojo James with 6:23 left to make it 42-31.
UWL rallied once more, going 75 yards in 11 plays with Ott scoring on an 8-yard run with 3:30 remaining. Haas found Miles for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 42-39. The Eagles got the ball back at their own 37 with 2:17 left, but a third-down sack left them facing fourth-and-18, and they turned the ball over on downs.
Haas finished 23-of-36 for 294 yards and three touchdowns, passing 6,000 career passing yards. He now has 6,194, second in school history. Both teams finished with 443 yards of total offense.
The loss drops UWL to 3-4 overall and 2-2 in the WIAC, while Stout improves to 4-3 and 2-2. The win snapped Stout's 13-game losing streak to the Eagles, whose last loss in the series came in 2011. UWL travels to UW-Eau Claire on Saturday, Oct. 31.
