Whitewater, Wis. - DePauw's historic season came to a conclusion in the second round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship as the Tigers fell to third-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by a 45-0 score. The Tigers finished their season at 9-3, while the Warhawks moved to 12-0 and advanced to next Saturday's quarterfinals.
DePauw's defense stopped the Warhawks on downs at the Tigers' 36 on the game's opening series, but DePauw couldn't capitalize and the hosts scored on each of their next seven possessions.
Alex Peete scored the game's first points as he reached paydirt on a 3-yard run with 4:25 left in the opening quarter. After a DePauw punt, the Tigers' defense held the Warhawks to a 27-yard field goal off the foot of Matt Maldonado which made it 10-0 with 1:51 remaining in the opening stanza.
The Tigers drove to midfield early in the second, but an 11-yard sack on third down forced the Tigers to punt. Wis.-Whitewater needed just four plays to cover 65 yards as Peete ran the final 39 for his second rushing score of the contest to make it 17-0 with 10:57 left in the first half. Peete's 56-yard run on the Warhawks' next series capped a 3-play, 70-yard series and pushed the lead to 24-0 before Max Meylor's 19-yard pass to Ryan Wisniewski with 2:35 left in the half made it 31-0.
DePauw mounted its first drive into Warhawks territory as quarterback Chase Andries converted a third down with a 12-yard pass to Trey Shaw and then completed the next two to Shaw for 36 yards to the Whitewater 27. A sack on the next play followed by a 7-yard pass to Jackson Corbett and an incomplete pass on third down forced the Tigers to punt and Kamrin Hutt blocked the punt and the Warhawks took over on the DePauw 47 with 34 seconds remaining.
Meylor completed an 8-yard pass to Peete and a 25-yard aerial to Wisniewski before scoring on a 14-yard run on third down with two seconds left in the half.
Andries was picked off by Luke Nelson at the DePauw 31 on the opening possession of the third in what was the only turnover of the game. Whitewater started on its own 48 and Peete rushed for 12 yards on first down and scored on a 40-yard run on the next play to make it 45-0 with 11:22 left.
DePauw backup quarterback Nathan McCahill entered on the next series and picked up 24 yards on the first play and later converting a fourth down play with a 4-yard run. He picked up 16 on the next play to the Whitewater 21 which was the deepest drive for the DePauw offense, but a 4-yard loss followed by a sack and an incomplete pass pushed the Tigers into punting again.
Neither team ventured into the red zone the rest of the game until the Warhawks drove to the DePauw 13 on the final play of the game.
Whitewater outgained DePauw, 600-171, and rushed for 332 yards while holding the Tigers to minus 2.
McCahill rushed for 30 yards on 10 carries and completed 5-of-11 passes for 70 yards, while Andries was 13 of 21 for 103 yards. Trey Shaw hauled in 12 for 144 yards, both of which were career-high totals.
Peete rushed for 209 yards on just 14 carries, while Meylor totaled 208 passing yards on 13-of-20 passing. Wisniewski caught six for 124 yards.
Brevon Gude and Josh Coons each had nine tackles for the Tigers with Gude totaling 2.0 for losses of 11 yards including a 7-yard sack. Dylan Hyatt had three pass breakups in the loss.
Niko Lemke led Whitewater with seven tackles including a game-high 4.0 for 18 yards in losses. In all, the Warhawks had 12.0 tackles for losses of 72 yards including 9.0 sacks for 63 yards.
