Whitewater, Wis. - Holt Heldebrand's interception with 1:56 remaining sealed DePauw's 26-23 win at Wis.-Whitewater in the second round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship on a day with heavy snow falling throughout at Perkins Stadium.

With the win, the Tigers advanced to face Wheaton (Ill.) in nex Saturday's third round after the Thunder won at Wartburg by a 28-24 score. DePauw improved to 10-1 on the season, while Wis.-Whitewater finished with an 8-3 record.

The teams entered the fourth quarter tied, 17-17, and DePauw put together an 8-play, 77-yard drive capped by Evan Pitzer's catch which he bobbled and then hauled in while falling backwards in the back corner of the end zone for his first career receiving touchdown. The point-after was blocked and DePauw grabbed a 23-17 lead with 11:47 left. 

The Tigers forced the hosts to punt and then extended the lead to 26-17 after Matthew Berry kicked a 24-yard field goal with 4:56 remaining.

Wis.-Whitewater wasted little time as Justin Klinker and Jacques Brooks teamed for a 45-yard scoring pass with 4:11 left to cut the deficit to 26-23, but the extra-point was off the mark.

After collecting one first down, the Tigers were stopped on their own 44 and punted with the Warhawks taking over on their own 35 with 2:15 remaining. DePauw was whistled for pass interference on first down and picked up nine yards to the DePauw 41 on the next play. Heldebrand then ended the threat by picking off Klinker at the Tigers' 20. DePauw was able to run the clock out over the final 1:56.

"Obviously very unique circumstances with how much snow we had," said DePauw head coach Brett Dietz.

"I'm proud of the way our guys handled it. We talk about overcoming adversity, we call that grit. We think our team has a lot of grit right now and that's not because we blew everybody out, but because we played in some close games. We played in two back-to-back really close games this year. I give a lot of credit to those games and how our guys responded and worked and I think it comes full circle on a day like today. When it seems like everything is piled up against you and you come up here and play a storied program that we lost to just five years ago in a bad way and overcoming a lot of adversity with the weather."

On the game's opening series, the Tigers drove to the Warhawks' 23 before being stopped on downs. DePauw's defense returned the favor with a three-and-out, but the Tigers' offense couldn't capitalize as Scott Ballentine's pass on the first play after the punt was intercepted by Jayden Fowler.

DePauw's defense produced another three-and-out and, after a series of punts, the teams wrapped up the opening stanza deadlocked, 0-0.

The Tigers used nearly half of the second quarter to complete an 85-yard drive in 13 plays with Caden Whitehead scoring on a 3-yard run to give DePauw a 7-0 lead with 7:34 left in the half.

Wis.-Whitewater came right back as Klinker completed a 52-yard pass to Blake Haggerty with 5:31 remaining in the half.

DePauw nearly ran out the first-half clock on its next possession with Matthew Berry booting a 21-yard field goal with nine seconds left to give the Tigers a 10-7 advantage.

The Tigers' defense forced the Warhawks to punt on their first series of the second half, but Karsten Libby picked off Scott Ballentine at the DePauw 29 and returned it for a score to give the Warhawks their first lead of the game at 14-10 with 11:22 left in the third.

DePauw's offense came right back with an 8-play, 70-yard drive capped by a 12-yard scoring pass from Scott Ballentine to Robby Ballentine to put the Tigers back in front, 17-14, with 7:30 left in the third.

Seth Adams booted a 40-yard field goal with 23 seconds remaining in the third to even the score at 17-17 and set the stage for the fourth quarter.

Carson Johnson led DePauw with 73 rushing yards in 19 attempts, while Whitehead finished with 59 yards in 17 tries. Scott Ballentine completed 16-of-32 passes for 182 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Palmer Samuels caught six for 37 yards and Robby Ballentine hauled in five for 90 yards.

Klinker completed 16-of-22 for 221 yards with two touchdowns and one interception with Haggerty catching five for 77 yards and Tyler Vasey also totaling five for 39 yards. Ty Schultz rushed for 29 yards on nine carries.

Joey Roland paced DePauw's defense with nine tackles, while Toreeq Jimoh-Oyesigi and Luke Nolan finished with five apiece. Nolan had 2.5 tackles for loss including 2.0 sacks for 17 yards.

Ethan Gallagher led the Warhawks with 11 tackles and Efrein Ramirez finished with 10. Libby recorded Wis.-Whitewater's only sack and Deven Magli totaled three pass breakups.

DePauw held a 25-12 edge in first downs and outgained the Warhawks, 357-241 including 175-20 on the ground. The Tigers also held the time of possession lead, 36:26-21:34.

GAME NOTES
To come later this evening