UW-Whitewater holds off St. John's for wild 35-32 victory to make it back to Stagg Bowl

Tom Haudricourt | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WHITEWATER – With a berth in the Stagg Bowl squarely on the line in the waning minutes, UW-Whitewater had to find a way to finally stop St. John’s quarterback Jackson Erdmann.

Linebacker Matt Anderson was the one who found the way.

Anderson wrestled the ball away from Johnnies running back Kai Barber on a short pass from Erdmann with 1:57 remaining in the game and that decisive interception allowed the Warhawks to hang on for a wild 35-32 victory Saturday at Perkins Stadium in a NCAA Division III semifinal playoff game.

The entertaining, tense triumph put six-time national champion Whitewater back in the Stagg Bowl for the first time since 2014 and the first time under head coach Kevin Bullis. The seventh-ranked Warhawks (13-1) will play No. 5 North Central (Ill.), which blew out Muhlenberg (Pa.), 45-14, in the other semifinal, Friday night in Shenandoah, Texas, for the title.

BOX SCORE: UW-Whitewater 35, St. John's (Minn.) 32

“Just an amazing game,” said Bullis, who took over the program after Lance Leipold led Whitewater to the Stagg Bowl seven times over an eight-year period, winning six crowns, before taking over as head coach at University at Buffalo. “St. John’s might have the longest tradition of any team in college football. It doesn’t surprise me the game was in that manner.”

The Warhawks knew they’d have their hands full with Erdmann, winner of the 2018 Gagliardi Trophy as the top player in Division III and a candidate again this season. And he certainly was a handful, completing 29 of 50 passes for 342 yards and a touchdown, with no interceptions until Anderson pulled off his bit of thievery.

“I saw (Barber) coming out, so I went to him,” said Anderson, who made the pick on the St. John's 42-yard line. “When I saw the ball, I went to hit it down and I was trying to tackle him at the same time. All of a sudden, I felt it near my chest. So, to the best of my ability, I tried to rip it away from him and it ended up in my hands, so I just got down as quick as I could.

“I was pretty ecstatic. I looked up and I had 10 black shirts above me, yelling and cheering. It’s like a feeling I never had before. It’s hard to put into words.”

What no one expected was that Whitewater quarterback Max Meylor, who replaced Zach Oles at the outset of the playoffs, would be equally devastating to the Johnnies’ defense – but with his feet, not his arm. With St. John’s unexpectedly stuffing the Warhawks’ usually potent running game, Meylor scrambled for 85 yards on only six carries, including a huge 38-yard scamper early in the fourth quarter for a 32-24 lead.

Meylor faked a handoff on that play and rambled around the right side untouched.

“I saw some green grass in front of me, so I just took it,” said Meylor, who also passed for 188 yards and a touchdown. "I’m not really known as a runner. I don’t really have the speed like some of the guys we have. But the opportunity came and I took advantage of it.”

It didn’t help that Whitewater running back Jarrod Ware suffered a foot injury and did not play in the second half. But Bullis credited St. John’s for shackling his team’s running game, forcing Meylor to take things into his own hands.

“We felt going into the game that we really wanted to run the ball in a manner that’s fitting with our tradition,” Bullis said. “Max Meylor just had a fantastic game of, No. 1, running the ball but obviously throwing the ball well. Max showed himself as an all-around quarterback. He seems to get better every time he plays the game.”

Also playing a huge role for Whitewater was kicker Wojciech Gasienica, a 5-foot-9 junior who had the game of his life, ignoring the windy, frigid conditions to kick four field goals and convert all three PATs. It was Gasienica’s 37-yard field goal into a stiff breeze with 2:10 remaining that snapped a 32-32 tie and proved to be the deciding points.

“Early this season we were having some problems with our PATs and field goals, and often it was related to operation,” Bullis said, speaking of timing issues. “People often point fingers at the kicker but we knew we had a great kicker back then, and I know we’ve got a great kicker today.”

It was a rare mistake by Meylor that allowed the Johnnies to tie the game and leave it to Gasienca’s pressure kick. Scrambling on a third-and-nine from the Whitewater 12 early in the fourth quarter, Meylor flipped a pass in the flat right to defensive back Brady Buckentine, who picked it off on the 15.

It took St. John’s six plays but they scored on a one-yard bolt up the middle by Barber, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Erdmann to Ravi Alston (11 catches, 143 yards) that tied the game. With Whitewater limiting St. John’s to a net rushing total of 21 yards and sacking Erdmann a season-high seven times, it still came down to the foot of Gasienca and Anderson’s sleight of hand.

“We figured it would be this kind of game,” Johnnies coach Gary Fasching said. “It was two tough, physical football teams. They made a couple more plays than we did. But our guys never gave up. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

So, after a four-year absence, Whitewater is headed back to the Stagg Bowl but for the first time will not be playing Mount Union, which was knocked off in the second round at home by North Central.

"We talk about being powered by tradition," said Bullis, a former assistant under Leipold. "That, to me, is really the thing that's exciting. To have the chance to build a staff from back in '15 to now, because that's a long process. To see that staff grow, and see this team grow, it's hard to put into words.

"It's very exciting; it's very fulfilling. It's all about doing things right. That's the way we look at it. Do things right. During games, I pride myself in trying not to show emotion. But there were a lot of hugs and smiles."