The past weekend saw several pairs of teams at the top of their DII conferences play each other; sometimes the result was a close, exciting game, and sometimes it was lopsided.
In Wisconsin, it was the latter as undefeated UW-Whitewater took on equally undefeated UW-Stout. When the dust had settled, Whitewater had won 53-5, and made it very plain who was on top of the heap in the WIIL North.
The game wasn’t easy, insisted Warhawks club president Joe Grams.

“It was a pretty intense, physical game” he said. “The game was really tight in the first half, but we had a good talk at halftime and cut down on our mistakes.”

Top of the list of mistakes was trying to make every movement result in a try, said Grams. Players were forcing that one extra offload rather than setting the ruck and being patient.

“It’s a good think that we’ve got a lot of players, backs and forwards, who can run, catch, and pass,” said Grams. “The backs are experienced and playing with a good flow. But Stout is a tough team and we needed to respect that.”

Leading the way for Whitewater are flyhalf Jack Healy and center Robbie Sindic. They have orchestrated the backline attack smartly and it has shown in the scorelines - the Warhawks are averaging 92 points a game in their five league matches.

Of course it all starts up front with lock AJ Andolino and some young talent, including freshman Alex Marshall, who is a complete pest to the opposition.

So job done there, but the problem for Whitewater may well be the level of competition. When a 53-5 result is their tightest game, you know you have problems. Like many DII powers, they would like to move up to DI, but have had trouble finding a conference that doesn’t break the bank on travel costs. Instead, they will look ahead to the playoffs, where Stout will no doubt be waiting, as will two undefeated teams from the South, Loyola and Illinois State.

Who is the better of those two? We find out this coming weekend when ISU visits the Ramblers in Chicago.