EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The No. 10 University of Wisconsin-Platteville football team (8-2, 5-2 WIAC) closed out the regular season portion of the schedule with a 55-28 win over UW-Eau Claire (3-7, 0-7 WIAC) Saturday afternoon at Carson Park. 
 
Junior Zackary Bothun rushed for three touchdowns, his fourth game this year with three rushing scores, while the passing game added another five touchdowns.  
 
Sophomore Nathan Uselding led the offense completing 20-of-26 passes for 301 yards and four scores against one interception. Uselding's primary target was senior Trevor Syse who stacked up 131 yards on seven receptions for two touchdowns. Junior Kristian Gavric also caught a pair of touchdowns while sophomore Caden Casimino's only pass in the game hit sophomore Shane Crandall for the fifth receiving score of the day. 
 
The Pioneers registered 475 yards of total offense, including 148 rushing and 327 through the air. The Blugolds combined 77 yards of rushing with 245 passing yards for 322 total yards. The Pioneers were 3-of-3 when going for it on fourth down and scored on three of four red-zone chances. 
 
Senior Logan Drone paced UW-Platteville with six tackles and junior Adrew Bowles and freshman Gavin Humphrey each came away with two tackles for loss while sophomore Rodney Gavins Jr. produced a 14-yard return on the Pioneers' lone interception of the day. 
 
Junior Benjamin Younker punted twice, totaling 78 yards for an average of 39 yards per punt. 
 
UW-Eau Claire's Ayden Helder rushed for three touchdowns and finished 21-of-35 for 245 yards with a touchdown and one interception.
 
After exchanging scores through the first quarter and into the start of the second, the Pioneers scored back-to-back touchdowns within a two-minute window midway through the second quarter. The Blugolds scored again with 3:22 on the clock to return the game to a one-posession contest, but a 36-yard completion from Uselding to Syse with 0:28 left in the half gave momentum back to UW-Platteville going into the locker room. 
 
The discussion at the half seemed to work and Uselding hit Gavric and Syse for touchdowns on back-to-back possessions to open the second half. With 2:06 left in the third quarter, UW-Platteville led UW-Eau Claire 48-21. Casimino took over for Uselding at the start of the fourth quarter and after a little more than 10 minutes, he found Crandall for a 26-yard passing touchdowns. Trailing 55-21, UW-Eau Claire scored its only points of the second half on a four-yard rush with just 1:30 left in the game.  
 
With UW-River Falls receiving the conferenced automatic bid to the playoffs, the Pioneers will now wait to learn their fate on Sunday during the NCAA DIII Football Championship selection show. The 40-team field will consist of 27 automatic qualifiers and 13 at-large bids. The selection show starts at 4 p.m. CST.

*As with every UW-Platteville win this year, the Platteville A&W will be offering a free ice cream cone (with purchase) the day after the win and the Platteville Taco John's will be offering a free churro (with purchase) the day after each Pioneer win.