Game NotesBelton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team will open its 13
th trip to the NCAA Division III National Championships with a familiar face in the opening round this Saturday. The Cru will host the Texas Lutheran in a 12:00 PM kickoff at Crusader Stadium in a rematch of a regular season game played less than a month ago in Seguin.
The Cru and Bulldogs are former American Southwest Conference rivals who faced each other 15 times in ASC competition. The series ended last season when Texas Lutheran made the move to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. The two teams renewed their rivalry with a non-conference game in Seguin on October 25
th with the Cru breaking open a tight game in the second quarter and rolling to a 72-16 victory over the then-undefeated Bulldogs.
The Cru is 10-0 overall on the season and won the American Southwest Conference Championship with a 5-0 league mark. UMHB is in the postseason for the 11
th straight year and 13
th time in the last 14 seasons. The Cru has a 24-12 all-time record in the postseason. Texas Lutheran went 9-1 overall and won a second consecutive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title with a 3-0 league record. The Bulldogs are making their first appearance in the NCAA Division III National Championships, but TLU won a pair of NAIA National Championships in the mid 1970's.
"It is so hard to win a game against a team, much less to beat a team twice in one season," Cru Head Coach
Pete Fredenburg said. "We understand the challenge that is facing us and we will have to be prepared to play a complete game. Texas Lutheran has improved as a football team since the first time we played them, but I think we've gotten better, too. Now we just have to go out and do what we do, because if you don't, you will find yourself stacking up the pads and we aren't ready to do that yet."
UMHB leads the all-time series with the Bulldogs 15-1 and has won the last 14 meetings between the two teams. The Cru also joins Mount Union as the only two Division III programs to have won at least one game in every postseason since 2004. The winner of Saturday's game will advance to face the Chapman University/Linfield College winner in the Second Round of the playoffs on November 29
th.
For more information on parking, traffic flow and game day events, please visit the following link:
http://www.umhb.edu/stadium/game-day-information. There will be parking reserved for Texas Lutheran University fans in the parking lot at the corner of 9
th Street and College Drive. Bulldog fans are encouraged to enter the stadium through ticket window #3 at the southeast corner of Crusader Stadium.
Saturday's game will also be broadcast live on K101.7 FM and through the station's web site with the pre-game show starting at 11:30 AM. UMHB will provide live video streaming and live statistics for the game with links to both available on the school's Athletic Department web site at
http://www.umhb.edu. Tickets are still available and may be purchased at the Crusader Stadium ticket windows. Reserved seats are $10, adult general admission tickets are $8 and student general admission tickets are $4. There are no complimentary tickets or passes accepted for NCAA postseason games.
