Game NotesBelton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team will renew its once in every five year series with Linfield College when the Cru plays host to the Wildcats for an NCAA Division III National Championships Second Round Game on Saturday. The two teams will kick off at 12:00 PM Central Time at Crusader Stadium with a spot in the National Quarterfinals on the line.
UMHB will be facing Linfield for the third time overall, with each of those meetings coming in the postseason. The Wildcats won the initial meeting between the two teams 28-21 in the 2004 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl as Linfield claimed its first NCAA Division III National title. The two teams met again five years later with the Wildcats rolling to a 53-21 win over the Cru in the Second Round of the 2009 NCAA Division III National Championships. Now, the two teams will meet again in the Second Round of the postseason. This will be the first time the two teams have faced off in Belton.
The Cru is 11-0 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 25-12 all-time record in the postseason. Linfield is 9-1 overall and was Co-Champion of the Northwest Conference with a 6-1 league mark. The Wildcats are 19-9 all-time in the NCAA playoffs and advanced to the Quarterfinals last season before falling to Wisconsin-Whitewater 27-17, one week before the Warhawks topped UMHB 16-15 in the National Semifinals.
"They are very similar in style to what we've seen from Linfield in the past," Cru Head Coach
Pete Fredenburg said. "They do a lot of the same things and they do them very, very well. They are talented and have really good skill people. They are strong up front and you don't have to watch much film to see how well coached they are. We understand that this is going to be a huge task for us this week and our players have to be ready to give great effort for a full 60 minutes."
The Cru 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 Widener University/Christopher Newport University winner in the Quarterfinal Round of the playoffs on December 6
th. The sites for the NCAA Quarterfinals will be announced Sunday afternoon, November 30
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 Linfield College fans in the parking lot at the corner of 9
th Street and College Drive. Wildcats 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.
