Game NotesBelton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team has never played a playoff game in the month of October, but that's exactly what this Saturday's showdown with Hardin-Simmons will feel like. The Cru and Cowboys will kick off at 1:00 PM at Shelton Stadium in Abilene in a battle of unbeaten and a game with major conference championship and postseason implications.
Both teams will go into the game with 7-0 overall records and 2-0 marks in American Southwest Conference play. Both teams are highly ranked nationally with the Cru coming in ranked 2
nd in nation by the American Football Coaches Association and #3 in the county in the D3football.com Top 25. Hardin-Simmons is 12
th in the country in the AFCA Top 25 Poll and D3football.com has the Cowboys ranked 13
th in the nation. The winner of this game has gone on to win at least a share of the ASC championship in each of the last 17 years and with the ASC losing its automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Championships this year, the outcome looms even larger. Not that this rivalry needed anything extra.
"It is just Hardin-Simmons week, that's really all that you can say," UMHB Head Football Coach
Pete Fredenburg said. "Both teams are ranked, both teams are undefeated and we are going to their place. You have to get up to play in games like this and if you have blood flowing through your body, you will. Everything we've done since January was building toward putting ourselves in a position to play in a game like this."
UMHB leads the all-time series between the two teams 15-5 and the Cru has won the last 13 meetings. Hardin-Simmons' last victory in the series came in a 49-22 win in Belton during the 2004 regular season when both teams were undefeated and highly ranked nationally. The winner of Saturday's contest will be in control of its own destiny in terms of winning the ASC championship and also becomes the favorite to claim the only Pool B berth in the NCAA Division III National Championships. Pool B is reserved for independents or teams from conferences without an automatic bid to the postseason.
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 12:30 PM. UMHB will provide live video streaming for the game through this link:
http://portal.stretchinternet.com/umhb/. Hardin-Simmons should also provide live statistics for the game. All of the links to live coverage are also available on the UMHB athletic department web site at
www.cruathletics.com.
