Mary Haridin-Baylor Athletics

Game Notes

Belton, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team's 12^th consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III National Championships will start in a familiar spot when the Cru faces conference rival Hardin-Simmons University in the First Round on Saturday. The two teams will kick off at 12:00 PM at Shelton Stadium in the 22^nd overall meeting and fourth playoff contest between the two programs.
 
The game will also be a rematch of a regular season meeting that saw the Cowboys top the Cru 29-26 in Abilene on October 31^st. That Hardin-Simmons victory snapped UMHB's 61-game regular season win streak and 39-game American Southwest Conference winning streak. It was also HSU's first win in the series since the 2004 regular season. UMHB returned to Abilene that season and beat the Cowboys 42-28 in the Second Round of the playoffs on the way to a Stagg Bowl berth. The Cru coaches won't come right out and use the word "revenge", but Head Coach Pete Fredenburg knows that he team does have a unique opportunity ahead of it.
 
"This is a great chance for us to play a team that beat us once already and is a great rival for us," Fredenburg said. "You don't get many second chances in football and our players need to embrace this opportunity and make the most of it. We hope we've learned some things from the last meeting. Obviously, winning the game is the biggest thing we want to change, but you have to be careful not to overthink things too much. We just have to go out and play a great football game with a high level of intensity."
 
UMHB and Hardin-Simmons finished the regular season with identical 9-1 overall records and shared the ASC Championship with East Texas Baptist after all three teams went 4-1 in conference play. Hardin-Simmons enters Saturday's game ranked 12^th in the country by D3football.com and 13^th in the nation by the American Football Coaches Association. UMHB is ranked 10^th in the county by the AFCA and is right behind Hardin-Simmons at #13 nationally in the D3football.com Top 25 Poll.
 
The Cru leads the all-time series between the two teams 15-6 and has won all three previous postseason meetings between the two programs. UMHB is 25-13 all-time in the playoffs and Hardin-Simmons is 4-6 in the postseason with three of those losses coming to the Cru. The Cowboys are in the postseason for the first time since 2008 and have not won a playoff game since advancing to the National Semifinals in 2000. UMHB and Mount Union are the only two Division III programs in the country to have won at least one postseason game in each of the previous 11 seasons.
 
The game will be broadcast on KLTD 101.7 FM with the pre-game show starting at 11:30 AM. You can also listen to the broadcast through the station's web site at http://k1017fm.com/. Hardin-Simmons will provide video streaming and live statistics of the game and links to all of the live coverage are available on UMHB's Athletic Department web site at www.cruathletics.com. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for students and children and will be available at the gate on Saturday. There are no complimentary admissions to NCAA Division III National Championships contests.