THIS WEEK: It's rivalry week as Minot State will travel to Bismarck, N.D. to play the University of Mary Saturday in the third installment of the Battle of the Big Lake Trophy. The game is scheduled for 1 p.m.  

RECORDS: The Beavers (0-5, 0-5 NSIC, 0-1 NSIC North) and the Marauders (0-5, 0-5, 0-1) will both be looking for their first wins of the year.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State's head coach is Tyler Hughes, who is in his second season at the helm. He is 1-10 at Minot State and 21-14 overall as a head coach, all at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, where he coached from 2011-12. Hughes spent the 2013 season as an assistant coach with Urban Meyer at Ohio State. Josh Kotelnicki has been the head coach of the University of Mary football team since December 2013. In his first season as the head coach the Marauders finished 5-6 and had eight players named to the All-NSIC North Division team. Prior to joining Mary, Kotelnicki was the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at the University of North Dakota in 2012. Before being promoted to associate head coach he served time as the special teams coordinator, recruiting coordinator, linebackers coach and offensive line coach. Kotelnicki was a team captain and outside linebacker on the 2001 UND national championship football team before beginning his career as a coach.

FOLLOW THE BEAVERS: The game is broadcast locally on KCJB 910-AM with Scott Kittell calling the play-by-play. Live audio can be accessed online at kcjb.com. MSU provides live video and live stats as well as links to the live audio at MSUBeavers.com. Minot State Athletics also is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube with all feeds accessible through the home page.

RANKINGS: Neither team is ranked in either the American Football Coaches Association Poll or the D2Football.com polls.

RECENT HISTORY: After recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff Minot State went 24 yards in eight plays to score the first touchdown of the game and go up 7-0. The Beavers would not score again until the fourth quarter when they were already trailing 31-7. Falling on a fumble in the end zone MSU scored its second and final touchdown of the game. With a final score of 45-14 Northern State defeated Minot State for its first win of the season only outgaining the Beavers 345 yards to 309. The Marauders found themselves down 20 points after just one quarter of play in their last game against Bemidji State. Playing from behind Mary ended up throwing the ball 64 times, completing half of those throws for 299 yards including a 51-yard touchdown pass that was the only scoring play for the Marauders in the game. Ending with a 39-7 score Bemidji State put the game away using the ground game rushing for 261 yards on 37 attempts for an average gain of 7.1 yards per rush.
OVERALL SERIES: In a series dating back to 1988 Minot State trails Mary by one game with a record of 11-12.

LAST TIME OUT: In the closest game Minot State played in 2014 the University of Mary left Minot with a two point victory. After a pair of rushing touchdowns from the Marauders the Beavers were down 14-0 at half time. Coming out in the third quarter MSU outscored Mary 22-6 with two passing touchdowns and an interception returned for a touchdown. Going into the fourth quarter with a two point lead Minot State could not hold on giving up ten points before scoring their own touchdown that led to the final score with Mary leading 31-29.

NOTING THE MARAUDERS: After a 5-6 season for first year head coach Josh Kotelnicki, Mary finds itself struggling in comparison with a current record of 0-5. When the Marauders played Minot State last season they possessed a 2-3 before the game and were .500 afterwards. Twice this season Mary has passed the ball with over 70 percent of their plays. Last week against Bemidji State when they passed on 64 of 89 plays and in week two against Upper Iowa when they passed 59 of 79 plays. Despite the high volume of passing the Marauders have found the end zone more on the ground, with three touchdowns, than through the air, with two.

RED ZONE STRUGGLES: Minot State has had difficulty putting points on the board when inside the red zone this season with a 57.1 scoring percent inside the red zone. That mark is tied for the second worst in the NSIC. The only team with a percentage worse than that of Minot State is Mary with 40 percent. Going eight for 14 in the red zone, Minot State has turned the ball over once on downs, once with a fumble and twice on interceptions. The other two failed attempts came from missed field goals as the Beavers have made three of five field goals attempted inside the 20-yard line. On the defensive side of the ball Minot State also struggles in the red zone giving up scoring plays on 18 of 19 attempts by opponents.

TACKLING LEADERS: Linebacker Trevin Swensen (Jr., Selley, Idaho) and defensive back Marcel Brinson (Gilroy, Calif.) are both currently in the top seven in tackles in the NSIC. With 49 tackles Swensen has the fourth most tackles in the conference while Brinson has the seventh most with 46 tackles. There are only three teams in the NSIC with two players in the top ten in tackles. Augustana and Upper Iowa both have two linebackers in the top ten. Brinson leads all defensive backs in tackles with the next closest at 44 tackles.

HALL MONITOR: Running back Charles Hall (Jr., Hinesville, Ga.) looks to be the short yardage back for the Beavers this season. Leading the team with two rushing touchdowns Hall has only gained 13 yards on seven attempts, mainly because he is the main back when Minot State is close to the goal line. Hall is a transfer from Central Washington.

BY THE NUMBERS

5: Games played by quarterback Lucas Romanski (Jr., San Ramon, Calif.) despite only starting in three games in week two, four and five.

43: Yards gained on one of Jarvis Mustipher's (RB, Jr., Melbourne, Fla.) 11 rushes against Northern State. That is the longest rush by any Beaver since Randel Barber (DB, Sr., Maricopa, Ariz.) went for 46 yards on one rush against Mary on Oct. 5, 2013.

123: Rushing yards gained by Minot State last week. That is the fourth time since the beginning of the 2014 season that the Beavers have broken the century mark and the most yards gained on the ground this season.