THIS WEEK: Minot State will travel to the Minnesota, Crookston to play in its second-to-last football game of the 2015 season.

RECORDS: The MSU Beavers (1-8, 1-4 NSIC North) are coming off of a 32-7 loss against Bemidji State. Minnesota, Crookston (0-9, 0-5) lost last week to Mary with a score of 33-28.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State's head coach is Tyler Hughes, who is in his second season at the helm. He is 2-16 at Minot State and 22-20 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. Mike Fritze is in his third season as the head coach for Minnesota, Crookston. With an overall record of 2-20 in his first two season Fritze has not seen as much success as he had coaching at the high school level. Prior to joining the Golden Eagles, Fritze was the head coach at Apple Valley High School for 18 seasons. On the high school level, before entering his college coaching career, he had a combined 103 consecutive seasons in the three sports of football, boys' basketball and track and field.

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 accacessible through the home page.

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

RECENT HISTORY: At the Minot State senior day, and last home game of the season, the weather played a key factor in the end result. With winds blowing over 30 miles per hour Minot State won the coin toss and selected to defer the choice to Bemidji State. Instead of choosing to receive the ball BSU chose to play with the winds at their backs. Proving to be the right choice, Minot State threw into the win and Bemidji State intercepted the pass on the first play of the game. From there, despite the MSU defense playing well, Bemidji State kept their lead. Minot State was able to put together a long drive lasting over 10 minutes for its lone touchdown of the game. Bemidji State came out on top 32-7 for the final score. Minnesota Crookston was in a good position to win its first game of the season against Mary after three quarters last week. Up 28-21 the Golden Eagles went into the final quarter with a seven point lead and didn't lose that lead completely until there were only three minutes left in the game. Mary scored two touchdowns in the final 15 minutes, failing both extra point conversions, to win the game 33-28. Crookston allowed 323 rushing yards on 51 carries for Mary. The Marauders were also able to score twice through the air completing five of their eight pass attempts.

OVERALL SERIES: Minot State has a long standing history with Minnesota Crookston with the series dating back to 1934. Over that time the Beavers have a 5-3 record against the Golden Eagles.

LAST TIME OUT: In the single win Minot State recorded last season it defeated Minnesota, Crookston 50-20. Scoring the game's first four touchdowns the Beavers were able to go up 23-0 early. The Beavers also scored the final three touchdowns, two through the air and one on the ground. Jarvis Mustipher (RB, Jr., Melbourne, Fla.) had a season high 118 yards rushing against the Golden Eagles on 14 carries. The Beavers defense was able to sack the quarterback eight times throughout the game and intercepted the ball four times. One of those sacks was from Marcel Brinson (DB, Sr., Gilroy, Calif.) who led the team with seven tackles. Brinson also forced a fumble in the game to highlight the day.

NOTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES: With the conference's third lowest scoring offense and worst scoring defense Minnesota, Crookston gets outscored on average by a margin of 52-14. Despite allowing a 60 percent pass completion rate the Golden Eagles allow the second fewest passing yards per game with 180.4. That mark may only be there though because teams have found success on the ground against them. Opponents average 6.7 yards per carry and 317.8 yards total rushing against UMC, the lowest rate by a large margin in the NSIC. The next closest team is MSU Moorhead who allows 209.8.

ON THE ROAD: With the lone win this season coming against Mary on the road the Beavers have seen varying successes on the road. In three of their four road competitions Minot State has been beaten by 24 points or higher. Only twice have the Beavers broken the century mark on the ground on the road, including rushing for 254 yards against Mary. The win against Mary was the only game MSU was able to win the ground game. Minot State has also only won the battle through the air away from home once by outgaining St. Cloud State 182 passing yards to 126.

GAINING GROUND: With the recent success of the running game the Beavers have been able to outshine recent seasons. With 995 net yards so far this season and two games left to be played Minot State will gain more than 1,000 yards rushing as a team for the first time since 2010. A large increase of output from last season when MSU only gained 602 rushing yards through the season the Beavers have been able to average one yard more per carry in 2015 than they did in 2014.

LEADING THE PACK: With two of the top four tacklers in the conference Minot State has shown that its defense can play with the best. Trevin Swensen (LB, Jr., Shelley, Idaho) is third in the NSIC with 86 tackles whiles Aaron James (LB, Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) is fourth with 83 tackles. Minot State is one of just two teams with multiple players in the top ten in tackles in the Northern Sun. The two linebackers have combined for 4.5 sacks and 14 tackles for a loss. With one fumble recovery and three passes broken up between them the Beavers defense revolves around these two athletes.

BY THE NUMBERS

535: Passing yards from current starting quarterback Jose Escobar (Jr., Norwalk, Calif.). This is Escobar's first season with the team and has been the only Beaver QB to complete a game without an interception, doing it twice.

633: Receiving yards from Porter Sturm (WR, Sr., Roy, Mont.). That mark is good enough for a career high from the four year player.

684: Rushing yards from Jarvis Mustipher (RB, Jr., Melbourne, Fla.) With a career high of 692 Mustipher is sure to pass his previous mark if he remains healthy.