Live Stats
Live Audio/Video
The Minnesota State University Moorhead football team will seek to retain the Paddle on Saturday when the Dragons play at the University of Mary. Game time is 1:05 p.m. at the Community Bowl in Bismarck, N.D.

Live audio, with Dragon broadcasters Steve d'Eustachio and Larry Scott on the call, can be heard at msumdragons.com.  Live video can be accessed there as well.  In addition, the game will be televised in the Fargo-Moorhead area on MeTV, which is Digital Channel 11.2 and also Midcontinent Channel 166. Check local listings for availability in your area.

MSUM is 1-6 overall and in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference while Mary is 4-3 overall and in the league.

Series History
Saturday's game will be the ninth meeting in the "Battle for the Paddle" series. Mary holds a 7-1 series advantage, although MSUM claimed the Paddle for the first time with a 48-41 win in 2013.

Previous seven meetings:
2013:  MSU Moorhead 48, Mary 41 (in Moorhead)
2012: Mary 23, MSUM 7 (in Bismarck, N.D.)
2011: Mary 52, MSU Moorhead 13 (in Moorhead)
2010: Mary 16, MSU Moorhead 7 (in Bismarck)
2009: Mary 39, MSU Moorhead 13 (Moorhead)
2008: Mary 24, MSU Moorhead 17 (OT) (Bismarck)
2007: Mary 45, MSU Moorhead 31 (Moorhead)
2006:  Mary 21, MSUM 20 (Bismarck)

The Head Coaches
Steve Laqua is in his fourth season as MSUM's head coach with a record of 8-32 at the school, while Josh Kotelnicki is in his first season as Mary's head coach with a record of 4-3.

About MSUM
The Dragons fell to St. Cloud State, 55-27 in action on Oct. 18 in Moorhead. MSUM was tied with the Huskies at 27-27 midway through the third quarter before St. Cloud State pulled away with 28 unanswered points. Junior receiver Adam Jiskra had nine catches for 121 yards while sophomore receiver Cory Ambrose had five catches for 142 yards and two scores. Jiskra became MSUM's all-time leader in career receiving yards in the game. Junior quarterback Jake Hodge was 13-of-22 passing for 159 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 65 yards and a score before leaving the game with an injury.

Hodge leads the Dragons with 536 rushing yards and five scores., while junior Zayne Medhaug has 513 rushing yards and five scores. Hodge has thrown for 1,666 yards and 13 touchdowns. Jiskra has 53 catches for 837 yards and six touchdowns, while sophomore receiver Cory Ambrose has 37 catches for 399 yards and six scores. MSUM is averaging 191.9 yards per game on the ground and 286.1  yards per game through the air for a total of 478.0 yards per game of total offense. The Dragons are scoring 29.0 points per game.

Redshirt freshman safety Abe Roehrich has 60 tackles and an interception to lead the defense, while sophomore linebacker Aaron Bohl has 58 tackles. Sophomore cornerback Sheldon Jones has 53 tackles, nine pass breakups and an interception. Junior cornerback Chris Binford has three interceptions.

The Dragon defense allows 54.3 points per game and 264.3 yards per game on the ground. Teams are throwing for 315.0 yards per game against the Dragons, who surrender 579.3 yards per game of total offense.

About Mary
The Marauders improved to 4-3 on the year with a 17-10 win at Minnesota Crookston last week.  Mary trailed 7-3 at halftime before scoring 14 third-quarter points to take the lead for good.  Vince Ferrante rushed for 136 yards on 24 carries for Mary, while Ben Jolliffe completed 14-of-25 passes for 188 yards and a score. Jake East had four catches for 81 yards for the Marauders.

Ferrante leads Mary with 366 rushing yards, while Jolliffe has completed 80-of-141 passes for 938 yards and nine scores. Elby Pope has 31 catches for 368 yards and four touchdowns for the Mary receivers while Nick Jolliffe has 31 catches for 362 yards and four touchdowns. The Marauders average 20.1 points per game on offense and are rushing for 138.9 yards per game on the ground. They are throwing for 194.6 yards per game and average 333.4 yards per game in total offense.

Grant Singer leads the Mary defense with 87 tackles, including 7.5 tackles per loss. He also has two interceptions. Shawn Fulwider has 46 tackles. Troy Guptill has 6.5 sacks for Mary. The Marauders allow 26.4 points per game and allow 112.3 rushing yards per game. They allow 285.7 yards per game passing and 398.0 yards of total offense.

More about the Dragons
Jiskra Leads the Way
Junior wide receiver Adam Jiskra now has his name at the top of the Dragon record books for career receiving yards.  Jiskra, in his third season as a starting wide receiver, now has 2,468 yards for his career after posting 121 in the loss to St. Cloud State. Jiskra topped the previous mark of 2,349 held by Jabari Taylor. Jiskra is now in second in career receptions with 160, just 54 behind Taylor, the all-time leader with 214.

Hodge Nearing the Top
Hodge is now ranked second in Dragon school history with 5,590 career passing yards and trails career leader Dustin Long, who has 5,748 career yards.

Roehrich's Rise
Redshirt freshman Abe Roehrich is in his first year as a starter at safety for the Dragons and has made an immediate impact. He leads MSUM with 60 tackles and also has a sack, an interception, three pass breakups and a forced fumble. His 34 solo tackles also lead the Dragon defense, which does not have a senior in its starting lineup.

Tough Road
Few Division II teams have played as difficult a schedule as the Dragons have so far in 2014. The combined record of the Dragons' seven foes is 33-12 (.733). The combined record of the five teams MSUM has lost to is 33-9, with three of the teams (Minnesota State, Minnesota Duluth and Sioux Falls) currently ranked in the AFCA Division II top 25. Minnesota State is now ranked No. 1, UMD is now No. 2 and Sioux Falls is No. 14 in the latest poll.

National Rankings
The MSUM football team is tied for 15th in the nation in first downs (175), 25th in total offense (478.0 yards per game) and 28th in passing defense (286.1). Jiskra is ranked fourth in the nation in receiving yards (837), sixth in receiving yards per game (119.6) and is tied for 11th in receptions per game at 7.6. Hodge is ranked 18th in the nation in total offense (314.6). Sophomore Sheldon Jones is 27th in passes defended at 1.4 per game.

Block Party
Redshirt freshman safety Abe Roehrich and freshman defensive lineman Jake Busse both blocked field goals during the Dragons' 40-36 win over Wayne State on Sept 20. In a game decided by four points, keeping those six points off the scoreboard proved vital.

Week 8 Under Laqua
The Dragons are 1-2 in Week 8 games under Laqua. In 2011, they lost at Augustana, 35-3 and in 2012, they lost at Mary, 23-7. Last season they beat Mary, 48-41.

All-Purpose Weapon
Junior running back Zayne Medhaug became the first player in the NSIC to return a kickoff for a touchdown in the Dragons' 40-36 win over Wayne State. Medhaug returned a kickoff 98 yards for a score in the fourth quarter to put MSUM up 38-23 in what proved to be the game-winning score. Medhaug is second in kick return average (31.7), is fourth in the NSIC in all-purpose yardage at 131.1 yards per game and is 10th in rushing yards per game at 76.6. It was MSUM's first kick return for a touchdown since 2006 when Jabari Taylor accomplished the feat.

Hodge a Double Threat
Hodge continues to be one of the top all-around threats in the NSIC.  He ranks second in the league in total offense per game at 314.6 yards per game.  Hodge also is ranked fifth in the NSIC in passing yards per game at 238.0 and ninth in rushing yards per game at 76.6.

No Place Like Home
Nearly half of the Dragons' 2014 roster is from Minnesota, as 43 players hail from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  The next state is neighboring North Dakota with 18 players.

Another Record Goes Down for Dragon Offense
Offensively, the Dragons set eight records a year ago, and in Week 1, they set another record with 709 yards of total offense. On Saturday against Northern State, MSUM ran 101 offensive plays, setting another school record. Another 100 for Jiskra Junior wide receiver Adam Jiskra recorded the 11th 100-yard receiving game of his career against St. Cloud State. He finished with nine catches for 121 yards.

Stalwarts Up Front
Senior Kasey Groettum and juniors Bennen Bierman and Troy Peterson have each started all 29 games over the past two-plus seasons on the offensive line -- combining for 87 starts during that time. Their play is among the keys to the Dragon offense's growth over the past two seasons. Groettum is in his fourth year as a starter after starting in five games as a freshman in 2011.

2014 Captains
MSUM's senior linebacker Lomumba Ismail and sophomore linebacker Aaron Bohl are the Dragons' 2014 team captains. Ismail recently returned to the field after missing the first six games because of injury.