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The Minnesota State University Moorhead football team will face Minot State in action Saturday at Nemzek Stadium in Moorhead, Minn. Game time is 1 p.m. at Nemzek Stadium in Moorhead, Minn.

The game will be broadcast live on WDAY'Z XTRA which is channel 6.3 over the air and 596 for Midcontinent Communications. Check channel listings for coverage in your areas. 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.  
MSUM and Minot State are both 1-7 overall and in the NSIC.

Series History
Saturday's game will be the 10th meeting between Minot State and MSUM, with the Dragons holding a slim 5-4 series lead.

Previous five meetings:
2013: MSUM 31, Minot State 30
2012: Minot State 31, MSUM 10
1976: MSUM 28, Minot State 14
1975: Minot State 16, MSUM 6
1974: Minot State 28, MSUM 12

The Head Coaches
Steve Laqua is in his fourth season as MSUM's head coach with a record of 8-33 at the school, while Tyler Hughes is in his first season as Minot State's head coach with a record of 1-7.

About MSUM
The battled back from a 44-17 deficit to take a 45-44 lead, but Mary scored in the final five minutes to earn a 52-45 win over the Dragons on Saturday in the Battle for the Paddle in Bismarck, N.D. Redshirt freshman quarterback Demetrius Carr rushed for 208 yards and two scores while junior Zayne Medhaug rushed for 135 yards and two scores. Carr also threw for a touchdown.

Junior Zayne Medhaug has 626 rushing yards and seven scores. Junior quarterback Jake Hodge has thrown for 1,666 yards and 13 touchdowns. Jiskra has 60 catches for 870 yards and six touchdowns, while sophomore receiver Cory Ambrose has 39 catches for 463 yards and seven scores. MSUM is averaging 215.1 yards per game on the ground and 273.9  yards per game through the air for a total of 489 yards per game of total offense. The Dragons are scoring 31.0 points per game.

Redshirt freshman safety Abe Roehrich has 67 tackles and an interception to lead the defense, while sophomore linebacker Aaron Bohl and sophomore cornerback Sheldon Jones each have 61 tackles. Jones has 10 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 Minot State
The Beavers earned their first win of the year with a 50-20 victory over Minnesota Crookston last week. The game was 30-20 midway through the third quarter before Minot State scored 20 straight points to put the game out of reach. Zach Cunha threw for 255 yards and four touchdowns in the win for Minot State while Jarvis Mustipher rushed for 115 yards and two scores.

Mustipher leads the Minot ground game at 264 yards. Cunha has thrown for 1,446 yards and 12 touchdowns while completing 52.6 percent of his passes. He has thrown four interceptions. Leon La Deaux has 39 catches for 550 yards and three scores while Glyn Borel has 32 catches for 544 yards and six scores to pace the Beaver receiving corps. Minot State scores 18 points per game and rushes for 59.9 yards per game. The Beavers thrown for 229.1 yards per game and average 289 yards per game in total offense.

Levi Freidt leads the Minot defense with 86 tackles, including nine for loss. Thomas Bryson leads with 5.5 sacks while Bryce Broome leads with two interceptions. On defense, Minot State surrenders 36.5 points per game and allows 172 yards per game rushing. Teams are throwing for 249.2 yards per game against the Beavers while compiling 421.2 yards of total offense.

More about the Dragons
The 300 Club
MSUM rushed for 378 yards in the loss at Mary. It was the first time MSUM had surpassed the 300-yard rushing barrier since the Dragons rushed for 347 yards against Waldorf in 2003.  The 378 yards were the most MSUM has rushed for in a game in the Steve Laqua era.

Carr Hits the Ground Running
Redshirt freshman quarterback Demetrius Carr, making his second career start, rushed for a career-high 208 yards in the Dragons' game at Mary on Saturday. He became the first Dragon to eclipse the 200-yard rushing mark since Grover Moore ran for 238 in a Dragon 37-27 victory over the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the Metrodome, on Nov. 14, 1998.

Hitting 500
The Dragon offense has surpassed the 500-yard mark in total offense four times this season, including piling up 566 in the loss at Mary.  MSUM has only been held under the 400-yard mark twice this season, and that was against the teams currently ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation, Minnesota State, Mankato and Minnesota Duluth, respectively.

Jiskra Sets Record, Chases Another
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 2,501 yards f, surpassing the previous record of 2,349 by Jabari Taylor in the loss to St. Cloud State. Jiskra is now in second in career receptions with 167, just 47 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 67 tackles and also has a sack, an interception, four pass breakups and two forced fumble. His 38 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 47-17 (.734). 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. 13 in the latest poll.

National Rankings
The MSUM football team is tied for seventh in the nation in first downs (205), 17th in total offense (489.0) yards per game), 31st in rushing offense (215.1), and 39th in passing offense (273.9). Jiskra is ranked 10th in the nation in receiving yards (870), 10th in receiving yards per game (108.8) and is tied for 13th in receptions per game at 7.5. Hodge is ranked 21st in the nation in total offense (314.6). Sophomore Sheldon Jones is 30th 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. Freshman Damon Gibson blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown in Saturday's game at Mary.

Week 9 Under Laqua
The Dragons are 1-2 in Week 9 games under Laqua. In 2011, they lost to Mary, 52-13 and a year ago, lost to Minot State, 31-10 in a home game.

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 fifth in the NSIC in all-purpose yardage at 130.0 yards per game and is ninth in rushing yards per game at 78.2,. 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 is just outside the top 10 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.

Stalwarts Up Front
Senior Kasey Groettum and juniors Bennen Bierman and Troy Peterson have each started all 30 games over the past two-plus seasons on the offensive line -- combining for 90 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.