Independent file photo SMSU’s Aaron Murphy looks to make a catch during their game against Wayne State College on Sept. 8, 2018. The Mustangs will face the Wildcats today.

MARSHALL – After dropping a hard-fought 38-23 home loss to No. 3 Minnesota State last Saturday, the Southwest Minnesota State football team hits the road for the first time in 2019 with a battle tonight versus Wayne State College in Wayne, Neb.

•Kickoff at Bob Cunningham Field inside Memorial Stadium is slated for 6 p.m.

•Wayne State lost its season opener, 37-20, at Winona State last Saturday afternoon.

SMSU coach Cory Sauter said despite the tough loss last week, he was pleased with a lot of the things his team did against the Mavericks but knows the season is still early and they have a lot to work on.

“I thought just the competitive nature of the guys stood out in my mind; they didn’t back down and they approached it the right way. There are certainly some things that we have to clean up. First of all, just being able to have some sort of run presence is going to be a focal point moving forward and the same goes on the defensive side with being able to find a way to stop the run. That’s the formula for really good offense and defense, if you can do those two things you’re always going to give yourself a chance,” Sauter said. “I thought we definitely need to just play smarter in certain situations, looking at where we’re at on the field either on offense or defense, knowing the situation, knowing third down, knowing red zone. Typically in practice everything is scripted out and you’ve got a good understanding of what you’re working on during that phase, but in a game it changes all of the time, so we just need to get used to that and know what we’re trying to do and take away.”

SMSU vs. WSC

series notes

Southwest Minnesota State and Wayne State meet for the 31st time on Saturday with WSC leading 22-8 in a series that started on Nov. 1, 1969 … WSC is 10-4 all-time in games played in Wayne … WSC has won the last three meetings and four of the last five including 23-14 last season in Marshall … WSC has won 12 of the last 17 meetings since 2002 … WSC had a seven-game winning streak in the series from 2005-11 … SMSU has scored 39 or more points in five of the last seven games including 55 in 2013 and 61 in 2015 with both games coming in Wayne … WSC earned a 20-6 victory in the last game played in Wayne on Oct. 7, 2017.

Broadcast info

•Saturday’s game will be broadcast on 105.1 FM KARL with seventh-year SMSU play-by-play voice Ryan Rohlik.

•Live stats and video can be found at SMSUmustangs. com.

Opening drive tidbits

•SMSU has lost 10 straight NSIC South Division road games over the last three seasons.

•SMSU’s last divisional road victory came on Nov. 7, 2015, versus Concordia-St. Paul.

•SMSU has opened a season 1-1 or 2-0 in 10 of the last 11 seasons. Last season was the program’s only 0-2 start since 2007.

•Saturday is the second of three night games SMSU will play in the opening four weeks. SMSU will have afternoon games in each of the final seven weeks.

•SMSU will be looking to snap a three-game losing streak to Wayne State.

•Sophomore tight end Carter Damlo caught his first career touchdown pass in Saturday’s loss to MSU.

•Senior running back Max Simmons needs 48 rushing yards to move into sole possession of seventh place in the program career record book with 1,947 yards.

•Senior left tackle Zach Stratmoen has started 23 straight games the past three seasons. It’s the longest streak by any current Mustang.

•Senior wide receiver Daniel Davis registered his seventh career 100-yard receiving game in last week’s loss to MSU ranking 10th in team history.

•All nine of Davis’ receptions on Saturday versus MSU resulted in a first down.

•SMSU has not rushed for 100 yards in four straight games dating back to last season. SMSU’s last time reaching 100 yards was on Oct. 20, 2018, versus Northern State.

Nava impressive

in relief

•Junior college transfer quarterback Steven Nava was pressed into duty in the second half of Saturday’s loss to Minnesota State replacing an injured Boyer Bouman.

•Nava completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 184 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.

Chapman big night leading the defense

•Junior college transfer safety Garrett Chapman was all over the field in his first game at a Mustang recording a game-high 15 tackles including 11 solo stops.

More defensive

transfers make

impact

•Along with Chapman, several other transfers on defense played major roles in the season opener.

•Senior safety Davaeon Johnson had seven tackles with one for loss, junior linebacker Gage Roberson also added seven tackles while junior cornerback Marshawn Reese registered five tackles.

Sauter added he felt they did a nice job on defense of coming up big in certain situations and they’ll need to replicate that mentality going into this weekend.

I thought we did a really nice job on those fourth-down stops; when we had to come up and make a play, guys definitely stepped up to the situation and made it happen. We played pretty clean football in terms of operation and getting the right personnel on the field and things of that nature, so that was encouraging. We just need to regroup again and make sure that we can replicate that mentality even though our opponent is different.”

SMSU high-octane

offense

•Since being shutout on Nov. 5, 2011, SMSU has scored 30 or more points in nearly half of its games.

•Dating back to the final game of the 2011 season through 2018, SMSU has scored 30 or more points in 36 of its last 80 games.

•In that time, SMSU has scored 40 or more points 21 times, 50 or more points 11 times and 60 or more points once.

•SMSU hasn’t been as prolific scoring in the last two-plus seasons, having reached the 30-point plateau just four times in its last 27 games since Oct. 20, 2016, but three of those games came last season.

Sauter said on offense, they’ve been working on getting some additional reps in the run game going and just continuing to put the right pieces to the puzzle out onto the field.

“It kind of goes back to our point of emphasis, we definitely try to work our run game at a higher level, getting a few more reps in practice which in theory should help your players be more prepared in that area,” Sauter said. “We’re still trying to get the right pieces in place in terms of personnel because in Game 1, you have a certain idea of what guys can do, but until you actually get some game snaps it’s hard to truly know what you have so it’s part of the process, especially early on in the season.”

Scouting Wayne State

•Dan McLaughlin is in his 15th season as head coach at WSC and has a career record of 75-81. He is the all-time wins leader in WSC history and is the second-longest tenured coach in the NSIC.

•The Wildcats finished 3-8 last season including 2-6 in NSIC South Division games.

•WSC opened its season last Saturday with a 37-20 road loss to Winona State. The Wildcats finished with 88 yards rushing and 284 yards passing.

•WSC trailed 23-0 after three quarters of play before scoring on two touchdowns passes and a 100-yard kickoff return in the fourth quarter.

•Sophomore wide receiver Mason Lee caught five passes for 72 yards and one touchdown.

– Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications