Fort Hays State University football looks for its fifth win of the season on Saturday in Kearney, Neb. The Tigers are set to take on the rival Lopers of Nebraska-Kearney at 12 p.m. from Cope Stadium at Foster Field. The Tigers enter at 4-4, while the Lopers are 2-6.
The Tigers are looking to make it three straight wins over the Lopers. FHSU has won both meetings since UNK joined the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in 2012. The Tigers defeated the Lopers last year by a score of 56-17 in Hays. FHSU has won the last two meetings between the teams in Kearney.
With three games remaining in the season, the Tigers sit in a tie for sixth in the MIAA standings with Emporia State and Missouri Southern, all at 4-4. The Tigers will host Missouri Southern in their final home game of the season on November 8 before traveling to Central Missouri (6-2) for the final game of the season. The Tigers are in search of their second straight winning season, something that has not happened since 2003 and 2004 when they finished at 6-5 both of those years.
The Tigers still have yet to allow 30 or more points in a game this year. Last week marked the most yielded to a team this year, 29 points by Northwest Missouri State. The opponent was held to 13 or less in three of the four Tiger wins this year. However, the FHSU offense has scored over 24 points just one time this year, the 48-13 win at Northeastern State. Two of the four wins for FHSU this year were by three or less points.
Scoring points has not been an issue for either FHSU or UNK in the last seven meetings between the schools. FHSU has averaged 35.7 points against UNK in that span with a total of 250 points, while UNK has averaged 35.4 points in that span with a total of 248. FHSU has the upper hand in wins and losses in that run, winning four of the seven. However, only the last two meetings were in MIAA play. The teams stopped playing each other on a yearly basis after 2005 when FHSU joined the MIAA in 2006. So five of the last seven occurred with both teams were members of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.