Wayne State (5-2) at Minnesota State (5-2)
Last Year: 13-3, Minnesota State

While the top notch teams in the Northern Sun appear to be in the NSIC North Division this year, the NSIC South seems to be the overall tougher division. Teams are much more balanced in this division, and for these two teams it looks like they are all must win games from here on out.

With equally tough schedules remaining, this tilt Saturday will end the playoff hopes for one of these two clubs.

The co-leaders in the NSIC South Division meet, obviously the winner is in the driver's seat, but nothing is guranteed win or lose for either of these teams, with each facing tough competition to round out the regular season.

This is certainly one of those games the Wildcats coaching staff is looking forward too, Wayne Coach Dan McLaughlin served as the offensive coordinator of the Mavericks in 2004. His offense has been tough to stop, and the defense had been showing a lot of improvement prior to their set back last week against Concordia.

I think the Wildcats will have some trouble this week though in Mankato, Wayne struggles at times against the run, and Maverick freshman Andy Pfeiffer is second in the Northern Sun in rushing with 695 yards. That and Jon Daniels gives the Mavericks more offensive balance which I think will further cause some fits for the Cats. Last week Daniels completed 11 of 12 first half passes in the Maverick win in Fayette.

Not to mention, Wayne has never beaten Minnesota State, now 0-3 against the Mavericks all time, I am going to have to go with the Mavs at home to get the victory.

Extra Point: Doing some name dropping here, but Dan McLaughlin isn't the only coach on Wayne's coaching staff who spent some time in Mankato. Wildcat Defensive backs coach Alex Woods coach at Minnesota State as well from 1999-2002 where he was the defensive line coach and special teams coordinator.


Concordia St. Paul (3-4) at Winona State (3-4)
Last Year: 31-28, Winona State

Winona State hasn't had a four game losing streak since the turn of the millenium, that's exactly what they are trying to avoid Saturday when they take on Concordia at home.

It is homecoming in Winona, but the Warriors haven't had the season they were hoping to have to this point. With Curtis Dewberry, Rayon Simmonds, and Theo Burkett in the backfield, and an offense that was hoping to have a strong showing from a transfer quarterback, the Warriors have had a couple of tough breaks with injuries offensively, and the wins have been a little harder to come by since beating St. Cloud earlier this season.

Nothing shows the Warriors struggles more than on third downs, where they are converting just 35-percent (28/80) this season.

The concern for Winona will be stopping the big play, with the return of Spencer Ohm last week for Concordia, all of a sudden the big play was back in the Concordia offense.

Charles Gilbert had catches that resulted in 54 and 52 yard gains, and a 46 yard touchown reception. That will be a problem for Winona no question, but for some reason, I just don't see them losing their fourth straight game.

Look for Coach Sawyer to rally the troops and Winona to pull out a victory on Saturday.


Bemidji State (6-1) at University of Mary (3-4)
Last Year: 23-22, Bemidji State

Of the three leaders in the NSIC North Division Bemidji State has the easiest schedule remaining. The Beavers play three teams under .500 and St. Cloud State, who they will have to beat if they want to win the conference.

The Beavers have already made it through the teeth of their schedule, and now line up and get ready to take on the University of Mary.

That is exactly what scares me about the next two weeks, for the Beavers. Both Mary and Northern State have been threatening to win games against some pretty good teams. Mary opened the season with a win against Chadron State, and beat Augustana, while Northern State nearly knocked off a red hot Augustana team a couple of weeks ago.

A lot of casual football fans are already looking forward to the next two weeks in the Northern Sun, with St. Cloud and Minnesota Duluth next week, and Bemidji and St. Cloud in two weeks.

However, I think Saturday, and next week against Northern are really the two big keys. Two weeks from now for Bemidji won't matter a bit if they don't get these two wins first, but if Bemidji can win the next two weeks, they will have a chance to play St. Cloud for what could be the conference title in a couple of weeks.

The matchups in between the Marauders and Beavers favor Bemidji, Mary has given up over 1500 yards on the ground already this year, and Bemidji loves to run the football. Plus, I think the Marauders could have some difficulty moving the ball against the conference's number one ranked defense which is only giving up 12-points a game.

Bemidji wins in Bismarck on Saturday.