Sioux Falls (3-2, 1-0 NSIC South)
vs.
Winona State (3-2, 1-0 NSIC South)
Saturday, October 12, 2013
1:00 p.m. CST
Bob Young Field (5,400)
Sioux Falls, S.D.

The Broadcast
Live Stream: The University of Sioux Falls will provide a free live stream of Saturday's NSIC matchup at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/siouxfalls.portal#

TV: The Winona State matchup is also the Midco Sports Net HD Tape Delayed Game of the Week. Mike Henriksen will have the call.

Radio: KWSN (AM 1230/FM 98.1) will air Saturday's game. Player interviews and the Jed Stugart pregame show airs 30 minutes prior to kickoff. Tom Frederick and Tim Hiatt will team up to call the play-by-play. Fans can also tune into the game at KWSN.com.

Quickly: The University of Sioux Falls Cougars (3-2, 1-0 NSIC South) return home with a 1 p.m. CT kick against the Winona State Warriors (3-2, 1-0). Midco Sports Net has the game telecast (tape delay) with Mike Henriksen in the booth.

The Cougars are 3-2 on the season. They lost their season opener at Minnesota Duluth before bouncing back with two wins (Northern State, Minnesota Crookston) sandwiched around a narrow 17-10 loss at the University of Mary. USF earned its first road win of 2013 last week at Southwest Minnesota State.

Latst week's 55-48 win at SMSU improved the Cougars' record in the month of October to 12-1 with Coach Stugart at the helm. In fact, Stugart's lone October defeat was a 10-9 setback at Winona State last season (10/6).

A USF win over Winona State would...
Be the first ever victory against the Warriors.
Give USF three straight conference wins after starting 1-2.
Keep the Cougars in the mix for the NSIC South title.
Improve USF's record at Bob Young Field to 45-1.

Week Five: Luke Papilion threw two touchdown passes, including a 51-yarder to Wes Smith and ran for three more scores, leading the Cougars (3-2, 1-0 NSIC South) to a 55-48 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in a thrilling game between NSIC South foes Saturday night in Marshall.

SMSU (2-3, 0-1) got a career-best 308 yards receiving and four touchdowns from senior wideout Anthony Dean, and the Mustangs went ahead 48-45 on a field goal by Lance Schuveiller with 11:57 to go. A crowd of nearly 3,900 watched the USF freshman signal caller's 17-yard touchdown run break a 48-48 tie with 0:44 left in the game and a desperation drive for SMSU stalled at the USF 35-yard line, allowing the Cougars to improve to 3-2 on the season despite surrendering an NSIC record 828 yards of offense.

USF led 21-3 at one point but the fight wasn't over. SMSU came out of the gates swinging after the Cougars' third score and battled back to within seven, 31-24 at half. The teams mostly traded scores from that point on with SMSU tying the game at 45 and then taking their first lead early in the fourth on a 26-yard field goal. But that was plenty of time for Papilion and the high-powered Cougars on a day when neither defense had much success. Eleven plays later, Bradley Hatfield drilled a 19-yard chip shot to tie the game at 48-48. Stugart's defense held firm on the following drive and it was Papilion who delivered the final blow when he pulled the ball and ran it for 17 yards and the game-winning score.

USF By the Numbers

• 1: An impressive ground game (450 yards on 77 carries) vaulted USF to the league's top spot for rushing offense (306.2 yards per game). The Cougars are 7th in the NCAA Division II (Henderson State leads the way with an average of 632.6 yards per contest).
• 2: Sacks allowed by the Cougar offensive line at Southwest Minnesota State after USF quarterbacks finished the Crookston game with clean jerseys. 
• 8-0: The Cougars remained perfect under Coach Stugart when recording at least 500 yards of total offense.
• 9: The Cougars' NCAA D-II ranking for kickoff returns (27.94). In contrast, Winona State is currently 92nd (19.21).
• 10: Total receptions versus the Mustangs. The 10 passes were hauled in by a total of four receivers, with Carrington Hanna (4) and Wes Smith (4) accounting for most of the damage. 
• 12: Rushing touchdowns for Luke Papilion; putting him in a tie for 2nd nationally with SMSU's Tyler Tonderum. 
• 15: Cougars' NSIC ranking for pass defense (253.6).
• 18: Carrington Hanna's 5-yard reception in the second quarter of the SMSU game extended his streak of games with at least one reception to 18. The streak started on 10/29/11 vs. Minot State and Mr. Reliable now has 1,112 career receiving yards.
• 19: Consecutive winning seasons for the USF football program.
• 100: USF set a new single game record on Saturday for offensive plays in a single game. The previous mark was 94 (Concordia, '09).
• 152: Points USF has scored in its three victories. The Cougars have been held to 17 combined points in losses at UMD and U-Mary.
• 172: Number of yards that the Cougars have already surpassed last season's rushing total by; USF picked up 1,359 yards on the ground in 2012 and have 1,531 yards through the first five games.
• 593: Nephi Garcia's rushing total through the Cougars' first five games; one more yard than USF's leading rusher (592) gained in the entire 2012 season. Luke Papilion is only two yards behind behind at 591 net rushing yards through five games.  
• 828: Yards of offense for SMSU on Saturday. It's a new NSIC record and also the most yards the Cougars have allowed in recent history (2002). USF gave up 606 yards to Upper Iowa last season (10/26) and prior to that, the most yards a USF team had allowed was 556 to Carroll College during the 2005 NAIA playoffs.

Scoring Early: The Cougars needed just 2:06 to get on the scoreboard in the win at SMSU, as Luke Papilion hit Wes Smith on a 51-yard scoring strike on the game's 14th play. It was the first time in five games this season that USF has scored on its first possession.

...And Now More Often: The Cougars have tallied 27 first-quarter points in their last two games (2-0) after tallying a total of 10 first quarter points in the first three games of the season.

Charting the Cougars Month-by-Month
USF is 1-0 in August, 11-5 in September, 11-1 in October, 5-2 in November and 1-1 in December during Coach Stugart's tenure.

Having a Senior Moment
The Cougars list 16 seniors on their roster, the second-largest senior class of the past five seasons. USF graduated a program-record 25 seniors last season and the senior class sizes of the previous three season are as follows: 2011 (13), 2010 (12) & 2009 (11).