THIS WEEK
Facing their first ranked opponent of the season, the University of Mary visits #23 Minnesota State University on Saturday, Sept. 24. The last game in the month of September, kickoff is set for 2 pm from Blakeslee Stadium on the MSU campus in Mankato, MN. It is Minnesota State's homecoming game. 

THE RECORDS/LAST WEEK
The Marauders are 0-2 overall and in the NSIC. UMary dropped a 31-28 decision at home against Southwest Minnesota State... Minnesota State is 2-1 overall and in the NSIC. The Mavericks lost 23-22 at Northern State. Trailing 23-0 in the 4th, the Mavericks scored 22 straight points but couldn't catch the Wolves.   
 
FOLLOW LIVE 
Voice of the Marauders Jesse Rostvedt and former UMary athletic director and Hall of Fame football coach Roger Thomas team up to broadcast Marauders games on KFYR 550 AM. The game is also streamed online at www.kfyr.com.
Free video streaming of Marauders home and Northern Sun games is available  https://nsicnetwork.com/goumary and at www.GoUMary.com/coverage  
Live stats for Saturday's games are available online at www.GoUMary.com/coverage 

QUICK HITTER STORY LINES                                
The Marauders are looking for their first win of the season after opening with three straight one-possession losses
UMary owned second half leads against both Wayne State and Winona State
Saturday's loss was the Marauders 6th by 8 or fewer points (one possession) over the last two seasons
Despite the 3-point loss to the Mustangs, it was the 1st game all season the Marauders never played with the lead
The Marauders-Mavericks meeting on Saturday is the 4th straight game against NSIC South division teams to open the season for UMary | 6 of the Marauders final 7 games of the season will be against NSIC North foes 
The Marauders have scored 28 or more points in 6 of their last 7 games and thrown for 300 or more yards in 7 of 8 games
Danny Kittner passed the century mark in receiving yards for the 2nd time in three games with 152 against SMSU. The All-American has had 100+ yards receiving in 11 of his last 14 games and 14 times in his career.
All-American Logan Nelson cracked the 300 yard passing mark for the first time this season against SMSU with 307
The 2021 NCAA D2 leader in passing yardage, the Marauders have had 300+ yards passing twice in three games this season (300 v WSC, 307 v SMSU)

WEEK 3 RECAP | Southwest Minnesota State 31 UMary 28
SMSU scored 1st before the Marauders tied the game 7-7 on a Collin Gapen 12 yard TD pass from Logan Nelson
SMSU took a 14-7 lead into half and 21-7 in the 3rd
Game changed early in 3rd. Gabe Levy blocked an SMSU punt but Marauders couldn't score in the redzone. SMSU then drove 98 yards to take 21-7 lead. 
Riley Potthast caught a 10 yard TD pass to close within 21-14
Dave Small Jr had a 1 yard TD run to close gap to 28-21 midway through the 4th
Gapen caught 17 yard TD from Nelson with 2:47 left in game to pull within 31-28 but couldnt get ball back into closing seconds of game
Korvin Feagins and Ty'Rhae Gibson both intercepted passes in the first half for UMary. It was tha careerfirst for Feagins. 
Danny Kittner caught 8 passes for 152 yards, ran once for 4 yards, returned three kicks for 69 yards and returned a punt 19 yards, accumulating a season-high 244 all purpose yards. The All-American led NCAA D2 in all purpose yards last season. 
Logan Nelson completed 21-of-37 for 307 yards and 3 TDs
Riley Potthast set career-highs with four catches for 76 yards and 1 TD, including a diving 47 yards at the 1 yard line to set up the Small TD run
Collin Gapen set career-highs with 5 catches for 63 yards and 2 TDs
SMSU RB Jesse Sherwood ran for 205 yards and 3 TDs on 36 carries to win NSIC Offensive Player of the Week honors
The Marauders accumulated 392 yards (307 passing) and 18 1st downs. The Mustangs had 475 yards (301 rushing) and 27 1st downs
Jamire Jackson made 10 tackles and Devyn Charles added 9 (0.5 for loss) and two pass breakups
Kevin Powell has a strong day punting the ball. He averaged 40.4 yards per punt on six attempts, downing four inside the 20. His longest was 47 yards and no punts were returned. Powell also hit all four of his PATs. 

MARAUDERS-MAVERICKS SERIES HISTORY
This is the 7th meeting between the Marauders and the Mavericks
The Mavericks captured the first six meetings
Four of the six contests were played in Bismarck
Former Marauders and Mavericks scholar-athlete Brayden Thomas is on the Los Angeles Rams practice squad

PICKS
For the third time in the last two seasons the Marauders intercepted a pair of passes in the SMSU game. Both Korvin Feagins and Ty'Rhae Gibson made 1st half interceptions. Twice UMary had a pair of picks, the most in a single game since snaring four against Minnesota Crookston in the final game of 2019. 

BLOCK THAT KICK
Redshirt freshman Gabe Levy blocked a punt against Southwest Minnesota State early in the 3rd quarter. It was the 1st for the Marauders since Jamison Lytle blocked a punt against Minnesota Duluth on Nov. 3, 2018. Levy also made an impact in the season opener when he ran for a pair of TDs in his first collegiate game.

RECORD WATCH | KITTNER
Danny Kittner, the Marauders all-time leading receiver with 225 catches and 3,009 yards, has caught 26 touchdown passes to trail only Jake Pfau (34) and Tyler Steffan and Luke Little (30). Kittner broke the career record for receptions in the final game of last season and the career yardage record in game two at Winona State. 

NSIC RECORD WATCH | KITTNER
With 225 catches for 3,009 yards, Danny Kittner has a shot as breaking the Northern Sun career records in both categories.

NSIC Catches - 269 Nate Huot (Northern State 2014-17), 225 Danny Kittner

NSIC Receiving Yards - 3,428 Shane Zylstra (Minnesota State), 3,360 Matt Heller (Augustana), 3,304 Nate Huot (Northern State) 3,118 Logan Masters (Wayne State), 3,009 Danny Kittner (UMary)

CLIMBING THE CHARTS | NELSON
Logan Nelson moved into 3rd place in career passing yardage with 5,456 yards, passing both Paul Cronin (4,990) and Tim Garcia (5,154) this fall... Craig Bagnell is the all-time leader (9,170), followed by Chris Schwab (7,786)
Nelson is 5th in TD passes with 53. Craig Bagnell leads with 75, followed by Chris Schwab (73), Tim Garcia (58) and Paul Cronin (55). 

IN SIGHT
With 175 yards rushing, Dave Small Jr. has pushed his career total to 969 yards three games into his second season at UMary. He needs 31 yards on the ground to become just the 15th Marauder to crack 1,000 career yards rushing. 

DEBUTS
Several scholar-athletes made their collegiate debuts for the Marauders this year. Among those wearing the Blue & Orange for the first time were transfers Adam Brown, Sonny Brown, Jordan Duson, Korvin Feagins, Caden Green and Xavier Lewis, redshirt freshmen Tre Gola-Callard, Jaxon Feller, Raphael Hamilton, Ian Kopf, Gabe Levy, Mason Phillips, and Carter Smith and true freshmen Jaxon Young and Traivon Dyson.  

NCAA TOP 50 RANKINGS | INDIVIDUAL 
Danny Kittner 
Receptions/game - 6th (8.0)
Receiving yards/game - 12th (114.7)
All purpose yards - 15th (158.3)

Logan Nelson
Passing yards/game - 29th (253)
Total offense/ame - 29th (254)
Completions per game - 38th (18.3)
Touchdown passes - 43rd (5)

Dave Small Jr. 
Rushing TDs - 34th (3)


NCAA TOP 50 RANKINGS | TEAM 
Punt Returns - 8th (19.0)
Passing yards allowed - 29th (151.7/game)
Red Zone Offense - 32nd (0.900)
Passing Offense - 39th (257)
4th down conversions - 48th (.500)