RIPON, Wis. - The last time a football team from the Midwest Conference (MWC) defeated a team from the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) was in 1935 when Ripon defeated La Crosse State 13-0 in the first meeting between the two schools. Fast forward 82 years and the Red Hawks are hoping to duplicate that feat, while also extracting some revenge on UW-La Crosse, which defeated Ripon last season in the second all-time meeting.

The Red Hawks are also looking for their first win of the 2017 season after losing last week's season opener 28-20 against Concordia-Chicago. In that contest, Ripon fell behind 28-6, but rallied to nearly complete an impressive comeback.

"Our players really competed hard last week and continued to battle even when we fell behind early," Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst said. "We must get off to a fast start in the future so that we don't fall into an early hole."

One spark that Ripon received came unexpectedly from freshman quarterback Julian Patton, who was forced into his first collegiate game due to an injury to starter Sam Shroyer. Patton led the Red Hawks to a nine-play, 89-yard drive on the first full drive of his college career, culminating with him running for a 24-yard touchdown. The Madison, Wis. native, who led Ripon with 107 rushing yards on 16 carries (6.7 ypc), later threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Mignone.

"Julian made some plays and kept his composure, but he did make a couple freshman mistakes," Ernst said. "The game will slow down for him as he gets more experience and we have a tremendous amount of confidence in him this week."

Patton led a Ripon rushing attack that finished with 340 yards last week, which included 90 yards from Tyler VanDeVelde and 74 from Cody Chase. Saturday, they'll face a UW-La Crosse defense that gave up 373 rushing yards in last week's season opener, a 27-7 victory against Luther College.

"I was very pleased with our running game because we have five new starters on the offensive line," Ernst said. "They all played extremely well, both in protecting the quarterback and helping our running backs find space, which gives us tremendous hope and optimism for the rest of the season."

Defensively, Ripon will face a UW-La Crosse offense that put up 442 yards last week, including 306 through the air. In addition to those passing yards, Eagles Senior quarterback Tarek Yaeggi completed 64 percent of his passes (28-44) with three touchdowns. Against the Red Hawks last season, Yaeggi completed 9-of-15 passes for 137 yards and one touchdown, while also rushing four times for 22 yards and another score.

"Yaeggi is very accurate, but what makes him so dangerous is that he runs very well," Ernst said. "He's a smart, athletic player who is someone we're going to have to keep an eye on at all times."

The Red Hawks will counter that passing attack by trying to apply as much pressure to the quarterback as possible. Seniors Brandon Bartel and Vince Stensrud will gladly do the honors, as each player recorded a sack last week. Bartel, a two-time First Team All-Conference selection, now has 14.5 career sacks, which is just 2.5 shy of Ripon's career record of 17. Stensrud currently has 10 sacks, which is just one shy of breaking into Ripon's career top 10.

"Our defense allowed a couple touchdown passes early in last week's game, but other than that, they were pretty solid," Ernst said. "Vince and Brandon played well, and I expect them to continue to get better each game."

Another key component of Ripon's defense will be that of the secondary, in which all five starters are Sophomores. Even with that youth, the secondary played admirably last week after knocking off some rust early, breaking up eight passes in the game.

"Every player in the secondary is either in their first year as a starter or is playing a different position than they played last season," Ernst said. "They played very well at times, and I anticipate them getting better as the season progresses."

In order to avenge last year's loss to UW-La Crosse, there are a couple things the Red Hawks must accomplish.

"We didn't get off the field defensively against them last year, which is something we have to do by forcing them to punt," Ernst said. "Offensively, we have to sustain drives and get first downs, which will help keep the defense off the field."

Saturday's game will begin at 1 p.m. from the friendly confines of Ingalls Field in Ripon, Wis. It can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/, with LiveStats also available.