RIPON, Wis. -  For the first time in three years, the Ripon College football team will battle Monmouth College on the gridiron, as the two teams will renew their rivalry Saturday in what will be the 63rd all-time meeting. Ripon leads the series 35-25-2, but Monmouth has won the last two meetings, including a 28-0 win in the last meeting, which came during the 2016 season. No matter what the result, the history of the series says that it should be a high scoring affair, as the winning team has scored at least 42 points in four of the last five meetings.

"We've had some really good games with Monmouth over the years, and these schools are very similar to each other," Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst said. "Monmouth has had a lot of success the last couple of years and has been able to recruit players that have taken them to another level."

Monmouth's recent dominance has included winning 24 of their last 25 games against teams from the Midwest Conference. The Fighting Scots have appeared in the MWC Championship game in each of the last two years, and have won the conference championship in two of the last three seasons. Although both teams enter this weekend with identical 1-2 records, Monmouth has played two top 20 teams, losing to both by a combined 67 points.

"They've played the toughest schedule in the conference, so I'm sure they'll be ready to get after it on Saturday, just as we will be," Ernst said. "I'm excited to see how we match up against them."

Ripon is coming off a narrow 28-25 loss at Illinois College, which saw the Red Hawks get out to a 9-0 lead and take a 15-13 lead into halftime. After turning the ball over just once in their first two games combined, the Red Hawks turned it over five times against IC, which played a big role in the final result.

"The biggest thing I'd like to see this week is improvement across the board. We have steadily improved each week in certain aspects of the game, but I'd like to see that in all areas," Ernst said. "Our guys are playing really hard, but we just need to eliminate mistakes and execute better so that we're playing our best ball of the season entering conference play next week."

Despite the loss, Ripon finished last week's game with the most yards of total offense, out-gaining Illinois College by a 318-238 margin. That included 198 rushing yards, marking the 28th consecutive game that the Red Hawks have gained more rushing yards than their opponent. They enter Saturday's game ranking 18th in Division-III in rushing yards per game (254.3).

One area where Ripon was perfect last weekend was the kicking game where Junior Kyle Jobke is quickly emerging as a secret weapon for the Red Hawks, making all three of his field goals and both of his extra point attempts against Illinois College. His three field goals is tied for a single game school record, while he also connected on a career-long 47-yarder, which is tied for the second-longest field goal in program history.

"Kyle had the best game of his career last week and I'm happy with how hard he has worked and how he's progressed," Ernst said. "He has developed into the conference's top kicker and has become quite a weapon for us because when we get inside the 30-yard line, there's a good chance we'll come away with some points."

Ripon's defense intercepted two passes last week, with Bennett Groves and Cameron Gruenwald doing the honors. That extends the Red Hawks' streak of consecutive games with an interception to 13, which is a big reason the team ranks fifth in the MWC in both total defense (325.0 ypg) and pass defense (165.0).

"We held Illinois College below 300 yards of total offense, which is a huge thing to do at this level and we met a lot of our defensive goals last week, so I feel good about our defense," said Ernst.

This weekend, the Red Hawks will match-up against a Monmouth offense that is gaining 115.3 passing yards and 116.7 rushing yards per game. They rank 10th in the MWC in scoring offense with 14.3 points per game, but are coming off a 34-14 win against St. Norbert.

"A lot of Monmouth's recent success has come because of their run game, thanks in large part because they have a very big and talented offensive line," Ernst said. "They have a couple running backs that are very good and can throw the ball if they need to, but their running game is probably the strength of their team."

The two teams will kickoff at 1 p.m. Saturday at Ingalls Field in what will be Ripon's first home game in a month. The game can be seen live, with LiveStats at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.