Game Notes at Lawrence University

RIPON, Wis. - For the last 19 years, the Doehling-Heselton trophy, given to the winner of the annual Ripon-Lawrence game, has resided in the office of Ripon Head Coach Ron Ernst. After this weekend, the Red Hawks hope to make that an even 20, with two decades of dominance in what is the oldest college football rivalry in the state of Wisconsin. Ripon leads the all-time series 65-46-7, with the first meeting taking place during the 1893 season, which was just the third year of existence for Ripon's football program.

"This has always been a very intense rivalry, and is a game that dates back more than 120 years," Ernst said. "This is what rivalries are all about, and it's a lot of fun to participate in."

With at least one player from 15 different states and nearly as many players from out of state (42) as from Wisconsin (43), the Ripon coaches have emphasized how big of rivalry this is. The Red Hawks won last year's game against Lawrence 52-0, but there have been some close calls during Ripon's current 19-game win streak, such as two years ago when the Red Hawks won by a score of 14-7.

"We've shared some things about the rivalry with our players, but they realize it's just like any rivalry they've had in High School, only at a higher level," Ernst said. "They know that there will be a lot of alums at this game and our players will hold themselves to a high expectation of performance and this will be a great experience for them."

Ripon (3-5, 2-2 MWC) is on their biggest roll of the season, as they have won two consecutive games by a combined score of 63-14. One common theme from most of their games this season is that they've started strong, scoring first in all but one of their games. The Red Hawks have also allowed just 27 first-quarter points this season, while shutting their opponent out in the first quarter during five of their eight contests. The difference in the last two weeks as opposed to the first half of the season is that they are finishing games the way they start them.

"We certainly felt like we were shooting ourselves in the foot with mistakes during the first half of the season, but now we're starting to figure some things out with our guys playing well and I'm happy with our progress," Ernst said. "We're really preaching to our guys to continue to improve and peak at the end of the season."

Lawrence (1-7, 0-4 MWC) enters the game on a seven-game losing streak after winning their season opener at Grinnell. The Vikings are averaging 11.5 points per game, while giving up 26.1 points per contest. On the other side, Ripon is averaging 24 points, while allowing 21 points per game.

"Lawrence has shown flashes of doing some good things, but they're a lot like we were early in the season in that they are just making too many mistakes at times," Ernst said. "Once they get that figured out, they have the athletes to do some really good things and they run some schemes that cause a little bit of concern."

Winning Saturday's game will go a long way in achieving Ripon's goal of winning their final four games of the season. After this weekend, the Red Hawks will close out their season by playing the loser of Saturday's Illinois College-Chicago game.

"Ending the season with a winning record in conference play would be big, especially considering how we started the season," Ernst said. "To finish with four straight wins would be very good and would be something that our players could be proud of."

This Saturday's game will begin at 1 p.m. at The Banta Bowl in Appleton, Wis., and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.