GAME NOTES (PDF Document)

MAGNOLIA, Ark. - Saturday's game is the 14th meeting between Southern Arkansas and East Central in a series that began in 1953, and will be only the second time the teams have faced each other as conference opponents.  Last year's meeting was the first in 13 years. 

Prior to last year, the series had been played in a pair of six-game stretches, with the squads locking up on the field from 1953-1958 and again from 1993-1998.  The Tigers served as the Muleriders' season-opener in seven of those 12 years. 

SAU opened the 1953 and 1954 seasons with a 25-13 win in Magnolia and a 14-0 shutout in Ada, Okla., before ECU got its first win in Magnolia in the 1955 season-opener by an 18-6 margin.  Southern Arkansas claimed two more wins the next two years, 7-6 in Ada, and a 7-0 blanking in the 1957 season-opener in Magnolia.  East Central bounced back with a shutout of its own, 13-0 the next year in Ada, and at the time, its largest margin of victory over the series.

It would be 35 years before the teams would meet again, with the Tigers continuing their suspended winning streak, claiming a 44-36 victory in Ada in 1993, en route to winning the NAIA national championship.  They made it three in a row, their longest winning streak of the series, the next year in a 14-12 win in Magnolia.  The Muleriders stopped the skid in 1995 with a 17-7 victory in Ada, but ECU responded with a 14-3 decision the next year in Magnolia.  SAU won the next two meetings, a 37-9 game in Ada in 1997 for its largest margin of victory, and claiming its third shutout in the series with a 24-0 win in 1998 in Magnolia.  East Central piled up its largest margin of victory in the series last year in Ada, a 49-6 game to end the regular season.  

SAU leads the series by a 7-6 margin, holding a 4-3 advantage in games played in Ada, while the series is even at 3-3 in Magnolia.