What: CUC football v. Concordia Wisconsin
Where: Concordia Stadium, River Forest, IL
When: Saturday, Oct. 26 at 1:00

A Homecoming game. A rivalry game. An opportunity to further the excitement created by a last-minute win last week. These are just some of the factors playing into the Concordia-Chicago Cougars' week of preparation for this Saturday's contest against Concordia Wisconsin. So what stands out for CUC head coach Jason Aubry as his team prepares for game number seven on the schedule?

"Bottom line, we have a job to do," said Aubry. "We need to put aside the things that might distract us, go into this game battle-tested and ready to battle CUW....this is the biggest game of our season right now because it's the one in front of us, and our only focus is coming out of this game with a 1-0 record."

Through 2008, the Cougars-Falcons football rivalry was very one-sided with CUW winning 25 of the first 27 games. However. CUC's 2009 Homecoming game resulted in a thrilling 22-21 overtime win for the Cougars and swung the pendulum a bit. The Cougars have won six of the last 10, including a 37-17 victory when the teams last played in River Forest two years ago.

A win on Saturday would not only make for a happy weekend for CUC alumni and fans, but it would also put the Cougars on the verge of their first winning season since the NCAA III playoff season of 2012. The Cougars improved to 4-2 (2-1 NACC) last week by overcoming a 20-point deficit late in the third quarter and eventually spoiling Eureka's Homecoming with a 35-34 win. Aubry cited trust as a key in pulling off the comeback, stating that "If I trust my brother to do his job, and I do what I'm supposed to do, and we put that together, we feel that there's nothing we can't do."

That trust manifested itself in different ways, from the defense pitching a shutout in the fourth quarter to Lance Moise running for two of his three touchdowns in the final nine minutes to, perhaps most crucially, Corey Dooley hauling in an 18-yard pass on a fourth-and-12 to keep the winning drive alive. Earlier in the game, Dooley had three other catches as well as a catch for a two-point conversion, but his fourth-down reception of Jaxon Aubry's pass stood as the most important and "trustworthy" play of the night.

A similar effort will be required from the Cougars if they are to hold off the Falcons (2-4, 0-3 NACC). As usual, Moise (4,218 career yards after a 159-yard effort last week) will draw a lot of attention, but interestingly enough, this will be only the second time that Moise has faced CUW. In 2016, he ran for 282 yards and three touchdowns in a 48-38 CUC win in Mequon. But however the Cougars decide to attack, whether on the ground or in the air, they must execute against a Falcons' defense which Aubry describes as "very disciplined." CUW has recorded 16 takeaways in their six games this year, including 10 interceptions. Josiah McDermit recorded two picks against Aurora's Gavin Zimbelman last week, noteworthy in that Zimbelman had thrown just two interceptions on the year, prior to the game.

On the other side of the ball, the Falcons' offense has been mainly a pass-oriented one this year. James Linn went over the 1,000-yard mark in passing last weekend, and he was 24 of 32 for 254 yards and a touchdown pass to Christian Booker. Linn will look to evade a CUC defensive line that is averaging 2.5 sacks per game. Last week, the Cougars recorded just two sacks, but they also managed six tackles for minus-yardage, as well as an opening series interception by Tyler Dudley, which led to CUC's first score.

Links to live coverage of the game can be found at www.cucougars.com/coverage. The pregame for the live stream begins at 12:45, followed by Ryan Fahey's play by play.