Muleriders travel to Northwestern Oklahoma

Week 4 of the 2013 Great American Conference football season sees Southern Arkansas travel to Alva, Okla., to face Northwestern Oklahoma for the first time in 36 years.

The Muleriders (2-1, 2-1 GAC) enter the game as winners of their last two games after defeating East Central, 50-16, and Southwestern Oklahoma, 20-17, at home.

With the Muleriders scoring 50 points in their first two games, SAU has now reached the 50-point mark 27 times. The Muleriders record in games in which they score at least 50 points is an outstanding 26-1. The lone loss came in Week 1 this season when SAU lost to Southeastern 56-50.

With an 86-yard effort against East Central, Mark Johnson, the 2008 Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Year and twotime All-GAC First-Team running back, set a new career rushing record at SAU.

Currently, Johnson has 3,147 career rushing yards and is coming off of his second consecutive 1,000+ yard rushing season. Johnson passed Mark Mason’s (1985-88) old mark of 3,034 career rushing yards.

Additionally, Johnson enters tonight with 36 touchdowns scored, placing him second all-time at SAU. He needs two touchdowns to surpass Nik Lewis’ (2001-03) career mark of 37 touchdowns.

Last week, Northwestern Oklahoma (0-3, 0-3 GAC) nearly earned their first win as members of the GAC as they fell to UAM 22-20.

On the season, the Rangers are averaging just 10.0 points per game while allowing their opponents to score an average of 43.0 points per game.

Offensively, Northwestern Oklahoma is averaging 260.0 yards of total offense (142.7 passing/game, 117.3 rushing/ game) and allowing its opponents 487.0 yards of total offense (263.3 passing/game, 223.7 rushing/game).