Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jim Moldenhauer Fresh off their 27-14 home loss on Senior Day, the reeling 4-5 Redbirds will now face off against 8-0 North Dakota State in Fargo, N.D.

With only two games left in the 2007 campaign, the Redbird football team will travel across the country to North Dakota, as they take on the North Dakota State Bison on Saturday.

The 4-5 ISU team will be taking on an undefeated No. 1 North Dakota State (8-0) squad in this weekend's matchup.

Although this is considered a non-conference game, the Bison are preparing for their entrance into the Gateway Conference, which will take place next season.

North Dakota State is coming off of a 52-17 thrashing of Southern Utah, while ISU just finished their home schedule last weekend with a rough 14-27 loss to Western Illinois.

Not only did the 'Birds lose the conference game, they also lost one of their leading rushers for the season, sophomore Geno Blow, who suffered a broken left hand.

Even though ISU is now out of the playoff picture, the team is not yet willing to give up on their season. Senior fullback Dave Mordis, who suffered what appeared to be a season-ending ACL injury, has made somewhat of a miraculous comeback, and he has no intentions of losing the next two games.

"Being a senior, I want to go out as a winner. We have two games here left, to be over .500, and I feel like we have an opportunity to go in there to North Dakota State. It's a tough place to play, we all know that," Mordis said."But it really doesn't matter to me. It's another game on the schedule. North Dakota State, hopefully we're going to win there, hopefully we're going to get a win at Southern. I want to go out as a winner my senior career. I have an opportunity to do that, so hopefully things will go our way."

Because the Bison joined the Football Championship Series only four years ago, after moving up from Division II football, they are not eligible for the playoffs and are in their final year of provisional status.

If their stats were ranked by the NCAA, however, tailback Tyler Roehl would be sixth in rushing, as he is averaging 142.14 yards per game. They would also have the top punt returner in the league in Shamen Washington, who is averaging 21.45 return yards per game.

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