Fort Hays State (3-5) at South Dakota Mines (2-5) Saturday, October 27, 2012 Rapid City, S.D. - Dunham Field at O'Harra Stadium - 1 pm (MT), 2 pm (CT) Game Notes I Watch Live I Listen Live

The Fort Hays State football team will play its only non-conference game of the season on Saturday (Oct. 27) at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, S.D. Game time is set for 1 pm Mountain Time/2 pm Central Time. FHSU is looking to extend its win streak to three games with a win on Saturday. FHSU enters the game at 3-5 overall.

South Dakota Mines has just two wins this year (2-5), playing an independent schedule as it transitions to NCAA Division II. The Hardrockers are 0-3 against NCAA Division II or I teams this year, with losses to North Dakota, Colorado Mines, and Missouri Southern.

Fort Hays State struggled last week on offense with just 221 total yards, but still found a way to win by a score of 28-26 over Lincoln. FHSU had four blocked kicks in the game (2 punts, 1 field goal, 1 extra point) and now have six on the season. Both punt blocks went for touchdowns, each scooped by MIAA Special Teams Player of the Week Anthony Sheppard. It was the first time FHSU had two touchdowns in a game on punt blocks since 1995 when they had two recovered in the endzone against Emporia State. The six blocked kicks this year is the most for FHSU since 1997, when it also had six. The record for a FHSU team in the school's NCAA era is 12, set in 1993.

Fort Hays State went 1-1 in non-conference games last year. FHSU won its last non-conference contest by a score of 38-21 at Central Oklahoma last year.

Shaquille Cooper, in his first game at running back last week, rushed for 115 yards on 13 carries. He is one of five Tigers with 100 or more rushing yards this year and became the fourth Tiger to rush for at least 100 yards this season. Addie Brown, Treveon Albert, and Tarean Austin have also had games of at least 100 yards rushing this year.

Layton Hickel continues to lead the FHSU defense with 67 tackles, followed by Austin Hubert with 62. Keke Paul is the team leader in interceptions with three, averaging 34 yards per return. Basil Bandy is the team leader in sacks with 3.0.