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ERIE, Pa. - The Mercyhurst University football team will be putting its three-game winning streak on the line when it hosts the Crimson Hawks of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. from Tullio Field.

IUP leads the all-time series against the Lakers 3-2, which includes two consecutive victories. Last season, the teams met in Indiana, Pa., with a chance to represent the western division in the PSAC Championship on the line. Mercyhurst led 13-7 at halftime, but the hosts scored 24 unanswered points in the second half to defeat the Lakers 31-13.

The Lakers (4-3, 2-2 PSAC West) are not just on a three-game winning streak but they are on a streak of three consecutive contests where the team has scored 50 or more points - something that had never been done in the history of the program. In fact, the 164 points by Mercyhurst over the last three games is the second-highest total over a three-game span in school history - the 1985 Lakers scored 165 points in the first three games of the season.

Mercyhurst kept both streaks alive last Thursday with a record-breaking 51-21 victory over crosstown-rival Gannon University at Erie Veterans Memorial Stadium. The Lakers broke a 28-year old record by amassing 628 yards of total offense against the Golden Knight defense. The previous record was 572 against Brockport State on September 7, 1985. Included in that total was 407 rushing yards by the Lakers - the most by the program since making the move to Division II and the third-highest total in school history.

Redshirt sophomore Brandon Brown-Dukes became the fourth player in school history to rush for more than 2,000 career yards when he gained a career-best 221 yards on the ground and scored a pair of touchdowns. With 2,125 career yards, he now trails only Tim Ruth (1982-85), Craig Woodard (1992-95), and Richard Stokes (2005-08) on the program's all-time list. He was named the PSAC West Offensive Player of the Week and the ECAC Division II Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts.

Meanwhile, sophomore linebacker Joe Dever was named the ECAC Division II Defensive Player of the Week after recording five tackles, two sacks, two tackles for a loss, two forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries in last Thursday's victory. Senior placekicker Steven Wakefield made it a clean sweep of the ECAC awards, earning the Special Teams Player of the Week honors going a perfect 3-for-3 in field goals and 6-for-6 in extra points. With his field goal midway through the fourth quarter, he became the school's all-time leading scorer, surpassing Stokes for the all-time record. Wakefield now has 243 career points.

The Crimson Hawks (5-2, 2-2 PSAC West) have headed in the opposite direction, losing two consecutive games after starting the season 5-0 and ranked as high as seventh in the country. Since then, IUP lost to Slippery Rock (42-16) and to Edinboro (36-30) to drop out of the national polls.

IUP's defense, one of the nation's best, has taken it in the chin over the last two weeks, however, it stills ranks among the conference's best in several categories. The Crimson Hawks have given up 78 points and 1,086 total yards in the last two games, but still ranks in the top five in the four major defensive categories, including: points/game (15.4 - 1st), total yards/game (309.7 - 3rd), passing yards/game (189.1 - 3rd) and rushing yards (120.6 - 4th).

De'Antwan Williams paces the Crimson Hawks' rushing attack with 644 yards and nine touchdowns. Mike Box enters as the starting quarterback and has completed 54.8% of his passes for 1,312 yards and 11 touchdowns (nine interceptions).