MARSHALL, Texas – Having retained the "Battle of the Border" Claw for the fourth year in a row last week in Louisiana, the East Texas Baptist University football team (4-3, 4-2 ASC) returns home to Ornelas Stadium for their homecoming game against Sul Ross State University. This will be the first day game of the year at Ornelas Stadium and only the second in eight games for ETBU.

Last week, ETBU secured the claw by beating Louisiana College, 48-27. Brian Baca went 17-for-30 in the passing for 199 yards and five touchdowns. Jeremiah Robertson ran for a career-high 157 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown while Tarek Beaugard caught 98 yards on three receptions, including a touchdown. On a defense that yielded one LC third down conversion all night. Tremell Scott had a career-high eight tackles while Aaron Buckley picked off two passes for 148 yards and a touchdown.

For head coach Brian Mayper, the team was able to set the tone from the start and maintained that intensity throughout the contest. "Our guys were fired up to play Louisiana College," said Mayper. "We controlled the game for most of the game. So I'm excited about how we played."

With LC out of the way, the Tigers turn their attention to SRSU. Last year, ETBU won Baca's second career start at quarterback 42-28 out west in Alpine. Recently, the Lobos picked up their first win of the season with a 28-27 victory over Howard Payne University.

Up to this point, SRSU has scored 18.4 points per game while the defense has allowed 46.2 points per game. Fabian Baeza leads the Lobos at quarterback with 1027 yards passing per game and seven touchdowns. On the ground, Williton Greer has rushed for 556 yards and three touchdowns. Byron Jones (227 yards), Keondre Strong (200 yards), and Marcus Montez (175 yards) have each caught two touchdown passes as receivers. Defensively, Jacques Wisner is the top tackler with 51 on the season. Fentrese Milligan has picked up 4.5 sacks while Cory McMahan has picked off two passes in the secondary.

Mayper comments, "It's exciting to be back home for homecoming. I mean, you talk about legacy. Guys that have played in that jersey. You have the alumni in general, but you have the guys that played football here since 2000. Numbers 1, 5, and 20 are going to get up in the stands and watch numbers 1, 5, 20 and compare themselves to them and see if the players are doing what they did when they played. We're excited to have our alumni back and cheering for us on Saturday."

Kickoff will get started at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon.