RIPON, Wis. - The Red Hawks enter the mid-season in what is truly "mid-season form". After last Saturday's 21-14 win at Carroll, which gave head coach Ron Ernst his 100th career victory, Ripon remained in a three-way tie atop the Midwest Conference standings with a perfect 4-0 conference record.

"I felt we had a team that was good enough to have a start like this. You've got to have some luck along the way, as well as some skill. I thought we had the skill to do that, but the question was would the luck come along and help us along the way, and it has," said Ernst.

Ripon hopes that luck will continue this Saturday against Beloit College in what will be a rematch of a disappointing Red Hawk loss last season when the Buccaneers came away victorious, 28-22 at Beloit.

"They pose some real concerns in this weekend's game because they have a lot of kids coming back from that team that beat us last year that are very good players," said Ernst.

This year's Beloit team doesn't appear to be that great, on paper, as they have yet to win a conference game, and are 1-4 overall. Even with that record, Beloit is not a team that the Red Hawks can take lightly.

"I don't think their record is indicative of the kind of team they have," Ernst said. "This is going to be a very tough game and we need to be ready and go into it with the same enthusiasm that we've had the past few weeks."

Even more of a reason to not overlook this game is the fact that the two games following this weekend are at Monmouth and against St. Norbert, at home, which are the two teams that are currently tied for first with the Red Hawks. With those games quickly approaching, it may sometimes be difficult to focus on the game at hand.

"This is an important game and we've worked too hard to stumble. We've done a good job so far this year on staying focused on the game in front of us and hopefully this week will be no different," Ernst said. "We've got to stay motivated within ourselves and keep realizing we have goals that we want to achieve."

Satuday's game against the Buccaneers will also give some players an adreneline boost, as it marks the 2006 homecoming celebration. With so many alumni and family in the stands, no one wants to disappoint.

"I hope we get a huge crowd for the game. When you have a homecoming game, there seems to be a little more excitement in the air and you have alumn that are coming back," Ernst said. "We're going to be honoring the 1996 and 2001 championship teams, so hopefully those guys will all be back as well. I also really hope our community comes out to support us.