RIPON, Wis. - This weekend's game against Lawrence University will continue the longest college football rivalry in the state of Wisconsin and the 14th longest rivalry in the country, as the two teams will meet for the 106th time, dating back to their first meeting in 1893.

Ripon (6-3, 6-2) has owned this series as of late, winning the last seven games against the Vikings (4-4, 4-4), while outscoring them by an average of 19 points in those games. The Red Hawks have also been victorious in 11 of their last 12 games with Lawrence. The rivalry is one reason this game is important, but that won't be the only thing at stake, come Saturday.

"Obviously we want to win these big rivalry games, but there's a lot of reasons that this game is important. First and foremost, we want to finish in second place, which will keep us going in the direction that we want to go for next season," head football coach Ron Ernst said. "It's also our last game, and with it being at home, we really want to send our seniors out on the right note."

With a Ripon win, the Red Hawks would clinch a second place finish in the Midwest Conference for the second consecutive year. Lawrence on the other hand, is looking to finish the season with a winning conference record for the first time in 20 years, which they would accomplish with a win on Saturday.

"There will be a lot of things at stake this weekend for both teams. This is an important game because it makes the off season a little nicer if you win the last game of the season," Ernst said. "This is an important game for a lot of reasons, so it's going to make for a very competitive and exciting game."

Lawrence had their share of struggles early in the season, winning just one of their first five games. Since then however, they've looked like a completely different team, winning three consecutive contests, including a 27-14 win over Carroll College last weekend. Once a team builds momentum as the Vikings have in the past few weeks, it can be tough to stop, but that's just what the Red Hawks plan on doing this weekend.

"Lawrence is playing extremely well right now. They're executing well and aren't making mistakes, and when a team does that, they're going to have success," Ernst said. "They're taking advantage of mistakes that their opponent makes, which is something that good teams do. Right now, they're playing with a lot of confidence and their players believe in what their coaches are teaching them."

The Red Hawks, as usual, won't worry too much about what Lawrence is going to do, but instead focus on what they need to do in order to win the game. That will include pounding the ball left, right, and up the middle. Ripon leads the Midwest Conference in rushing, averaging 293 yards per game. Their 2,638 rushing yards has already set a new school record for rushing yards in a single season. They are also just 11 rushing yards away from recording the fifth highest total in Midwest Conference history.

"We don't really pay attention to those records and statistics right now. Instead, we want to really focus on the game at hand, and at the end of the year, we'll take a look at what we've accomplished and celebrate that, but right now, our focus is to play as well as we possibly can against Lawrence," said Ernst.

In order to play as well as they can, the Red Hawks must win the turnover battle, which has been a problem at times. The Red Hawks have fumbled 20 times this season, many of them on pitches, but were fortunate enough to recover half of those miscues.

"The thing we have to do offensively is hang onto the ball. Turnovers will always kill a team, no matter what level or league they're playing in," Ernst said. "On the defensive side of the ball, we have to make plays and tackle well in the open field. The biggest thing will be to keep their quarterback pinned in and come up with some big plays. If we do that, we should be alright."