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The Fighting Saints look for a season sweep of Rocky Mountain College this Saturday in Billings, Montana. Carroll rolled the Battlin' Bears in Week 2, 44-7, to earn a win over the then-ranked No. 23 team in the NAIA. Carroll will look to win its first road game of the season.
QUICK NOTES
* Turning over a new page: In five consecutive games, the Saints have recorded at least one takeaway from their opposition. The Saints forced a fumble and recovered against UMW last week.
* Home sweet home: After dropping their first home game of the season to then-No. 8 COI, the Saints bounced back to defeat No. 22 Montana Western 33-29.
* The Saints now own two home wins over NAIA Top 25 teams. Carroll is 2-1 this season against teams in the Top 25.
* Freshman running back Matthew Burgess is averaging 117.3 rushing yards per game, good for No. 9 in the NAIA. He's scored 10 touchdowns this season, No. 10 in the NAIA.
*Burgess won his second Frontier Conference Offensive Player of the Week on Oct. 21. His career-high 183 rushing yards and two touchdowns powered the Saints. Burgess previously won the award after rushing for 153 yards and three touchdowns against No. 23 Rocky Mountain on Sept. 14. Burgess is the first Saint to win the award since Mac Roche won it in Sept. of 2015.
* The last time the Fighting Saints had a running back record three rushing touchdowns in a game was when Carroll's all-time leading rusher Dustin Rinker accomplished the feat against Valley City State in the NAIA Playoffs in 2014. Matt Burgess has done it twice.
* Junior wide receiver Shane Sipes posted consecutive 100-yard receiving games in Week 2 and 3 before consecutive 63-yard outings against SOU and COI. The deep-threat showed late last week that he's capable of breaking the big play at any time.
* Senior running back Major Ali's 63-yard reception against Montana Western was his longest play of his career with the Fighting Saints. His previous long was a 48-yard rush in 2018.
* Sophomore tight end Tony Collins' 85 yards against No. 22 UMW were his career-high for a game. Collins is No. 2 in the Frontier Conference for scoring per game, averaging six points per outing.
* Devan Bridgewater's 300-yard game to open up the season was the second time the Saints have passed for over 300 yards since Sept. 3, 2016, when quarterback JT Linder threw for 330 yards, two touchdowns and an interception when he completed 19-of-33 passes against Montana Tech as the Saints defeated the Orediggers 27-24. More recently last season, Kolby Killoy threw for 309 yards against Eastern Oregon on Senior Day.
* Bridgewater is averaging 232 yards per game so far this season, which ranks No.22 in the NAIA. He's accounted for 11 touchdowns this season.
* For the fourth game this season, the Saints did put up 500 yards of offense last weekend against UMW. The Saints' offense is averaging 443 yards per game, which is No. 10 in the NAIA.
* The last time the Fighting Saints were ranked in the NAIA Top 25 was September of 2016 when they held a ranking of No. 21.
* Good call, coach: With a conversion rate of 44.7 percent, the Saints own the No. 10 mark in the NAIA for third down conversions. The Saints are No. 1 on fourth down conversions, converting at a 75 percent clip.
* Keeping the QB clean: Carroll's offensive line has only given up an average of .800 sacks a game. It's the No. 5 mark in the NAIA.
* Senior cornerback Isazah King recorded a career-high four pass break-ups against Western. Prior to that, King had broken up three passes in a single game in two instances, against Rocky on Aug. 23, 2018, and then two weeks later against Linfield Sept. 8, 2018.
* King ranks No. 7 in the NAIA in passes with 1.7 per game while freshman DB Zach Spiroff ranks No. 2 in the NAIA in passes defended per game at 2.
* Saints coach Troy Purcell played at Carroll under Bob "Putter" Petrino, who posted a 163-90-2 record (.644) from 1971-1998. In Petrino's first season at the helm, the team went 2-3.
* The Saints were picked to finish seventh in the Frontier Conference by coaches and media.
* Carroll has won six championships, the most of any current member of the NAIA. Texas A&I won seven before changing affiliation.
* Carroll gave RMC its first loss of the season and then the Battlin' Bears lost three more games before grabbing a 57-39 win over MSU-N.