Football | 09/21/24 | 7:01 AM

HELENA, Mont. - The Carroll College Football team will return to their home turf for the third time in as many weeks on Saturday, hosting Simpson University at 2 p.m. at Valley Bank Field at Nelson Stadium.

The Fighting Saints (1-1, 1-0) are looking to stack wins, and that task starts with handling their business against the Red Hawks (0-3) this afternoon.

Carroll picked up its first win of the season, a 16-13 conference win, over Rocky Mountain College last weekend in Helena. The game did go exactly to plan in the second half, as a 13-point halftime lead was chewed away, and the Saints needed Frontier Conference Special Teams Player of the Week Spencer Berger (Billings, Mont. / JR) to come up big in the waning minutes to come out on top.

Wins are wins, however, and the Saints are only looking forward. 

They enter Saturday's homecoming game with plenty of reasons to be excited. True freshman running back Peter Minnaert (Boise, Idaho) passed the eye-test in last week's game against Rocky. Lincoln Holmes (St. George, Utah / R-FR) made one of the more impressive catches you'll see all weekend to put Carroll in position for the game-winning field goal, and the Carroll defense is still very, very good.

Defensively, Carroll ranks No. 18 in the NAIA in total yardage with just 248.0 yards allowed per game. The Saints held Rocky to under 200 yards of total offense in the win, and more impressively, held them to just nine total yards in the first half.

Carroll Football, in its 105th season, is a nationally-recognized name, and for good reason. The six-time NAIA Champions have played 865 games in their storied history. This week's opponent Simpson, could not be further away on the spectrum.

The Red Hawks are in their first season sponsoring Football, entering the week with just three official contests in program history. Earlier this year, the Frontier Conference announced the Simpson would join the league as an associate member for Football only, beginning in 2025. 

The newly-formed program has seen its share of struggles through three games, allowing 178 points in the three losses. The Red Hawks got their first touchdown in program history last week against Southern Oregon.

Saturday afternoon's game will kick-off at 2 p.m., an hour later than the normal start time, as five individuals and three teams are being inducted into the Carroll Athletics Hall of Fame this morning. Carroll greats Sean Blomquist, Dustin Rinker, and the 2011 National-Runner Up Football team are the Football inductees in the '24 class.

A live stream of today's game can be found HERE, and a tape-delay broadcast will air on SWX channels throughout Montana this evening.

Live stats can be found HERE.

Catch Montana Radio Company's Stewart Davis along with Carroll Hall of Famer, Gary Turcott, call the action live on Rewind 94.9 FM or online HERE.

Visit www.carrollathletics.com this eveing for a full recap of the action, and to stay up to date with everything going on in Carroll Athletics.