In two previous gridiron meetings between Stetson and Marist, the games have been decided by winning control of the line of scrimmage. The battle in the trenches will likely be the key again this year.

The Hatters (2-6, 1-5) will travel to the Hudson River valley in New York for Saturday's Pioneer Football League game against the Red Foxes (4-4, 3-2). Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. from Tenney Stadium in Poughkeepsie, NY. The contest will be broadcast by the Hatters Radio Network with Luke Mauro and Pete Blais on the call.

Video streaming of the game will be available through Marist and shared on GoHatters.com through Hatter Vision. The first 1,000 fans in attendance at the game will receive a Terrence Fede bobblehead. Fede, who was an all-conference defensive lineman for the Red Foxes from 2009-13, currently plays for the Miami Dolphins.

It is appropriate that Marist is recognizing a former great defensive lineman, because that is the area of the 2015 team that Hatters coach Roger Hughes is most concerned about.

“Their defensive line is big and quick,” Hughes said. “Demetrius Williams, I thought, was the best defensive end in the league last year. We knew he was good on film but, in person, I thought he was actually better. He really is a special player.”

The redshirt senior from Chester, Pa., has just 31 tackles on the season, but 10 of those stops have ben behind the line of scrimmage. Combined with nose tackle Nick Foster and opposite end John Brennan, the trio of seniors provides the backbone for the Marist defense.

“They play a similar defense to what we do, they certainly blitz a lot, but their scheme really relies on those defensive linemen to get pressure with three and four-man rush,” Hughes said. “While their secondary is pretty conservative, their front really gets after it. We are going to have to find ways to account for those guys by having backs help out in pass protection and things like that. We have to try to keep those guys at bay a little bit.”

When the teams first met in 2013, it was Fede who led the Marist defense to a shutout of the Hatters with four tackles for loss, including 2.5 sacks. In that game the Hatters struggled to move the ball, gaining just 131 yards of total offense, including 56 rushing yards, while picking up just eight first downs.

“In the game up at Marist two years ago, they physically out-classed us,” Hughes said. “We were freshmen going against men, and it showed, especially on the offensive side. We just couldn't get anything going from a run game perspective.”

The Hatters turned the tables last year, winning 22-14 in DeLand by scoring a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to send the Homecoming crowd home happy. Stetson had 110 rushing yards in that game, led by Cole Mazza with 97 yards and two scores.

“Playing in front of our home crowd, for homecoming, had our guys all jazzed up,” Hughes said. “We played that game with a lot of passion and were able to create some big plays at times to keep us emotionally into it. They were a little shocked by how well we were able to move the ball. In the fourth quarter, I thought we really took over the momentum of the game – our guys gained a lot of confidence as the game went along.”

While neither of those previous contests will have any bearing on this weekend's game, winning the battle up front for Stetson, especially on offense, will be a key to that game. The Hatters certainly want to move the ball better than they did the last time in New York, but keeping the Marist offense off the field is equally as important.

“They run a balanced offense and their quarterback, Mike White, is fun to watch,” Hughes said. “You just never know what is going to happen with him because he is very creative. He may not always throw from above his head. It may come out side-armed or it may be behind his back. He is kind of a gunslinger, and that makes him fun to watch, but he is also dangerous.”

A sophomore from Woodbury, NY, White has thrown for 1,773 yards so far this season and has 10 touchdown passes to his credit. On the flip side, he has completed less than 50 percent of his throws and also has thrown 10 interceptions. His two favorite receivers are senior Matt Tralli and freshman Juston Christian who, in just six games has averaged 110.2 yards and scored five touchdowns.

“You can't break coverage because he will find guys, and he has shown that he can do that,” Hughes said. “They are very good on man routes, they do a great job on isolations and double moves and disguising their routes.”

For the Hatters, the players in the secondary will likely be looking to make a statement after surrendering a school-record 453 passing yards last week against San Diego. Hughes said that performance was humbling for a unit that, for three years, has been considered to be the Hatters' best.

“If you are going to play in the secondary, you have to understand you are sometimes going to have games that don't go your way,” Hughes said. “You had better have a short memory. Probably the most disappointing thing for us, as a team, was that the secondary was the strength of our team and that is one place were we would hold up. They exploited us there. Their quarterback had a stellar day and their receivers just schooled us.”

To bounce back from that performance, the Hatters have gone back to basics this week in preparation for a Marist team that will provide some of the same challenges as San Diego.

“You have to eat a little crow, humble yourself a little, and go back to the techniques that are going to help you do what you need to do,” Hughes said. “We had been pretty good against other teams, but one of the things that has helped the secondary is getting some pressure on the quarterback. We just couldn't force him to throw the ball before he wanted to. The longer you are in coverage, the more pressure it puts on you.”

Getting pressure on Marist will be the responsibility of the Hatters defensive line, which for the most part has done the job this year. Junior end Davion Belk has 40 tackles, including 13 for loss with six sacks while the combination of Jeff Fallabel, Matt Mines, Eddie Curry, Tyler Magill, Brendt Green and Zane Smith have worked hard to improve.

But the Hatters will have their hands full with an experienced offensive line for Marist.

“Up front, they are huge and most of those guys are redshirt seniors or juniors,” Hughes said. “That is still a bit of a mismatch for us, so we will have to use some movement and some pressure from the second level to try to equalize that and maybe get them to overset so that we can create some pressure.”

The players in the second level include linebackers David Lazear and Dylan Wydronkowski as well as All-American Donald Payne, who is still dealing with a sore ankle from the game two weeks ago at Valparaiso. Payne leads the Hatters with 95 tackles this year, including a team-high 13.5 for loss, but his numbers are not close to the record-setting performance from his sophomore season.

Hughes said there are multiple reasons for the drop in Payne's numbers, none of which are the result of performance. Injuries early in the season, and now, plus the overall improvement of the Stetson defense have been the chief factors.

“He is playing hurt, to his credit, but he is still leading the league in tackles,” Hughes said. “If he had not had the two previous years, we would be marveling at how he is doing but, for him, it has been a bit of an off year. For a normal human, it has not been a down year.”

Hughes credits the improved play on the defensive line, and the linebackers, for taking some of the load off Payne as well.

“I think that certainly has something to do with it. We are getting better play out of our linebackers. David Lazear is playing much better and we are getting everything that Dylan Wydronkowski has to give. Dearmis Jamison is starting to do things that we have been waiting for him to do, and that has added depth. All of those guys have been good and are getting better.”

The game at Marist will be especially important to Wydronkowski, who is one of two Stetson players from the Empire State. The senior is from nearby Glenville and is second on the team with 60 tackles, and third with eight tackles for loss.

Hatters Notebook

Positive Response: In the midst of a 2-6 season, and coming off a tough loss at home, it would be easy for the Hatters to begin descending into the pit of self-doubt and, even worse, finger points. That has not been the case. In fact, the coaches have seen the opposite reaction.

“I have been extremely pleased with the entire team and its approach to practice this week,” Hughes said. “We have probably had our best practices since the beginning of the program. I think that is the result of being soundly defeated and the realization that nothing is going to be given to us. We have to go out and earn it.”

Hughes said that building a winning tradition is not an easy process, but the objective it to take the Hatters to a similar level to what San Diego, Dayton and others have been able to accomplish.

“When you have an immature program without a lot of tradition, there is always concern that we may never get to where we want to go,” Hughes said. “There is always concern over whether we are on the right path toward having that tradition. It takes all of us, as players and coaches, working together to get that done.

“Certainly, after games like that, there can be some finger pointing. As the week has gone on, if there was any, it has turned toward pointing in your own direction and working toward 'what can I do better.' The concern has been more about what can I do to get better, to handle my responsibilities, and there has been more of a sense of urgency that, if everyone does that, the combined effort will result in wins. I think there has been a reaffirmation that those are the things we need to do.”

Receivers Stepping Up: For much of the season the receiver positions have been anchored by senior Darius McGriff, junior Chris Crawford and sophomore Ja'Vonta Swinton. While that trio continues to serve as anchors of the unit, others have started to step up.

The last three weeks have seen the return of Kegan Moore and Darian Wright from injuries as well as the rapid development of freshman Joseph Holguin, who earned his first start last week and is somewhat of a surprise.

“He is catching everything, he blocks like crazy and is one of the hardest workers we have,” Hughes said of the Savannah, Ga., native, who goes by the nickname 'Peanut'. “We knew about him, but you never know how quickly they are going to acclimate to the college level. He has been a very pleasant surprise. Another guy like that is Darian Wright. We knew he had potential and he is one of the fastest and hardest workers that we have.

“Chris Crawford has always been a hard-worker, but that is rubbing off. Some of the things I have seen from Darius McGriff this week, not only with his play, but working with the younger kids and showing leadership. Some of the things we have needed from him, he is now starting to do.”

Rounding Back Into Shape: Even though junior Cole Mazza and Sean Gannon have been back on the field for a couple of weeks after recovering from injuries, they haven't yet performed at the level they did before getting hurt.

That may be close to changing. Both Mazza and Gannon have started to look like their old selves in practice this week.

“Cole has certainly looked good in practice this week,” Hughes said. “He had almost 1,000 yards last year, but he hasn't been running with the authority that we saw last year since the injury. This week, we have seen more of that.

“I think Sean is getting much closer. He gives us some versatility because he can play guard or tackle, and he could play center if he has to. He has been knocking the rust off each week and he certainly looks like he is closer to being back.”

Another lineman who has been out of action for the last two weeks is freshman center Cam Morgan. After starting three games, Morgan suffered a knee injury in the Campbell game and hasn't played since.

“He probably feels the best he has felt,” Hughes said. “The problem with the type of injury he has, on any one play it could go. We have been careful to monitor his reps in practice to make sure he is ready to go. We will see, but we have been very encouraged by what we have seen in practice this week.”

Last Game of the Year: Getting Gannon and Morgan back up to speed at this point of the season is good for multiple reasons. One of the most important is that the game this week at Marist will be the last of the season for freshman right tackle Connor Donovan.

The Tarpon Springs native played in the first two junior varsity games early in the season, in addition to seeing action as a backup in the first three varsity contests before becoming a starter. That means the game this week will be his 11^th of the season, which is the maximum for FCS football before the post-season.

Hughes said that he is not concerned about shuffling the deck on the offensive line for the last two games because the group has so much experience at this point in the year, and several players can play multiple positions.

“Our focus has been on winning this game, then we will see where we are,” Hughes said. “I think a lot will depend on how those guys play this week with regard to the continuity on the line. All of our guys have played numerous positions and we are getting back close to healthy again. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Weathering the Storm: One of the factors in the Hatters' first trip to Poughkeepsie in 2013 was a brisk wind that gusted to as much as 40 miles per hour during the contest. While the forecast for Saturday's game is calling for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 50s, an eight mph wind will not be as big of a factor.

“The wind at Valpo didn't affect us much,” Hughes said. “If there is wind, you have to make sure that you are in position to catch punts and kickoffs. For our kickers, if there was a bright spot last week, I thought the punters did a fabulous job. They will have to adjust to the breeze and the placement of the kicks is crucial when you are talking about containing their return game.”

Keys to the Game: As always, the Hatters will be focused on winning the turnover battle. Stetson did not have a turnover in the game against San Diego and has had just one turnover, on a fumble, in the last two outings. The result is the Hatters are now even on the year with 15 turnovers lost and gained. Marist, on the other hand, is plus two, but has lost 17 turnovers and gained 19.

The other keys for the Hatters will be in controlling the ball on offense, playing the field position game well and staying in the game from start to finish from an emotional standpoint.

“We have to be able to run the ball effectively to keep it out of their hands,” Hughes said. “We have to make sure we play field position football. Last week, we did exactly that. San Diego had to drive it 75 or 80 yards every time. The problem was they were able to do that. We got some short fields, but we didn't take advantage. We have to take advantage of the field position game.

“We have to make sure that we stay in the game emotionally. We have to make sure we take things one quarter at a time. We need to win the first quarter, then win the second quarter and then the third. If we do that, on the road, we will gain confidence as the game goes along and our emotional reaction at that point will take over.”