Kentucky Wesleyan will look to bounce back from one of its toughest defeats in years on Saturday — a 74-0 loss at home to Urbana.
They'll try to do so against Lindenwood-Belleville, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school in its first year of playing football.
The Panthers (1-5) will kick off against Linx (4-2) at 1 p.m. at Steele Stadium trying to snap a four-game losing streak.
"Obviously it was a tough week for us," coach Brent Hoslclaw said. "We're struggling as a football team right now. We're testing for leadership. I've got to do a better job. All of these losses are on me. They're not on these kids. My young men work hard. We've got to prepare ourselves better. We've got to play harder and it's just one of those things.
"Life doesn't always give you lemons. You've got to make lemonade."
Holsclaw said he won't be deceived by the fact that this is Lindenwood's first year as a football scool. He pointed to their record as proof of the team's immediate success and said the coaches there have been recruiting for two years to prepare.
He said they also have several Division-I transfers and lost by just seven points to Division-II opponent Oklahoma Panhandle State.
"They're not your typical first-year program," he said.
Quarterback Kerry Gibson has thrown for 833 yards this year and seven touchdowns while accounting for almost 200 yards of total offense per game.
Holsclaw said he likes his chances this week because running back Devan Le'Gall should be back on the field after sitting out last week's game with a foot injury, and quarterback Will Barnes should be close to full health.
But above all, Holsclaw just wants to see his team back on the winning side of things.
"We're struggling right now," he said. "We've got to step our game up, or — it doesn't matter who we're playing — we're going to lose. This is a good football team that we're getting ready to play. We've got out hands full. We're going to keep working. We've just got to play every play to the best of our abilities."
