HAMMOND – The Northwestern State football team was impressed Friday as the Demons visited the Louisiana State Capitol, but they're hoping the highlight of their weekend comes late Saturday night at the end of a visit to play ancient rival Southeastern Louisiana.
The Demons and Lions collide Saturday evening in a 6:07 kickoff in Strawberry Stadium, with Cox Sports Television providing coverage to a national audience. NSU alumnus Lyn Rollins will call the play by play, with another NSU alumnae, Carley McCord, as the sideline reporter, teaming with analyst Rene Nadeau.
CST reaches much of Louisiana along with affiliate markets through cable systems in 15 states. For a full list of channel numbers for CST in various markets, visit Southland.org/CST. Elsewhere, the telecast will be available on ESPN3 and through the ESPN College Extra schedule, airing on DirecTV 788 and Fios 821 nationally.
The Demon Sports Network radio broadcast booms out of 100.7 KZBL FM in Natchitoches, with affiliate stations News Radio 710 in Shreveport, 105.5 FM KBUCK of Alexandria and 103.1 KWLA serving Many and Leesville. Veteran announcer Patrick Netherton heads the crew handling the play by play, with sideline reporter Tony Taglavore. Their broadcast starts at 5:30.
The NSU-SLU series dates back 81 years. Since the Lions resumed playing the sport in 2003, they've won seven of 12 meetings, including the last four.
Neither team has won recently, however. NSU is 0-3 this season, including a pair of Southland Conference near-misses, while SLU's 0-2 non-conference start stacks on top of a four-game losing skid ending last season.
The Lions will make their homefield debut after losses at Oklahoma State (61-7) and Southern Utah (28-23 two weeks ago). SLU, which hasn't forced a turnover in either game this season, had an open date last week.
The Demons fell 24-10 last Saturday at Central Arkansas after opening league play dropping a 21-18 decision to Incarnate Word.
NSU will be bolstered at SLU by the return of senior offensive guard Terrance Boyd, who has missed action so far this season coming back from offseason surgery. The offensive line showed some moxie last week, not allowing a sack to a UCA defense that was averaging 4.5 per game.
The Demons will use two quarterbacks, senior Brooks Haack and junior Joel Blumenthal, to provide a challenging mix for the Lions. Senior Chris Jones is averaging 5.4 yards per carry while senior Tuff McClain is the top receiver with 10 catches for 161 yards.
Defensively, the Demons have been solid but not spectacular so far, although junior linebacker Nick Pierotti stacked up 16 tackles last week. That is the eighth-best single-game total in the Football Championship Subdivision so far and the most by an NSU defender in 20 games dating back to Marion Chapman's 20 in a 31-27 win over Sam Houston State in 2014.
Junior kicker Eric Piccione is perfect on four field goal tries, including kicks of 47 and 44 yards, and he's averaging 38 yards per punt. Not since Jason Fernandez in 1992-93 have the Demons relied on one man to handle punting and kicking duties.
Game captains for the Demons will be Boyd, defensive end Darrien Batiste, defensive back Ralph Green and defensive end Okezie Adim-Mademere, all seniors.
After visiting SLU, NSU is open before a home non-conference game Oct. 8 against Kentucky Wesleyan, beginning a month when the Demons play three of four games at Turpin Stadium. In fact, four of NSU's next six games come at home.
