With at least a share of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference title already sewn up, the Lakeland College football team will go for an outright championship and a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs when it travels to face Benedictine (Ill.) University Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. in Lisle, Ill.

The Muskies have won six straight games to improve to 6-3 overall, and at 5-0 in the NACC sit in the driver's seat going into the final weekend of the regular season. Lakeland is one game ahead of Benedictine and Wisconsin Lutheran College in the conference standings, and only the Eagles can take the league's automatic playoff bid away from the Muskies.

Lakeland can make any conference tiebreaker scenarios moot, though, if it can replicate its play last week against Concordia (Wis.), a 27-10 win that brought the Cheese Bowl back to campus for the first time since 2010. A.J. Veloz (Fr.-Whiting, Ind.) threw three touchdown passes and rushed for another, while the defense pressured the Falcons all day and held them scoreless in the second half.

Benedictine (5-4 overall, 4-1 NACC) has made a charge in the second half of the season and comes in almost as hot, with wins in four straight games. The Eagles defeated Rockford 56-20 last week, piling up 639 yards of offense and scoring on six touchdown passes of at least 25 yards each. Like Lakeland, Benedictine also features a strong defense that ranks high nationally in a number of categories, including 18th in total defense, just 10 spots behind the Muskies among the 242 Division III programs.

Lakeland is looking for its first Division III playoff bid since 2009, while Benedictine last qualified for the playoffs in 2011. The Eagles are Lakeland's most-played football rival all-time, and this will be the 47th meeting between the schools with the Muskies holding a 27-19 lead all time. Lakeland won last year's meeting at Benedictine 15-12, as Ramsey Riehl kicked a 28-yard field goal as time expired.

Live audio, video and stats for the game will be available from Benedictine University at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/benu/.

For the rest of this week's game notes please click here