A pair of defending conference champions and NCAA Division III playoffs participants a year ago will square off in the Lakeland University football team's home opener when it welcomes Trine (Ind.) University on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The game matches the defending champions of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in the MIAA-NACC Challenge, which is in its seventh year of pairing teams from the two conferences for a day of non-conference games facing each other. Both teams went undefeated through their respective conferences last year and were picked in preseason polls to win their leagues again. Adding to the contest is that Trine enters the game ranked 17th in the latest D3football.com top 25 poll after posting an undefeated regular season a year ago and starting this year off with a 2-0 record.

Lakeland has been idle since its season-opening 45-26 loss at Carroll University on Sept. 1. The Muskies led 26-24 entering the fourth quarter but saw the Pioneers score three touchdowns in the final 15 minutes to win the two teams' annual season opener for the first time in four years. Larry Rivers (So.-Dearborn Heights, Mich.) returned a kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown and Shazon Crutcher (So.-Lansing, Mich.) made a career-high 12 tackles to lead Lakeland.

Trine has won its first two games this season, most recently posting a 34-13 win over Bluffton (Ohio). Lamar Carswell rushed for 157 yards and three touchdowns and the Thunder defense intercepted the Beavers twice as Trine pulled away after leading by seven at halftime.

This is the third-ever meeting between the two schools, with all three coming at Lakeland's Taylor Memorial Field. The Muskies have a 2-0 lead in the series, most recently posting a 61-35 win here Oct. 17, 2015 as Michael Whitley threw for 438 yards and six touchdowns and also rushed for two scores. The other meeting between the schools came Sept. 6, 2003, back when Trine was known as Tri-State University. The Muskies scored a 30-13 win, scoring 17 consecutive points to close the game after the Thunder had tied the game in the third quarter. Brent Luebke passed for a touchdown and ran for another and Nick Hunter rushed for 129 yards for Lakeland.

Lakeland will provide live stats and live video for the game at http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive. Lakeland student Nathan Golownia will call all the action. Trine campus radio station WEAX 88.3 FM also will provide an audio broadcast of the game at https://www.trine.edu/broadcasting/weax.aspx, with Geoff Chiles calling the play-by-play.

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