The Ouachita Tigers' football team (3-1) will travel to Russellville, Ark., on Saturday to face the 11th-ranked Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys (4-0).
 
The Tigers have begun the season in a solid manner. They won their first two games over Northwestern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma by comfortable margins before dropping their third game of the season to Southeastern Oklahoma at home. The Tigers bounced back last week, however, by defeating East Central in a lopsided road victory. The Ouachita defense returned two interceptions for touchdowns in a 45-14 win.
 
Arkansas Tech, on the other hand, has experienced a blistering start to the season. The Wonder Boys opened the season with wins over the two preseason conference favorites in Southern Arkansas and Henderson, and then defeated lower-ranked teams Oklahoma Baptist and Southern Nazarene by large margins in the past two weeks.
 
The Tigers offense has been relatively balanced to start the season. Redshirt-senior quarterback Austin Warford has done an excellent job throwing the football to balance out a potent rushing attack led by himself, Kris Oliver and Shun'cee Thomas. Warford leads the way for the Tigers with 599 passing yards, 315 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns. Junior receiver Drew Harris tends to run the wildcat formation in short-yardage situations and has accrued eight rushing touchdowns on the season, including two last week against East Central.
 
Ouachita's defense is led by senior linebacker Elijah Jones. Jones has a team-leading 37 total tackles this season. The Tiger defense is coming off a stellar showing last week against East Central. The defense only allowed 14 points and scored 14 points of their own from Austin Guymon and Keandre Evans interception returns.
 
The Wonder Boys attempts to emulate the Tigers with a balanced offense. They have passed and rushed for nearly the same amount of yards thus far this season. Senior quarterback Ty Reasnor leads the team with 813 passing yards and nine touchdowns. Bryan Allen and Braden Stringer share carries at running back where they have combined for over 400 yards. Junior receiver Jakcob Dean leads the team with 286 receiving yards.
 
Defensively, Arkansas Tech has been solid this year. The team only allowed three points to Henderson in their second game and produced a shutout against Southern Nazarene last week. They have been paced by linebackers Seth Culp and KJ Reid, who have accumulated 33 and 30 tackles respective tackles this season. Junior defensive back Cua' Rose has terrorized opposing quarterbacks with four interceptions so far this season.
 
Ouachita lost to Arkansas Tech last season in a blowout at home, 49-17. The Tigers have gone 3-2 against the Wonder Boys since both teams joined the Great American Conference in 2011, but the Wonder Boys' two wins have come in the past two seasons.
 
A win Saturday would be a statement win for Tigers as Arkansas Tech is ranked 11th in the AFCA coaches poll.
 
If you can't make it to the game, tune in to the Ouachita Football Network on OBUTigers.com to hear play-by-play from Rex Nelson.
 
Kick-off will be at 6 p.m. in Russellville.