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HELENA, Mont. -- The Eastern Oregon University football team travels to the nation's top team, Carroll College, Saturday. The weekly notes are now available.

* Game 1: Eastern Oregon (1-0, 1-0 Frontier) at Caroll College (1-0, 1-0 Frontier)
* When: Saturday, Sept. 10, 1 p.m. MT
* Where: Nelson Stadium, Helena, Mont.
* Forecast: Low 80's and Sunny with zero percent chance of precipitation.
* Live Stats: EOUSports.com
* Live Video: EOUSports.com
* Live Radio: KCMB 104.7 FM
* Series: Carroll holds a 14-7 all-time advantage over Eastern.

GAME TIME
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. MT at Nelson Stadium with a live video stream on EOUSports.com. A live radio broadcast will also be available on KCMB 104.7 FM in La Grande and Baker City. Gary Henderson will provide play-by-play commentary and Barrett Henderson will be the color-commentary.

THE SERIES
* Carroll has won 14 of the 20 all-time meetings with the Mountaineers.
* The Mountaineers and Carroll first met in 1952.
* The Fighting Saints have won all eight matches in Helena against Eastern since 2000.
* The last time Eastern won in Helena was in 1998, when the Mountaineers won 26-7.
* EOU won the first six meetings over the Saints. Carroll has won the last 14 matchups.
* Eastern last defeated the Saints in 1999, 28-21.
* Carroll has scored 158 points in the last three meetings, an average of 52.6 points.
* Carroll has outscored EOU 559-182 since 2000, an average of 40-13 per game.
* The Saints are 86-4 in their last 90 games, while EOU is 42-48 over it's last 90.

QUICK HITS
* Carroll has won 44 straight Frontier Conference games, dating back to the Oct. 28, 2006, 10-3 loss to MSU-Northern.
* Eastern ended a two-year streak of dropping its season openers with last week's win.
* The Mountaineers' Chris Ware is two rushing touchdowns from breaking the Eastern Oregon career school record. It would be his 13th school record.
* In the games Eastern lost last season it had been outscored 86-23 in the first quarter. Last week, EOU outscored Tech in the first quarter, 7-0.
* Eastern Oregon plays its first three games away from home for the first time since 2006. The Mountaineers went 1-2 in that stretch. It was also the last time EOU played three road games in a row.
* EOU is 12-3 when leading at halftime under Tim Camp, but 4-11 when trailing.
* Under Tim Camp, the Mountaineers are 15-6 when they score at least 30 points.
* Montana Tech scored 50 points and rushed for 333 yards in its first game of the season, and were held to 15 points and 86 yards rushing last week by Eastern.

WARE CLOSES IN ON LUCKY NO. 13
Eastern Oregon quarterback, Chris Ware, is two rushing touchdowns from breaking the school's rushing touchdowns in a career record. The senior has scored 20 rushing touchdowns in his career, one shy of tying Damien Johnson's seven-year-old record at EOU. Ware currently holds 12 school records. The Rainier, Ore. native has a chance to break record number 14 later this season. He is 78 rushing attempts from topping Tim Sicocan's 11-year-old school record.

SEATTLE'S BEST
Mountaineer runningback, Kevin Sampson, is looking to build on last season's record-breaking year. The senior had seven games with at least 100 yards rushing in 2010, topped by a season opening 227 yard performance against Southern Oregon. The Seattle native broke the school record for rushing yards in a single season last year with 1,309. He became the fourth Mountaineer all-time to rush for 1,000 yards in a season. Sampson can become the school's career leader in rushing yards if gains 915 yards in 2011. Last week he ran for 158 yards.

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE
Nelson Stadium is one of the toughest road challenges in the NAIA. The natural turf field is surrounded by 5,000 seats along with suites and a state-of-the-art press box. Carroll has won eight straight games at home, dating back to a 42-35 national semifinal loss to Lindenwood in the 2009 NAIA playoffs. The Saints have posted 31 straight Frontier Conference wins at home. The last conference loss for Carroll in Nelson Stadium was to Montana Western on Oct. 16, 2004. It was also the last time the Saints lost back-to-back games.

FRONTIER FOES
Carroll College and Eastern Oregon University have become the class of the Frontier Conference. The two programs meet as the top two teams in the conference for the third time out of the past four meetings. The lone time out of those four meetings they were not the top two teams in the conference standings, they were the only two teams ranked in the national poll. The Saints have won the conference title 11 straight seasons, while Eastern has began the past two seasons picked second in the coaches' preseason poll.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE START
The Mountaineers ended a two-season streak of dropping the opening game of schedule with last week's win. Eastern is now 33-46 in season opening games. Before last week's win, EOU's last season opening win was over Montana Tech in 2008, 38-28. Eastern Oregon's last two season openers have been four-point losses to Southern Oregon. EOU is now 3-3 in conference openers since joining the Frontier Conference. It was Tim Camp's first season-opening victory as a head coach at Eastern.

NO OFFENSE TO THE OFFENSE
While the Mountaineer offense has been praised over the last couple of the season's, it was the EOU defense that stole the show in the season opening victory at Montana Tech. Levi Suiaunoa's bunch stifled the Orediggers in Butte. Tech opened the season amassing 333 yards on the ground in a 50-47 win over Southern Oregon. Eastern held Montana Tech to just 86 rushing yards and 15 points. After gaining 539 yards in week one, the Orediggers had 267 total yards of offense last week.

EOU DUO GO STANDARD
Montana Standard sports writer, Bill Foley, was quite impressed by the Mountaineer football victory at Montana Tech last weekend and devoted his weekly notebook to Eastern. Foley praised the quarterback and runningback tandem in the article. He was taken by the unselfish comments the two gave each other. Foley also added how well the Mountaineer defense played in shutting down the Tech offense. To read the story and the rest of his weekly report go to the Montana Standard website and search for “Ware, Sampson back each other.”

AIRHART NAMED POW
Eastern Oregon University football student-athlete, Marc-Avery Airhart, was named the Frontier Conference Defensive Player of the Week. Airhart recorded four solo tackles, two tackles for loss, one assisted tackle, one interception and one pass deflection in Eastern's season opening victory at Montana Tech. The award is a first for Airhart and another in a list of Mountaineer defenders. Also nominated for the weekly award was A.J. Pasalo of MSU-Northern and Thomas Robison of Carroll College. Airhart has 40 tackles against Carroll in his career.

SEVERAL POSITIVE SIGNS
To say Eastern had a goodfirst game is an understatement. There were several great things that the Mountaineers did, not only did the defense hold Tech on the ground, but the overall the team committed only five penalties for 38 yards. In 2010, EOU was last in the Frontier Conference in penalties committed (87), penalties committed per game (7.9), and penalty yards per game (77.5). Eastern was 15th in the nation in penalty yards per game. EOU is currently second in the country in third down conversion (57 percent).

STELLAR START
Eastern Oregon's Luis Ortiz was named the team's starting kicker two weeks before the first game. The freshman came in and hit his lone field goal attempt from 30 yards out, along with all four of his point after touchdown attempts. The Hermiston, Ore. native also had three punts for 109 yards with a long of 39 yards. Ortiz also caught a pass for six yards.