HELENA - They're familiar foes with a few new faces.

When the Carroll College and Dickinson State football teams clash, it will be just another chapter in their history.

The Saints are 11-5 all-time against the Blue Hawks, and Saturday's first-round NAIA national playoff game is a rematch of last season's first-round game, when Carroll sent its opponent from North Dakota home early in a 35-18 win.

The No. 2 Saints (11-0) are once again favored in a matchup with the No. 17 Blue Hawks (7-3), who tied with Minot State for the Dakota Athletic Championship.

"It's not a matter of us getting in a standoff, it's a matter of us holding on and looking for some opportunities," said Blue Hawks head coach Hank Biesiot, in his 37th year at the helm.

Dickinson struggled at the beginning of the season, dropping a road contest with the Frontier Conference's Rocky Mountain College (2-9) and then losing to NCAA Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater.

The Blue Hawks won seven in a row afterward before losing to Black Hills State in the final game of the regular season.

"It's a whole new season when you get in the playoffs," Biesiot said. "We're just happy to be here."

The Blue Hawks are hoping to be much more than a pylon in the road for the Saints, who won their 10th straight Frontier Conference championship and are attempting to make it to their seventh NAIA national championship game in eight years.

The five-time national champs will be hard to stop as they bring a powerful offense, which is headlined by junior quarterback Gary Wagner.

Wagner threw for a school single-game record 397 yards in the Saints' 48-43 win over Eastern Oregon two weeks ago and has completed roughly 67 percent of his passes this season for 218 yards per game with 23 touchdowns and just four interceptions.

"Gary did a lot of good things and the decision-making he's doing gets better every week," said Saints head coach Mike Van Diest.

He'll have even more help as junior receiver Christian Prosperie returns from a two-week bout with illness adding depth of a corps that also includes junior receiver Corey Peterson and junior tight end Bubba Bartlett.

Peterson scored three touchdowns in the Saints' final game while racking up 137 yards. Bartlett had a team-high 11 catches for 127 yards.

The key to Carroll's offense, however, has been balance. The Saints have the 11th-ranked rushing offense in NAIA, averaging 215.5 yards per game. Senior Gabe Le and junior John Camino are sharing most of the carries, while freshman Chance Demarais has established himself as the No. 3 back.

Facing off with a number of two-back offenses in the DAC, the Blue Hawks are expected to be tough against the run.

"Their linebackers stay square and they're in the hole, they're plugging the gaps," Van Diest said. "They're going to try to force you to throw the ball."

The Blue Hawks run a 3-4 defense, which Biesiot said can be described as a 5-2 with the way their outside linebackers play at the line.

"It's been kind of a spunky, scrappy defense," he said. "We had more trouble last year when we were more experienced.

"And we're not very big either. We're kind of small and green. That will be interesting to see how we're going to be cool under fire."

Middle linebackers Jason Kraft and Mike Keyser lead the squad with 79 and 68 tackles apiece, while nose tackle Jamie Walker has a team-high six sacks and 12.5 tackles for loss.

"Their strength over the years has been those three down linemen," Van Diest said. "They're very physical, they're going to slant and angle, they can two-gap people. Then, they have two great outside linebackers."

The Blue Hawks are seventh in the nation in sacks, averaging 3.2 per game, and ninth in scoring defense (15.5 ppg).

Meanwhile, Carroll is fifth in sacks (3.4) and No. 5 in scoring defense (14.9 ppg).

Biesiot said he's expecting Carroll's front seven once again to work his team like they did last year, especially against Dickinson's young and inexperienced offensive line. Injury and grade trouble has meant the Blue Hawks have had to pull a redshirt off the bench to fill in the offensive ranks.

"Our strength is in our four-man front, and I need those guys to carry us a little bit more," Van Diest said. "When we've been in the four-man front, sometimes the best defense is a pass rush."

Senior Mason Siddick leads an experienced defensive line with 42 total tackles, while senior ends Garrett Thompson and Mike Ogrin each have six sacks. Junior Travis Schmidt and Siddick both lead the line with 7.5 tackles for loss while getting four sacks.

Junior linebacker Thomas Dolan leads the Saints with 82 total tackles and nine for a loss.