Their own playoff hopes dashed thanks to a three-game losing streak in conference play, ETBU's Tigers takes on the role of spoiler Saturday night when they host ASC-leading Mississippi College at 6 p.m. for the university's annual homecoming game.

The Choctaws (5-1, 4-0) holds a 1/2-game lead over Mary Hardin-Baylor in the race for the 2009 ASC championship, with Mississippi College having snapped UMHB's 33-game conference winning streak with a 17-14 upset of the Cru last week in Clinton, Miss.

Following Saturday's game with ETBU, the Choctaws finish the season with two home games against Howard Payne and Texas Lutheran, and a road game at Sul Ross State. The combined record of those three teams is 5-13.

The Tigers have had success against Mississippi College in the past. ETBU has won six of the nine games in the series, with those six wins coming in the last seven meetings. That includes a 24-21 win last season in Mississippi.

The Choctaws snapped a five-game losing streak to ETBU in 2007 when MC scored 24 unanswered second-half points on the way to a 45-21 win to spoil the Tigers' homecoming.

Homecoming hasn't been kind to ETBU. The Tigers have lost five straight on their homecoming dates, with the last win coming — ironically — against Mississippi College in 2003.

ETBU entered this season with high hopes that have been spoiled by injuries, illness and inconsistent play on both sides of the ball.

The weather hasn't done the program any favors, either, as the Tigers haven't gotten in a complete week's worth of practice on their own practice field in over a month due to monsoon-type rain in the area this fall.

A flu bug also hit the team hard over the last couple of weeks, attacking just about every position on the field in some form.

To highlight some of the injury issues, last week's loss at Louisiana College was the first time during this season that ETBU had been able to start the same unit on the offensive line for two straight games.

Starting quarterback Sed Harris, the team's leading rusher, missed last week with an injury and his status is questionable for this week's game.

Last year's leading rusher and all-conference running back Jair Stover has been out since the third game of the season with a leg injury.

Freshman quarterback Seth Hubbard, of Beckville, filled in admirably in his first college start last week by throwing for 143 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, the Tigers face another well-oiled offense this week led by MC senior quarterback Adam Shaffer, who has passed for 1,539 yards with 17 touchdowns and just two interceptions entering this week.

ETBU's defense has had its moments at times, having scored three touchdowns this season and having a fourth called back due to penalty.

The three defensive scores sets a program record for a season.

Following this week, the Tigers will head to Belton next Saturday to take on UMHB before hosting Howard Payne following a bye week in the season finale on Nov. 14.