WINONA, Minn. -- Riding high after one of its biggest wins in program history, the Winona State football team returns home to Altra Federal Credit Union Stadium Saturday to face the Wayne State Wildcats at 1 p.m. in Winona.

Hear the call live on 89.5 FM KQAL or kqal.org with broadcasters TJ Leverentz and John Wojcik. Watch live with Justin Barrientos and Bob Urness on HBC TV 25 and online at www.winonastatewarriors.com/watch.

LAST WEEK: Jack Nelson threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Cameron Johnson with just over three minutes to play and the Warrior defense and special teams held as the Warriors beat No. 1 Minnesota State 31-27 Saturday at Blakeslee Stadium in Mankato.

THE BIG UPSET: WSU pulled off its first win over a top five team in program history in its win over top-ranked Minnesota State last week. WSU's previous biggest upset in terms of ranked teams happend on three different occasions, when WSU knocked off No. 9 Carson-Newman twice in a row to kick off the 2009 and 2010 seasons, and No. 9 St. Cloud State in 2011. The win also snapped a six-game losing streak to top-25 opponents and was WSU's first win in Mankato since 1980.

KICKOFF FORECAST: Weather in Winona Saturday is forecast to be a cloudy, damp fall afternoon with temperatures in the low to mid 50s at kickoff with a 70 percent chance of rain, mainly before game time.

THE HISTORY: The Wildcats and Warriors will be meeting for the 20th time dating back to 1994, a game that went the Wildcats' way by a 33-12 score. WSC also won the most recent matchup, a 27-7 victory last season in Wayne. Despite the first and most recent meetings, WSU has dominated the series, holding a 15-4 advantage, including four straight from 2010-2013.

LAST TIME VS. THE WILDCATS: The Warriors had a tough time against the Wildcats last season, falling 27-7 in Wayne - it's second most lopsided defeat of the year. Jack Nelson passed for just 174 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions while being sacked eight times. Anthony Resnick was WSU's leading rusher with 28 yards while Alan May caught six passes for 73 yards and a touchdown. Defensively, Larry Mbayu and Jarrett Wood each had 10 tackles, while Anthony Catanese, Mitch Lunder and Andrew Spencer each picked off passes.

LAST TIME IN WINONA: The Warriors used a 65-yard screen pass from Jack Nelson to Chichi Ojika with 54 seconds to play to earn a 45-41 victory over the Wildcats on Homecoming 2013. Nelson had his first career five-touchdown passing day (currently has two) along with 347 yards through the air. Collin Corcoran had a pair of sacks on defense.

A LOOK AT THE WILDCATS: The Wildcats are coached by Dan McLaughlin, who's in his 11th season as head coach at Wayne State and has a 63-57 career record along with a 59-46 mark in NSIC play. The Wildcats, like WSU, are 4-4 on the season and are 1-3 in NSIC South play, getting their first of the season last week with a 20-17 win over Concordia-St. Paul. The Wildcats are 12th in scoring offense (21.9 ppg) and 13th in scoring defense (36.0) in the NSIC and are second to last in both passing offense and defense. WSC ranks fifth in the league in rushing, averaging 198.5 yards per game and are fourth in the league with a +4 turnover margin compared to WSU's +2.

PUNTING INTO THE RECORD BOOK: With a little help from the Mankato winds, two different WSU punters entered the record book for longest punt in team history. Freshman Michael Russell unloaded a booming 86-yard punt - the longest in history - that helped secure WSU's win, while earlier in the game Carter McCauley blasted a 70-yarder, which ranks as the fifth-longest by a WSU punter.

PASSING THE TORCH: Two weeks ago against Upper Iowa, quarterback Jack Nelson became WSU's career passing leader, ending WSU Hall of Famer Jake Goettl's 17-year run atop the Winona State passing charts. Goettl was in attendance to see his record broken, and presented Nelson with a commemorative ball on the field at the third quarter break.

NELSON'S OTHER RECORDS: A week before Nelson became the career passing yards leader, the two other career passing records became Jack Nelson's at Sioux Falls. Nelson threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Alan May for the 65th of his career, surpassing Jake Goettl for the most in team history. A little earlier in the game, Nelson connected on a 77-yard touchdown to Josh Mikes, which happened to be the 499th completion of Nelson's career, the most completions in Warrior history.

ON PACE FOR ONE MORE: Nelson has his sights set on one more significant record: WSU's single-season passing record. He's well on pace to break the mark of 3,004 yards set by Drew Aber in 2007, needing just 515  yards in the final three  games.

PRESTON FINDING HIS STRIDE: Junior running back Paul Preston had a monster first half against Upper Iowa two weeks ago, racking up 117 yards on the ground. Preston has reached the 100-yard plateau in four of the past six weeks. After a 39-yard effort against Minot State in his first game of the season in Week 2, Preston rushed for 121 yards Bemidji State, 104 against Concordia-St. Paul, 103 at Sioux Falls and 123 against Upper Iowa. Despite not reaching 100 yards last week, he carried the ball 26 times for 80 yards against the best rushing defense in the league, a unit that had allowed an average of under 60 per game.

TACKLE MACHINE: Senior LB Collin Corcoran has been all around the ball this season, recording double-digit tackles in five games this season. His 87 tackles (10.9 per game) leads the NSIC by five tackles.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Corcoran had one of the best games of his stellar WSU career last week and was instrumental in leading a hard-nosed WSU defense in an upset of Minnesota State. Corcoran tied a career-high 16 tackles, had a tackle-for-loss and a half sack to earn the NSIC's Defensive Player of the Week honor.

SPENCER IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Sophomore defensive back Andrew Spencer has proven to have a knack for the ball, as he has a team-leading three interceptions on the season. But last week against Minnesota State was perhaps his best game as a Warrior, racking up a career-high 15 tackles - second only to Collin Corcoran's 16 - along with a tackle-for-loss and a sack.

NO PLAYING FAVORITES: Quarterback Jack Nelson has proven that he doesn't play favorites when it comes to his receivers. The junior quarterback completed a ball to at least six different receivers in six of the eight games this season, including nine different receivers on three occasions. Even among his "Big 3" targets of May, Mikes, and Johnson it's an even spread, with May and Mikes just one yard apart (686-685) while May, Johnson and Mikes have 7, 5 and 4 touchdowns on the year, respectively.