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(AP) -- The Truman Bulldogs will return home and host Fort Hays (Kan.) State University for game number five in the 2012 season.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 38-17 loss at the hands of the University of Central Missouri for their first loss of the season while the Tigers will be looking to crack the win column for the first time in ’12 after a 21-3 loss at home to nationally-ranked Missouri Western. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. from Stokes Stadium.
 
The two teams played in week two last season in Kirksville with the Bulldogs scoring 13 points in the final quarter to pull out a 36-31 victory.

The Tigers rushed for 314 yards on the day with Andrew Smith going for 204 yards on 21 carries in the loss.

Graduated ‘Dog J.B. Clark had 298 yards passing with three touchdowns, one to Anthony Brown, one to Dallas Grier and one to Paul Taylor before scoring himself from one-yard out for the winning TD with 9:28 remaining.
 
Truman is in the top five in the conference in scoring offense (36.5/g), scoring defense (21.2/g), rushing offense (165.8/g) and rushing defense (93.8/g) while the Tigers are last in the league in scoring (12.8/g), total defense (517.2/g), rushing defense (244.8/g) and passing defense (272.5/g).
 
The Bulldogs past opponents this season are a combine 4-12 while the Tigers past opponents are 14-2 entering play this week.
 
This will be the seventh meeting with the Tigers since they joined the MIAA in 2006. Truman has won four of the previous six games.

Fort Hays (0-4; 0-3 MIAA) has played three straight games against nationally-ranked opponents and has been on the short end of each.

The Tigers managed just a 48-yard field goal by Drew O’Brien in their 21-3 loss to Missouri Western at home Saturday night. Fort Hays rushed for 158 yards but only had 112 through the air. 

Freshman Addie Brown had 11 carries for 87 yards.

Brown has seen a bulk of the carries with 64 for 311 this year replacing Andre Smith in the starting lineup.

 Smith had just under 1000 yards rushing last season and averaged 87.5 yards per game. 

He had just three carries for five yards in a season-opening loss to Emporia State.

Junior Tarean Austin has completed 45% of his passes for 431 yards with Eli Cordon catching nine balls for 104.

The Tigers lost the nation’s top tackler in Alex Whitehill from last season’s team with Austin Hubert leading this year’s defense with 38 stops with a sack.

Whitehill was a first-team all-conference selection last year after recording 164 tackles.

Courtesy Truman state University

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)