Last year’s offensive and defensive coordinators for the Central College football team will be on the opposing sideline today as the Dutch have travelled to Dubuque for a matchup with the Spartans.

Central is 5-2 on the season and 3-2 in the American Rivers Conference, while Dubuque is 3-3 and 3-1 under first year head coach Ryan Maiuri.

Maiuri spent nine seasons as Central’s offensive coordinator, and when he took the job at Dubuque, he brought Mitch Shepherd with him to be the Spartans defensive coordinator after spending the previous two seasons in that role with the Dutch.

“We’ve worked really hard to make this about beating Dubuque, playing Dubuque and it’s Central versus Dubuque”, said 21st year Dutch head coach Jeff McMartin. “There’s nothing that we can do to control any of the other stuff and I think that you want to keep your focus on that and not turn it into a personal thing or matchup thing of coaches. That allows us to make good decisions about what’s best for the team and keeps our guys focused.”

With four weeks left in the regular season, Dubuque is still in the hunt for an American Rivers Conference championship, and while a bit of a long shot, Central has outside hopes of an at-large bid to the playoffs if they win out.

Kickoff is today at 1:00 at Chalmers Field in Dubuque. Trevor Castle and Don DeWaard will call the action live on 92.1 KRLS, beginning with pregame coverage at 12:35.