Who would have thought it?

The SIUC football team will be battling for a share of first place in the Gateway Conference, when the Salukis take on league power Northern Iowa Saturday.

The Panthers lead the Gateway at 3-0 and 4-2 overall, while SIUC is right behind at 2-1 and 4-3 on the year.

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Saluki head coach Shawn Watson said even though his squad’s playing a Panthers team that has not lost a conference game in two years he is confident the Dawgs will perform well.

We’re looking forward to it, he said. We’re playing for a lot of things right know a lot of goals that we have so we’re excited.

We just have to keep building on the positive things we’re doing.

Going up to the UNI Dome is a tough task for any team as the Panthers have not lost a conference game there since 1988.

However, Watson said the key is not worry about the playing in the dome.

Don’t think about the dome go out and play, he said. The field is still going to be 100 yards long and still 53 yards wide.

It doesn’t matter what’s covering it, but what goes on between the chalk lines. It’s pretty simple let’s play football and let’s do what we have to do to win.

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Watson said while UNI is still the team to beat in the league title hunt, his squad is also a contender.

They (UNI) have been the dominant team in this league for the last ten years and they’ve been very, very good, he said. The approach I’m taking with are players is yes they are good but what about us.

Yes the Dawgs are improved and the squad is coming off a its best offensive performance of the year racking up 469 yards of total offense, the fourth best total for a Gateway team this year.

The biggest improvement came from sophomore quarterback Danny Smith, who connected on 21-of-38 passes for 328 yards and four touchdowns.

The Salukis are also riding a two-game league winning streak including the 33-30 overtime thriller against Southwest Missouri State last Saturday.

The Saluki defense will also have to perform at high level facing a Panther team that is averaging 26 points a game.

Watson said UNI’s offense is extremely good all the way around.

Terry (Allen) just seems to reload and remount each year and offensively he’s got as strong if not a stronger unit than he had last year in particular their receiver Dedric Ward, he said. He’s running two tailbacks (James) Porter and (Jeff) Stovall both are very good.

His quarterback (Chris Berg) is having a better year than the quarterback last year did.

The Panthers big gun is Dedric Ward, who leads the Gateway in most receiving yards and second most points. Ward is also fifth in the nation to total receiving yards. Berg is second in the country in total pass efficiency.

Overall the UNI is second in the conference in total yards averaging 349 yards per game, while also giving up the fewest points at 16 points per contest.

The Panthers have already beat one contender for the crown dispatching with Indiana State 27-10 last Saturday.

SIUC is one game behind in the series as UNI leads 7-6.

Kick-off in Cedar Falls is at 6 p.m.