ABILENE, Texas - Two months prior to the assassination of former United States President John F. Kennedy marks the last time the McMurry University has defeated Hardin-Simmons in a football game. In October of 1963 Grant Teaff's Indians beat the Cowboys 21-7 before HSU promptly dropped football until the 1990 season.

However, since the re-birth of Cowboy football, HSU holds a 22-game win streak over McMurry headed into Saturday's much-anticipated cross-town rivalry on the Cowboys' campus. Like the 2009 season, many of the McMurry faithful are hoping that the streak comes to a halt.

A win Saturday at 2 p.m. at HSU's Shelton Stadium for McMurry would not only mean snapping a long-losing skid to its cross-town rival, but it would also ensure the program's first winning seasons since 2000. HSU enters with a 7-1 overall record and a 5-1 mark in American Southwest Conference play while McMurry stands 5-2 overall with a 3-2 league record.

In 2009, both teams were off to sluggish starts entering into the cross-town matchup. HSU began the year 1-4 and McMurry started 0-4. However, both teams rode four-game win streaks into the matchup before the Cowboys bested McMurry 21-10 on its own field.

Coming into Saturday, both teams share losses with ASC king Mary Hardin-Baylor and McMurry also fell to East Texas Baptist on a last-second field goal Sept. 25. HSU is second to UMHB in the standings while McMurry is one game behind Louisiana College in fourth place.

For the game itself the story lines in 2010 are the opposing quarterbacks. Fourth-year quarterback Justin Feaster continues to re-write Hardin-Simmons passing record book while McMurry's Jake Mullin is lighting up both the school and the conference's single-season record books.

Feaster's tallied 88 touchdown passes, 8,663 yards passing and only 25 interceptions in 42 games at quarterback, not to mention 24 rushing touchdowns.

In 2010, Mullin in just his second year under center, has put together along with Louisiana College quarterback Ben McLaughlin perhaps the best passing season in ASC history. Mullin has 2,679 passing yards in just seven games, 34 touchdown passes and only one interception on 294 pass attempts.

“Earlier in the year, we talked about the Zach Hubbard [Howard Payne] and Jake Mullin matchup, but the next two weeks with Feaster and McLaughlin against Mullin are going to be pretty special too,” said McMurry head coach Hal Mumme.

HSU ranks second (520.2 yards per game) in the ASC in total offense while McMurry is third (469 yards per game). Through the air, McMurry's pass offense is ranked No. 1 both in the nation and the ASC at 404.3 yards per game while HSU is third in the league at 304.1 yards per game.

While both teams have powerful offenses, it's hard to ignore the defensive numbers both teams are putting up. McMurry boasts the No. 1 defense in the ASC allowing just 247.6 yards per game, but Hardin-Simmons has the No. 2 at 316.6 yards allowed per game.

With some of the scores both teams have put up this season, it's hard to know what Saturday's contest will bring. Will it be a shoot out or a defensive struggle? With each program scoring at least 50 points three times this season, a shootout may not be an impossible thing, but with the highly-ranked defenses, it could end up a lot like last year's 21-10 score.

Either way, the game is important to both sides, and for McMurry especially it's a chance to end two streaks: the 22-game losing streak to the Cowboys and the 10-season drought of losing seasons.

“When you take the job at McMurry immediately you hear of how we haven't beat Hardin-Simmons in forever, so in that sense it's a bigger game to us,” Mumme said. “But by the same token, we approach every game as the most important because it's the only game we get to play this week.”

The two teams will square off at HSU's Shelton Stadium with kickoff at 2 p.m.