KILGORE, Texas — Making their second trek across the Red River, Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College's Golden Norsemen visit R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium at 3 p.m. Saturday for a Southwest Junior College Football Conference battle with the Kilgore College Rangers.
Looking for their first victory south of the boarder in two attempts, the Golden Norsemen enter the fracas with a 2-2 conference mark and an identical 2-2 season record.
Although the "work in progress" signs are still turned on during NEO's game week preparations, they are not shining as brightly as in the beginning because the Golden Norse have upset then No. 1 rated Trinity Valley Community College (30-29) and then ranked No. 14 ranked Navarro College (51-46).
While all four NEO games have been played against nationally ranked teams, both victories have been on the hallowed ground of Red Robertson Field.
The "work" often referred to by head coach Clay Patterson references the enthusiasm and intensity the team brings to each game.
"We've got to learn to play as a team no matter who's watching, no matter where we're at and no matter what the situation," Patterson said. "We want to play with the emotion and the fire that is NEO Football and take that across the Red River and play well on the road."
Former Northeastern Oklahoma State University of Tahlequah quarterback J.J. Eckert is in the middle of his 10^th season as head coach at Kilgore. He has compiled a 53-43 overall record including three post-season bowl appearances — 2007, 2012 and 2015.
Unable to hold onto a 21-0 lead in the first quarter last weekend, the Rangers lost their first SWJCFC contest with a come-from-behind 52-41 win by Blinn College in Brenham, Texas. The loss knocked Kilgore from the No. 16 spot out of the nation's top 20.
With the loss Kilgore carries an 0-1 league record and a 2-1 season mark into Saturday's showdown.
An example of the work the Golden Norsemen defense has been focused on is the play of the four members of the secondary. Last week in the win over Navarro, the NEO corners and safeties worked very hard to deny the deep passes.
"We're working real hard on our all ball skills and going up and attacking the ball and denying the pass completion," Patterson said. "Even though Kilgore is a run-oriented offense, we know they are going to throw the ball up (like Navarro) and use their height differential to try and go deep."
Last week the NEO secondary pilfered two Navarro passes while the Golden Norse from seven recorded nine quarterback sacks for a combined total of minus-75 yards.
The defensive unit also forced 10 quarterback hurries.
 "Offensively, we're still trying to get things going with our receivers and our quarterbacks and protection in our passing game," Patterson said. "We focused on those issues this week and have gotten better.
"We want to run the football and we thought we should have done a better job of that against Navarro," Patterson said. "Every day we showed up for practice, we put in the work and it shows up on Saturday.
"We're still building on the foundation and that comes with how we practice every day," Patterson said.