HANCOCK — Finlandia University will try to avoid a second straight winless football season when it travels to Alma College for its season ending game Saturday.

Lions coach Travis Wiltzius said in spite of his team’s 0-9 overall record (0-6 in the MIAA), he has seen progress.

“We’ve been in a few games where we played a decent first half and then trailed off in the second half,” he said. ‘But the kids have continued to play hard and you have to like that.”

In Alma (5-4, 3-3) the Lions have a history with the Scots.

They hosted Alma in their first-ever game four years ago and also played the downstate squad last season.

“They were good enough to give us an opening game when we first started,” Wiltzius said.

Alma will rely on the passing of quarterback Ryan Stevens, who passed for 207 yards last week in a 28-12 loss to Olivet.

Austin Sprattling is the main rushing Alma threat, while Chris Hinkle caught 8 passes for 116 yards last week versus Olivet.

“They’re a solid team, like most teams in our league,” Wiltzius said. “We’ll need to play a smart game.”

Junior wide receiver Kenny Kujawa has been a steady target all season. The Saginaw Nouvel product caught seven passes for 71 yards a week ago.

That broke the career mark of 787 career yards set by Tyler Kangas.

Freshman quarterback Darin Johnson has had to learn the hard way this season.

But he’s passed for 903 yards on the season and is also a threat to run the football. His 46-yard TD run last week versus Adrian were the only points put up by the Lions,

On defense, Finlandia reshman linebacker Christian Creten has had a fine season and is closing in on 100 tackles for the season.