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FLORENCE, Ala. -- Coming off back-to-back road wins to open its first season in Division I Football Championship Subdivision Football (FCS), the University of North Alabama football team may face the toughest challenge of any previous unit in school history Saturday as the Lions travel to Fargo, N.D., to face top ranked, defending national champion and perennial FCS power North Dakota State.

Kickoff is set for 2:34 p.m. at the Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.

North Dakota State has won six of the last seven FCS national championships and has a 65-6 record at home since 2010, including winning 60 of its last 62 non-conference games at home. The Bison won their season-opener two weeks ago against Cal Poly 49-3 and have had two weeks to prepare to face the Lions.

North Alabama carries a 2-0 record to Fargo with road wins at Southern Utah (34-30) and Alabama A&M (25-20).

"This will be a very difficult game against a very good football team that is as good as advertised," said UNA head football coach Chris Willis. "This has to be the best team that any football team from this University has ever faced. We've played a lot of good ones but nobody at their level."

Willis said his team is aware of the obstacle ahead.

"We accept the challenge," he said. "It's the next game on our schedule and we're excited to be going up there 2-0 instead of 0-2. We are carrying some momentum but we also realize that it's a long season and we have nine games left to play so this one  won't make or break our season."

Willis said he is pleased with where his team is at two weeks into the season.

"We've got two good road wins and we feel like we pulled off an upset in one and beat an old rival in the other so we are feeling really good about a lot of things," Willis said."We are confident, but not over confident. We're playing as a unit and right now we're in a good place."

This game is the third straight road game for the Lions, marking just the second time in school history and the first time since 1959 that the Lions have opened a season with three straight road contests.

This will be just the second meeting ever between North Alabama and North Dakota State in football. The first was in McAllen, Texas in the 1985 NCAA Division II National Championship Game, then known as the Palm Bowl. North Dakota State won that contest 35-7 for its for its second of five eventual Division II National Championships.

In addition to that one head-to-head meeting, the North Dakota State's football program made three trips to Florence, Ala., but the Bison never faced the Lions. NDSU came to Florence for the 1986, 1988 and 1990 Division II National Championship at Braly Stadium and won all three games.

This game will mark the ninth time that North Alabama has faced a No. 1 ranked team. All the previous games were against the top ranked team in Division II. The Lions are 1-7 all-time against No. 1 ranked teams, with that win coming against top ranked Valdosta State in 2003, 17-10. UNA's last game against a top ranked team was a 29-3 loss to Northwest Missouri State in the 2016 Division II National Championship Game.

This game will be the fourth game played by a UNA football team indoors and the first at the Gate City Bank Field at the Fargodome.  North Alabama played its first game at an indoor stadium in 1977 at East Tennessee State. The Lions won that game 37-21. UNA then lost 29-22 at the Alerus Center at North Dakota in 2003 and defeated Abilene Christian in a regular season game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas in 2011, 23-17.

Junior transfer quarterback Christian Lopez has sparked UNA's up-tempo offense as he has thrown for 496 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 95 yards and two scores in two games. As a team the Lions are averaging 29.5 points and 435 total yards per game.

North Alabama has had 31 of its 38 pass receptions this season by players who were redshirted at UNA in 2017. Dexter Boykin, Jakobi Byrd, Andre Little and Cortez Hall were all redshirted last season. They have combined for 31 catches for 415 yards and five touchdowns.

UNA senior kicker Chandler Carrera has made 16 of his last 18 field goal attempts after going 0-for-3 in the Lions' 2017 season-opener. He made two of three attempts in the 2018 season-opener and the other hit the left upright on a 45-yard attempt. He also made his only attempta at Alabama A&M.

North Alabama fans can follow the game on 97.1 FM, through the live stats link provided on roarlions.com or on NDSU's pay-per-view broadcast for $6.95 at gobison.com. ESPN+ will carry the game on ESPN.com and the ESPN app with subscriptions starting at $4.99/mo