Following their first loss since last June, the Panthers are on the road at Northern Arizona in a match-up of teams looking to bounce back. 

Bay Area fell at home 62-43 to Vegas to taste defeat for the first time and fell one game back of the Knight Hawks for first in the Western Conference and the top overall record in the Indoor Football League. 

Despite missing six of the eight defensive players who opened the season, Head Coach Rob Keefe said he expects his team to win and is counting on a better effort in Prescott Valley. 

The Panthers turned the ball over three times and went 0-3 on fourth down tries.  They trailed by as many as 35 points before Daquan Neal led Bay Area to a pair of touchdown drives in the fourth to make the final score more respectable.  

The Wranglers look to get back in the win column after a loss in San Diego ended a four-game winning streak.  NAZ is always well-coached under Les Moss so execution will be even more important.  The Wranglers will not beat themselves and will be playing with a high sense of urgency at home to remain in the upper echelon of the conference.  Last season, Moss led the Wranglers to the conference championship game despite having the lowest scoring offense in the IFL.

The Panthers have the second-ranked run defense behind Frisco while the Wranglers are much more proficient throwing the ball, ranking third.  Since Bay Area has so many new bodies on defense, the logical prediction of NAZ needing to throw is not a guaranteed proposition. 

The teams split last year's regular season meetings. 

The Panthers beat the Wranglers 47-13 on April 23 to snap a two-game losing streak.  The defense allowed the fewest points of the season and Nih Jackson filled up the stat sheet by scoring a receiving touchdown, recovering an onside kick for a score and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.  

The Wranglers won the rematch 35-34 on May 13.  In the loss, JT Stokes caught three TD passes from Dalton Sneed but Garrett Kettle scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 2-yard run with 3:18 to play in the fourth.  

In the conference championship game, Justin Rankin set a franchise-record with six rushing touchdowns in a 68-46 win at the SAP Center.  The game ended the run of the defending champions and propelled the Panthers to the championship game one year after a one-win season. 

Kickoff is set for 6:05 Saturday in Prescott Valley.