Experience will be a factor when Holy Cross takes the field in their first home playoff game in close to forty years on Saturday.

This is the third trip in the last three seasons to the FCS Playoffs for coach Bob Chesney and the Crusaders.

Many players on this year's roster have played in multiple playoff games.

Their opponent, Sacred Heart, is making its second straight playoff appearance and can present many challenges to the Holy Cross squad.

"They've been there before, they know what post season play feels like,” said Chesney. “They know it's not an opponent that they've been prepared for or an opponent that they faced a numerous amount of times. So with that, on both sides, at Sacred Heart and for us ourselves we know it is a situation where you know really got to learn this opponent very, very quickly. You got to study them very quickly, you've got to mentally prepare and you got physically rep against exactly what they do well because you do not have past experiences of calls and mistakes and things that know you can clean up and get better at. You're really, this is a clean slate."

Kickoff on Saturday is at noon.

In the spring 2021 season, Holy Cross lost on the road to South Dakota State in the first round.