Game 2 – #2 Southern Oregon (0-1) at UC Davis (0-1)
6 p.m. Saturday | Aggie Stadium | Davis, Calif.
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Game 1 Box Score

ASHLAND – The wait is almost over. The series that brought you such classics as 1932's 12-12 tie, 1950's thrilling 8-6 UC Davis victory and – who could forget? – the 13-12 decision that broke the hearts of Southern Oregon faithful in 1952, is back.

For the first time in 63 years, the Southern Oregon University football team will renew its … rivalry with UC Davis, an NCAA Division I FCS and Big Sky Conference affiliate, with a 6 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Aggie Stadium. The Aggies will be SOU's first FCS opponent since the Raiders were a second away from knocking off Sacramento State on Sept. 14, 2013, eventually losing 63-56 in overtime.

Both teams come into the week licking their respective wounds for different reasons. SOU, ranked No. 2 in the preseason NAIA poll, was upset at Eastern Oregon last Saturday, 45-40. Meanwhile, the Aggies were sent to Eugene to play the part of the Washington Generals to University of Oregon's Harlem Globetrotters, but performed admirably in a 53-28 defeat.

What Went Wrong: With 25 seconds left in Saturday's loss at EOU, the Raiders scored a touchdown, recovered Marcus Montano's onside kick, and advanced the ball to EOU's 20-yard line via Tanner Trosin's 28-yard completion to Matt Retzlaff on the first play from scrimmage. On the game's penultimate play Trosin hit Zack Davis in the end zone, but defensive back John Payne already had his arms locked with Davis and made an outstanding play to knock the ball to the ground. On the game's final play Trosin passed through traffic and hit a backward-falling Raider in the chest, but the connection (which required a high degree of difficulty on both ends) was not made.

Considering these facts, SOU had little business being that close to victory:
– The Raiders totaled the 13th-most penalty yards in the NAIA last season at 77.9 per game, but they committed 13 penalties for 192 yards against the Mountaineers – their highest total since Nov. 8, 2014 at Montana Tech (14-197).
– The Raiders fumbled four times and lost three of them for just the third time since the start of 2012. Worse yet, the first fumble was lost at EOU's 12-yard line; the second was lost in the end zone on a kickoff return and was snatched up by the Mountaineers for a touchdown; and the third was lost at EOU's 14-yard line on first down, allowing the Mountaineers to start a scoring drive that put them up 45-34.
– EOU led 24-21 with 4:47 left in the third quarter, and EOU led 38-21 with 4:42 left in the third quarter. During those five elapsed seconds, EOU's Calvin Connors returned a punt 65 yards for a TD and the aforementioned fumble in the end zone occurred on the ensuing kickoff.

Tro' Show Rolls On: Spanning back to last year's NAIA Championship Series, senior quarterback Tanner Trosin has now registered his four best games in terms of passing yardage in his last five outings: 365 yards, 261, 391, and last week's 360-yard effort on 33-of-50 passing in which he hooked up with 10 Raiders, five of whom were making their SOU debuts. His completion percentage is 69.5 in those games (105-of-151) with eight passing TDs. He's also up to 890 rushing yards and 13 rushing TDs in his 15-game SOU career after tacking on 24 yards and one score at EOU.

The Weekly Retzlaff Check-in: Trosin's favorite target, of course, was senior receiver Matt Retzlaff, who continued to torch the Mountaineers with 12 catches for career-high 166 receiving yards and three TDs. That outing brought his career totals in seven games against EOU to 43 catches for 576 yards and 10 TDs.

The three-time All-Frontier selection is up to 2,569 receiving yards, 30 receiving TDs and 178 receptions. He passed Martin Turner (1980-83) for second on SOU's receiving TDs list and needs three more to catch Dylan Young (2013-14) for the record. He'd catch Young for the receiving yards record with 258 more and he'd catch his brother, Ryan (2013-14), for the receptions record with 12 more.

Briefly:
– The Raiders finished with 493 yards of offense to EOU's 454. The last time they outgained an opponent and lost was Nov. 9, 2013 against Eastern Oregon (593-558).
– Prior to the loss, SOU was working on a six-game road winning streak, which had been the longest in team history.
– The Raiders are still 14-7 on the road and 17-3 at home in Frontier play since their first year of affiliation in 2012.
– The preseason NAIA Top 25 poll was released on Aug. 8, but the first poll of the regular season won't be released until Monday, after which a new poll will come out every week until the end of the regular season. Montana Tech, the seventh-ranked defending Frontier champion, was also upset at No. 22 Carroll, 27-24, on a 45-yard field goal that split the uprights as time expired.

The Howard Files: Craig Howard enters the week with a record of 45-18 (including 8-2 in the postseason) at SOU, giving him the top win percentage (.714) in Raider football history. He's three wins behind Chuck Mills (48-40-1) for third and five behind Jeff Olson (50-36) for second on SOU's wins list. Combined with his eight wins as head coach at Oregon Tech in 1991-92, Howard has the 19th-most (53) among all active NAIA coaches, and he's coached fewer seasons than anyone in the top 25.

FCS Flashback: SOU's last foray into the world of Big Sky football was Sept. 14, 2013 at Sacramento State, a game the Raiders entered with an 0-2 Frontier record. That night, Austin Dodge passed for 366 yards and six TDs and Melvin Mason rushed for 236, and a 59-yard Mason TD rush with 1:48 left broke a tie and put the Raiders up 56-49. On the final play of regulation – with one second left – a six-yard Sac State TD pass forced overtime, where the Hornets won in the first extra session, 63-56. The game stands as the highest combined-scoring game in SOU history.

Next Up: On Sept. 17, SOU hosts a critical Frontier clash in its home-opener at Raider Stadium, 1 p.m. against 25th-ranked Montana Western. In their first game, the Bulldogs won 26-13 in front of 5,015 fans at College of Idaho.

About UC Davis:
– In 2015 the Aggies went 2-9 overall and 2-6 in the Big Sky for an 11th-place finish. This year they were picked to finish 13th by the Big Sky coaches and 12th by the media.
– UC Davis owns a 6-1-1 mark in the series against SOU, which originated in 1932 and was last renewed in 1953. The Raiders are 0-4 on UC Davis' home field.
– According to UC Davis sports info, the Aggies are entering their 10th season at Aggie Stadium, where they are 4-5 in home-openers.
– Senior quarterback Ben Scott kept the Aggies competitive against the Ducks last week with a 27-of-47 effort for 303 yards, the third 300-yard game of his career. UC Davis was outgained in the game, 522-392. Last year, the Aggies averaged 122 yards on the ground and 236 through the air.
– Running back Manusamoa Luuga had three TDs and 96 rushing yards at UO, bringing him to 1,068 career yards.
– Oregon alum Ron Gould is in his four years as the Aggies' head coach, sporting a record of 9-26.
– SOU got its lone win in the series on Oct. 9, 1948 by a score of 49-26.