ASHLAND – At least the Southern Oregon and Montana Tech football teams still have each other.

The 2013 season culminates Saturday for the Raiders (6-4 overall, 6-3 Frontier Conferece) and Orediggers (3-6, 3-6) at Bob Green Field in Butte, Mont., where they have made for a thrilling combination in recent history. The Orediggers won 50-47 in 2011 and 48-45 in 2012, and both games required two overtimes.

Kickoff is slated for 11 a.m. Pacific Time. There will be a little less at stake than both teams had hoped for.

Montana Tech was the preseason co-favorite to win the Frontier with Carroll College. The Orediggers won their first game at Eastern Oregon then sputtered, going on a four-game losing streak that included a stop in Ashland and a 59-32 loss at the hands of the Raiders. Things haven't gotten much better since.

The Raiders, on the other hand, can still finish second in the Frontier standings a year removed from winning it. But their dreams of another title and another trip to the NAIA Championship Series were effectively squashed last week in a heart-wrenching 38-37 loss against Eastern Oregon.

This will be the end of the road for 10 Raider seniors who have already helped clinch a second straight winning record. Most of them entered the program on the heels of SOU's sixth sub-.500 campaign in seven seasons.

Series history: SOU and Tech have three wins apiece but the Raider dominated the last two matchups, both in Ashland. They opened up a 39-point lead in last year's regular-season finale on the way to a 46-28 win that forced the teams to share the Frontier title. Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) threw five touchdown passes in that game, and he threw a school-record of eight more with 573 passing yards on Oct. 5 of this year.

SOU's only win in Butte was picked up in the 2008 season-opener: a 30-25 upset of the 21^st-ranked Orediggers. The Raiders went on to lose their next six.

Tech-nically speaking: Tech's crutch was supposed to be its defense. That didn't ring true against the Raiders, but the offense, which produced an average of 15.8 points in the other five losses, has been just as problematic. Last week at Montana Western, the Orediggers went down 20-0 before scoring the last two touchdowns of the game.

They're still 14^th in the NAIA in passing offense behind sophomore quarterback Herman Tapley, a first-year starter who is throwing for 218 yards per game with 12 touchdowns. He had his biggest game at SOU: 37-for-59, 383 yards, three TDs.

The Orediggers also have the fifth-most sacks in the country (3.4 per game). They average 408.9 yards of offense and are allowing 408.7.

The numbers game: As usual, the Raiders are knocking on the door of some program records as the season comes to a close.

Kicker Aldrick Rosas (Orland, Calif./Orland) has already knocked one down by converting all 53 of his point-after attempts. The previous SOU record for consecutive makes was 35, established by Steve Baker in 2002.

In terms of reception yardage, Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) (1,139) is fourth on SOU's single-season list and Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem) (1,115) is fifth. Both are well within striking distance of third-place Spike Gordon's 1,163.

Matt Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford)'s 15 receiving touchdowns are three off the record Cole McKenzie (Red Bluff, Calif./Red Bluff) set in 2012. Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford)'s 12 are tied for third on the list, and he's also third with 81 total receptions.

Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) already owns pretty much every SOU quarterbacking mark, but even though the Raiders will play one less game than they did last season, he's only 45 completions away from matching his record of 359, and his 45 touchdowns are already three more than his 2012 total.  He enters the game leading the nation in pass yards per game (417.2).

The only thing slowing down SOU's offense in their losses the last two weeks is the 10 turnovers they piled up. The offense, which is first in the NAIA at 598.9 yards per game, will still easily be the second-most explosive in program history.