Saturday, 1 p.m. (MT): No. 7 SOU at College of Idaho
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ASHLAND – The seventh-ranked Southern Oregon University football team will head to an unfamiliar place this weekend, but at least the Raiders will no longer be facing an unfamiliar opponent.

SOU (6-1 overall, 5-1 Frontier Conference) and College of Idaho (4-3, 3-3) are set to do battle at Caldwell, Idaho's Simplot Stadium at noon Pacific Time on Saturday, their second meeting of the season set up by a 56-28 Raider win on Nov. 20 at Ashland High.

That game was the first between the teams in 46 years – the Coyotes are in their first season of competition since 1977 – and C of I had just as many surprises for the Raiders as they've had for almost every other opponent.  The Raiders fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, and the game was tied 28-all in the third before SOU sped off with 28 unanswered points.

Just how wild has the Yotes' return to action been? They blocked a field goal to defeat Pacific 31-28 in their first week of the season, they forced five turnovers to beat Montana Western 31-28 the next week, they blew a 28-0 lead before defeating Montana State-Northern 35-31 on a last-minute touchdown for their third win, and they scored 21 straight points to beat Montana Tech 41-25 for their fourth win.

There was not enough magic on hand in last week's 35-21 loss at 13^th-ranked Rocky Mountain, though they did overcome a 21-0 deficit to get within a touchdown in the fourth.

The Raiders could have used a little more magic, too. Their comeback bid at third-ranked Carroll fell short, 42-40, a two-point conversion attempt failing with 24 seconds left and the reset button hit on their six-game win streak.

A quick recovery is vital. The term "must win" might be a little strong, but NAIA top-25 voters have proven to be most harsh as the season winds down and the 16-team NAIA Championship Series nears. The conference champ gets an automatic bid to that, but everyone else must rely on an at-large bid – the last of which went to the 16^th-ranked team last year and the 13^th-ranked team the year before. That, and their last three games are home against third-place Rocky (Nov. 1), at Montana Tech (Nov. 8), and home against fourth-place Eastern Oregon (Nov. 15), which had been in the rankings until this week.

Still scoring: In two matchups this season, SOU has been the only team to make Carroll's defense look almost…normal. Granted it took 27 fourth-quarter points last Saturday, and the Raiders went an entire half without a touchdown for the first time in 33 games. But still, the Saints have allowed 78 points against SOU and 39 points combined in four other games.

SOU's NAIA-leading pass offense (359.6 yards/game) stayed hot, as Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) threw for 357 yards and three TDs. The running game, too, was relatively successful, led by Melvin Mason (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville)'s two TDs and 105 yards on 16 rushes. On another encouraging note, Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) broke out for 12 catches, 183 yards and two scores. Retzlaff led the nation in catches last year and caught 12 TDs, but he'd been scoreless since the first week of this season and was limited to 11 catches over the last three games.

The Raiders' 544 yards of total offense per game rank second in the NAIA and their 42.3 points rank fifth.

Laying down the Lau': Senior linebacker Laurence Calcagno (Canby, Ore./Canby) experienced a couple firsts against Carroll's multi-faceted offense. He claimed the first interception Mac Roche has thrown this season, and he also was the first person to get to Roche for a sack in three games. Calcagno owns team-highs of 4.5 sacks (all in the last four games), 7.5 tackles for losses and 66 total tackles this season.

SOU vs. College of Idaho: The Raiders lead an especially meaningless all-time series against the Coyotes, 4-2. The Sept. 20 game featured a season-high 661 yards of offense for the Raiders, including 476 and five TD passes for Dodge.

It also featured the Yotes' dynamic junior quarterback Teejay Gordon, however. Gordon – who was injured in C of I's last game but is listed No. 1 on this week's depth chart – had 163 of C of I's 359 rushing yards on 13 tries, and went 16-for-26 with 200 passing yards.

Not listed on the C of I depth chart this week is starting running back Zach Garzoli, who hit SOU up for 109 yards. The eighth-best rushing offense in the nation (244.4 yards/game) may have to do without him as it did for all but one carry last week.

Four different opponents have logged over 400 yards of offense against the Yotes, who have conceded 933 yards the last two weeks.

C of I is 3-0 at Simplot, which is hosting 4,892 fans per game.