McShane
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
28
Rocky Mountain RMC 5-4 , 4-4
45
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 8-1 , 7-1
Rocky Mountain RMC
5-4 , 4-4
28
Final
45
Southern Oregon SOU
8-1 , 7-1
Winner
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
RMC Rocky Mountain 6 8 7 7 28
SOU Southern Oregon 14 21 7 3 45

Game Recap: Football | | SOU Sports Information

Raiders roll through 21st-ranked Rocky Mountain, 45-28

ASHLAND – Rocky Mountain quarterback Bryce Baker is used to having his way with the Southern Oregon defense. While his 420 passing yards Saturday at Raider Stadium did little to negate that notion, the three first-half interceptions he threw created a margin of error no one is currently afforded against the fifth-ranked Raiders.

Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) threw four first-half touchdowns, Sean Tow (Diamond Springs, Calif./Union Mine) rushed for 155 yards and two scores, and SOU scored a resume-building  45-28 win over the No. 21 Battlin' Bears, running its record to 8-1 overall and 7-1 in the Frontier Conference to remain tied with No. 2 Carroll in first place.

Rocky (5-4, 4-4) had been the only team the Raiders had yet to defeat since joining the Frontier in 2012 – on the field, anyway. (Last year's 35-30 Rocky win was later forfeited.) Baker was the foremost reason for that with a combined 1,027 passing yards and eight TDs in two games.

He got the Rocky offense rolling again Saturday but couldn't finish the drive, first getting intercepted by Nathan Torres-Walker (Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) at SOU's 12-yard line, then by Jaylenn Hart (Inglewood, Calif./Inglewood) at SOU's 3, and lastly by Julius Rucker (Portland, Ore./Westview) at SOU's 8, all before halftime.

Dodge and the Raiders, meanwhile, came out firing for the second straight week. They turned five of their first six drives into touchdowns – in last Saturday's win at College of Idaho it was each of the first six – and led 35-14 when Dodge completed a 91-yard pass that parachuted down into Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem)'s hands and left him with about 50 yards to run for a TD with 3:21 left in the first half.

Dodge went 21-for-32 with 350 yards, leading the Raiders to 611 total. They set the tone with their first drive, which was taken home by a double-handoff that was pitched back to Dodge, who wound up and hit a wide-open Young in the end zone from 40 yards out for his first TD.

Tow punched in the second TD with a 14-yard trip, and Dodge threw another 40-yard TD to a streaking   Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) next, giving SOU a 21-6 edge at the start of the second quarter. Rocky was held to field goals on their first two drives, but Baker hit McCullouch for an 11-yard TD and answer to Retzlaff's score, making it 21-14.

Then Baker's picks provided the Raiders with an open door.

They capitalized first with a five-play, 68-yard drive ending in Dodge's 12-yard pass up the middle to Matt Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) before Young's 91-yard score brought them to halftime.

Rocky hit first in the third quarter, Baker to McCullouch for 35 yards, but the Raiders immediately answered with a 12-play drive ending in Tow's two-yard score. Another Baker TD pass to Ryan Toney made it a two-TD game again in the fourth, 42-28, and Aldrick Rosas (Orland, Calif./Orland) answered with a 22-yard field goal on the ensuing SOU drive.

Young had five catches for 128 yards and his fourth multi-TD game of the season. Matt Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) caught six ball for 64 yards and Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) had three for 65.

Senior linebacker Heston Altenbach (Coquille, Ore./Coquille) led the Raider defense with 14 tackles and a breakup, while Laurence Calcagno (Canby, Ore./Canby) had 10 tackles and Hart added nine with his interception.

SOU has won its last six games at home against ranked opponents.

Baker passed 31 times in the first half and ended up 35-for-51, hitting McCullouch 10 times for 172 yards and Cole Cattelan seven times for 95.

The Bears, who were 4-0 on the road coming into the afternoon, had only 103 rushing yards compared to SOU's 261. They also were just 3-for-12 on third-down conversions.

SOU will be back on the road next week at Montana Tech, which dropped to 1-8 Saturday with a loss at Eastern Oregon.
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