NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES – QUARTERFINALS
No. 8 Southern Oregon University Raiders (10-2) at No. 1 Carroll College Saints (10-1)
Saturday, Nov. 29, noon MT - Nelson Stadium – Helena, Montana
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Complete Quarterfinal Pairings

Where to watch: Saturday's game will be shown live in Ashland at Oak Tree Northwest Bar & Grill and at Red Zone Sports Bar & Grill.
 
How they got here: Southern Oregon defeated MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) 44-26 last Saturday in the first NAIA Championship Series game played at Raider Stadium since 2002. An MNU touchdown tied the game at 17-all with 30 seconds left in the first half, but three quick Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) completions got the Raiders in field-goal range and Aldrick Rosas (Orland, Calif./Orland) kicked a 32-yarder as time expired. The Raiders scored 24 of the first 27 points in the second half, and Dodge finished with 311 passing yards, three passing TDs, 44 rushing yards and one rushing TD for a school-record 10^th win.

A win shy of its second Frontier title in three years, SOU was awarded one of the five at-large bids into the 16-team playoff field.

Carroll, which has won 10 straight since a season-opening loss in Ashland, earned the Frontier's automatic bid by winning its 14^th conference title in the last 15 years. The Saints won their first-round game against Valley City State, 49-0, allowing 87 total yards of offense and leading 35-0 by halftime. Running back Dustin Rinker rushed 29 times for 153 yards and three TDs, and Mac Roche threw three TD passes.

Rankings: SOU, which was picked in the preseason to finish third in the Frontier, started at No. 22 in the rankings and got to No. 4 after a 6-0 start. The Raiders' first loss, 42-40 at Carroll, dropped them to No. 7, but they reached No. 4 again until a loss to Eastern Oregon in the regular-season finale put them at No. 8 in the final poll.

Carroll started at No. 2 in the rankings and didn't take the top spot until the final poll. Despite their season-opening loss in Ashland, they were never behind the Raiders in the rankings.

Series: Carroll leads 4-2 in the all-time series, which dates back to the 2001 NAIA quarterfinals. Serving as the backdrop for this matchup are two classic Frontier clashes that the teams split this season and two Carroll playoff triumphs over a decade ago that were at least partially responsible for shaping both programs.

In this year's conference opener on Sept. 6 at Ashland High, SOU battled back from a 35-24 deficit with consecutive 80-yard touchdown drives in the third quarter, securing a 38-35 win by shutting the Saints out in the fourth. The Raiders found themselves in another pickle on Oct. 18 in Helena, down 42-27 with under five minutes remaining. That's when Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) orchestrated one quick scoring drive, the Raiders recovered their own onside kick, and Dodge threw a 21-yard score to Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem) to cut the lead to 42-40 with 24 seconds left. The ensuing two-point conversion attempt failed, however, giving the Saints a season split.

The teams' postseason history is as memorable as it is nightmarish for SOU faithful. In the 2001 edition, on a snow-packed Fuller Field in front of a packed-in Raider Stadium crowd, SOU snagged a 13-10 lead with 2:21 remaining as a seven-minute drive resulted in go-ahead touchdown. Carroll responded with a TD of its own and 30 seconds to spare, going home with a 16-13 win on the way to its first of six NAIA titles. The teams met in another quarterfinal in 2002, this time at Carroll, and the Raiders stormed out to a 31-14 lead through three quarters. The Saints broke their hearts again, however, with three unanswered fourth-quarter TDs for a 35-31 win, and it took 10 years for SOU to return to the postseason.

NAIA Championship Series history: This is SOU's fifth appearance in the NAIA FCS, the most recent being a 2012 run to the quarterfinals in which the Raiders won at No. 8 Saint Ambrose (Iowa), 45-28, and lost in overtime at No. 3 Morningside (Iowa), 47-44. The Raiders are 5-0 in first-round games but have never made it past the second round.

Carroll has missed the playoffs once six 2000 – winning six title games, most recently in 2010, and last year losing in the semifinals at Cumberlands (Ky.). The Saints have an all-time postseason record of 42-15, including a 28-6 mark at home.

Playoff picture:  All eight home (and higher-seeded) teams won in the first round. Quarterfinal and semifinal games will be played on campus sites on Saturday and Dec. 6, and the title game will be held in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Dec. 19. The 16-team series is not bracketed; the NAIA office will determine the next round's pairings and hosts on Sunday with not only with rankings in mind, but revenue and geography traditionally being key considerations.

To be the man…: A sellout crowd is expected Saturday at the 7,000-seat Nelson Stadium, as are temperatures around 11 degrees and a few inches of snow. The Saints are 25-2 at home in the postseason since the stadium opened in 2001 and are 10-2 in all quarterfinal games since then (losing at home to Saint Xavier in 2006 and Lindenwood in 2009).

The size of the hurdle is only appropriate for a program like SOU's attempting to finally get to the next level. Despite facing the top defense in the NAIA and an offense that features the most statistically efficient quarterback and arguably the country's best running back, the Raiders have reason to be optimistic: they're the only team to put more than 14 points on the Saints all season. They totaled 1,055 yards of offense in the two matchups compared to Carroll's 990, and in the initial meeting had 280 yards on the ground (led by Melvin Mason (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville)'s 202).

Eastern Oregon was the last team to win at Carroll, 41-33 on Sept. 10, 2011. The last time Carroll faced a Frontier team in the postseason was a 20-7 win over Montana State-Northern in 2006.

It's all gravy: Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) was named the Frontier Conference Offensive Player of the Year for the third year in a row Thursday after breaking another NAIA record last Saturday, this one for career completions (1,169). The Raider quarterback's other NAIA record-setting career totals are up to 15,891 passing yards, 143 TD passes and 148 total TDs responsible for. In four career games against Carroll, Dodge has completed 108 of 167 attempts (64.6 percent) for 10 touchdowns and four interceptions, averaging 394.5 passing yards per contest.

Some other quick hits:

• - With his 47-yard TD catch last week, Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem) became SOU's career TD-catch leader with 29 in just two years of work. His 118.1 reception yards per game rank fifth in the NAIA.
• Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford), who owns 1,142 yards of receiving and 10 TDs this season, led the Raiders with 137 yards on eight catches last week. It was his fourth 100-yard game in SOU's last six outings after being held under 100 in each of the first six.
• - SOU's senior-laden offensive line gets the credit for maintaining three backs with five-plus yard-per-carry clips – Keegan Lawrence (Sherwood, Ore./Sherwood) (7.0), Sean Tow (Diamond Springs, Calif./Union Mine) (6.5) and Melvin Mason (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville) (5.7). Last week as Tow netted 124 yards, three of his 13 runs went for 21 yards or more and seven went for seven yards or more.
• - Aldrick Rosas (Orland, Calif./Orland) has 91 kickoffs this season and 63 have resulted in touchbacks.
• - Heston Altenbach (Coquille, Ore./Coquille) is averaging 11 tackles per game in his last eight and Laurence Calcagno (Canby, Ore./Canby) is averaging 10.6 per game this season.
• - With two sacks last week, Daniel Breaux (Greenfield, Calif./Greenfield) has 16.5 in his career to rank sixth in SOU history.

The work of Saints: The stingy Carroll defense is led by two players, linebacker Sean Blomquist and defensive back James Dowgin, who were All-Americans in 2013. Blomquist recently became Carroll's career leader with 51 tackles for losses, and Dowgin has intercepted 10 passes the last two seasons. Subtracting Dodge from the equation, opposing quarterbacks are 114-for-259 (44 percent) with 6 TDs and 11 interceptions. Subtracting SOU from the equation, opponents are averaging 3.4 yards per rush and 102.8 rush yards per game.

First-year starter Mac Roche is completing 66.7 percent of his passes for 241.4 yards per game and has only been intercepted four times. Against the Raiders he's tossed six TD passes and averaged 278.5 passing yards. All-American running back Dustin Rinker is fifth in the NAIA at 138 rushing yards per game, and against SOU he's averaging 174 yards per game and 6.6 yards per carry.