NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES – TITLE GAME
No. 8 Southern Oregon University Raiders (12-2) vs. No. 7 Marian University (Ind.) Knights (11-2)
Friday, Dec. 19, noon PT – Municipal Stadium – Daytona Beach, Florida

ASHLAND – The 2014 season began with 89 teams vying for a spot in the NAIA Football National Championship game. Nearly four months later, Southern Oregon University and Marian University will meet in Daytona Beach, Fla., to form the most unlikely matchup in the game's history.

The 59^th annual edition of the championship is being hosted by the 9,601-seat Municipal Stadium at Larry Kelly Field for the first time. It will be televised live Friday on ESPNU, as the eighth-ranked Raiders (12-2) and seventh-ranked Knights (11-2) will officially kick off at 3:03 p.m. Eastern Time.

Where to watch: Click here for a list of locations that will show the game in Oregon and northern California. Students and employees of SOU are invited to watch on campus in the Rogue River Room.

SOU's road to Daytona: The Raiders, after finishing second in the Frontier Conference, took one of five at-large berths into the 16-team NAIA Championship Series field and started with a 44-26 win over ninth-ranked MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) in the first postseason game played in Ashland since 2002. The Raiders broke a 17-all tie with an Aldrick Rosas (Orland, Calif./Orland) field goal as time expired in the first half, then proceeded score on four straight drives in the second half. Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) threw three touchdown passes and Sean Tow (Diamond Springs, Calif./Union Mine) rushed 13 times for 134 yards.

The quarterfinals brought them to Helena, Mont., for a rubber match with top-ranked Carroll that was played in subzero temperatures with heavy and persistent snowfall at Nelson Stadium. The effect was as profound on the defenses as it was on the offenses, and the teams combined for 1,103 yards. SOU trailed 35-18 heading into the fourth quarter but came back by scoring touchdowns on all five of their second-half drives (including four in the fourth) of a 45-42 win. Dodge threw for 470 yards and Melvin Mason (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville) had four rushing touchdowns, including the game-winning plow with 22 seconds left that sent the Raiders to the NAIA semifinals for the first time in school history.

A 62-37 semifinal win at third-ranked Saint Xavier (Ill.) was achieved with one of the Raiders' most explosive offensive performances of the season, though it was the defense that allowed them to blow it open with six consecutive stops – the last being an interception by Heston Altenbach (Coquille, Ore./Coquille) that he returned for a touchdown. Dodge threw for 460 yards and five TDs, Matt Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) scored twice, and the Raiders put up more points in a semifinal win than anyone since 1999.

Marian's road to Daytona: The Knights earned an automatic berth into the NAIA FCS by winning the Mid-States Football Association's Mideast League with a 5-1 circuit record. Their road started at home in Indianapolis, where a stout defense remained true in a 34-3 drubbing of 10^th-ranked Georgetown (Ky.). The story was the same in Marian's 34-6 quarterfinal victory at second-ranked Grand View (Iowa), which had won eight straight before falling victim to a methodical Knight offense and three turnovers.

The defensive effort in a 41-21 semifinal win at fourth-ranked Morningside (Iowa) was perhaps Marian's best to date. Morningside came into the game averaging 676 yards of offense and 58.3 points. The Mustangs were shut out in the second half, however, coughing up what was once a 21-7 lead as Marian tailback Tevin Lake went for 159 rushing yards and Morningside quarterback Ryan Kasdorf (who owned the highest efficiency rating in the NAIA) was picked off four times.

Rankings: SOU was No. 22 in the preseason coaches' poll, peaked at No. 4 and settled in at No. 8 in the final ranking of the season. Marian, coming off a 6-5 campaign, was unranked when 2014 began and worked its way up to No. 7.

This is the first time that a top-three team in the final poll isn't in the title game, and also the first time that a team unranked in the preseason advanced. Never before (since NAIA Divisions I and II merged in 1997) had both teams advanced by triumphing on the road in the semifinals – and quarterfinals, for that matter – as home teams had previously been 28-6 in the semis. The lower-ranked team has prevailed four straight years in the championship.

Coaches: Craig Howard has a record of 33-14 in his fourth season at SOU, placing him fourth on the program's career wins list. The Raiders went 19-47 in the six seasons prior to his arrival. This game is a homecoming of sorts for Howard, who, after a stint at Oregon Tech in 1991-92, coached high school football in Florida. Municipal Stadium is less than 70 miles away from Nease High School, where he guided a Tim Tebow-led team to a state title in 2005.

This is Mark Henninger's second season at Marian, which has only had a football program since 2007 but is cumulatively 10-2 in the postseason nonetheless. Prior to landing in Indianapolis, Henninger spent five seasons at North Carolina Wesleyan College and led it to the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2009. Henninger's tenure at Marian got off to a turbulent start: Coming off a 2012 NAIA title, the Knights lost three of their first four games and would ultimately miss the playoffs for the first time since 2009. They did go 4-2 in conference play, and are again playing their best football late this season with nine straight wins.

Series: First meeting.

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Like Christmas in mid-December: After going through a month's worth of gutsy but unworthy contestants, we've reached the final round of the NAIA's newest hit show, "Who's going to stop Southern Oregon?" SOU already knocked off the 2010 (Carroll) and 2011 (Saint Xavier) NAIA champions consecutively to reach this point. Now standing in the way of a Raider team that already has more wins and has advanced two rounds further than any other in program history is Marian, the 2012 champion.

What is SOU's offense, which averages 563.7 yards per game, capable of doing on a 77-degree afternoon (no, really) after spending late November and early December in Montana and Chicago? The hottest defense in the nation – which allows just 78 rushing yards per game and owns 11 interceptions during these playoffs – figures to have a large say in that, and a two-time All-American running back will do his best to help slow the Raiders down from the other side of the ball. SOU is attempting to become the first state school to win the title since 1999.

Last call: One way or another, the Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) era at SOU will come to a close Friday, meaning we no longer have to come up with new ways of saying he's good every week. That point should be clear by now, but here's another to consider: his remarkable consistency. Dodge's completion percentages from his sophomore-through-senior seasons, in succession, have been 65.4, 65.8 and 65.7. His completion percentage in five career postseason games is 65.6.

The NAIA All-American and Player of the Year candidate tossed for 460 yards in the semifinals – the 19^th 400-yard game of his career. His NAIA career records of 16,821 passing yards and 151 passing TDs have long passed the old marks of 13,388 and 120. In the second half of this year's playoffs games, Dodge is 40-for-62 with 609 yards, eight TDs and no interceptions. The offensive line, led by All-American Drew Gibson (Medford, Ore./North Medford), has helped mightily, allowing him to be sacked just twice in three games after he went down21 times in the regular season. Dodge's mobility has also seemingly improved: He's rushed 31 times for 105 yards during the postseason, and rushed 55 times for 29 yards during the regular season.

Dodge, averaging 369.9 yards and 49 TDs and 10 picks this season, has a career average of 398.2 passing yards in the postseason.

More facts to file under "fun":  SOU's defense hasn't put up numbers that will blow anyone away, but in three key stretches during all three playoff games – with SOU either tied or trailing at the start of each – it came through with stops on three of four drives against MidAmerica Nazarene, three of four drives against Carroll, and six straight against Saint Xavier. Last week senior linebacker Laurence Calcagno (Canby, Ore./Canby) got in on 11 tackles, bringing his season total to 144 for a new SOU record.

Some other quick hits:
- SOU receivers Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem) and Ryan Retzlaff (Medford, Ore./South Medford) have moved up to Nos. 1 and 2 in the NAIA in receiving yards with 1,631 and 1,477, respectively. Young, a field-stretching specialist, has TD catches in 13 of 14 games and 31 total, going over 100 yards nine times despite not having a 10-catch game. Retzlaff owns 32 catches for an average of 157.3 yards during the postseason.
- All-American defensive end Daniel Breaux (Greenfield, Calif./Greenfield) didn't record a sack at Saint Xavier, but did wreak havoc with four quarterback hurries. His 18 career sacks tie him for fifth in Raider history.
- The Raiders are converting third-downs at a 52-percent success rate (24-for-46) in the playoffs while their opponents are down at 33 percent (16-for-49).
- SOU's one-two tailback punch of Sean Tow (Diamond Springs, Calif./Union Mine) and Melvin Mason (Vacaville, Calif./Vacaville) has recently been executed successfully. Tow has 47 carries for 274 yards (5.8 per) during the postseason, while Mason has been used in shorter-yardage situations to the tune of 46 rushes for 189 yards and four TDs.
- SOU has been held under 30 points just once in its last 37 games – a 30-27 loss to Eastern Oregon in this year's regular-season finale.

Knights, cameras, action: The Marian defense has allowed less than 90 yards of rushing in 11 of 13 games this season, and even the 159 given up to Morningside's Brandon Wegher amounted to a small victory considering he was averaging over 200. Here's how serious Marian continues to be about stopping the run: In three games leading up to the semifinals, its defense gave up 87, negative-30 and 31 yards rushing. In that 87-yard game, 72 were gained on one play. Beau Shields (105) and Ryan Hartnett (101) are the leaders in tackles for Marian, which has also totaled 37 sacks to rank fifth in the NAIA.

The defenders tasked with stopping Dodge come in with some momentum, too. The Knights have picked off multiple passes in each of their last seven games and 11 in three playoff contests. Eric Price, a 6-foot sophomore, has nine interceptions on his own. (SOU has intercepted 12 passes as a team, led by Julius Rucker (Portland, Ore./Westview)'s three.)

Offensively, the Knights lean on shifty All-American tailback Tevin Lake, who ranks seventh in NAIA history with 5,382 rushing yards. With 33 more, he'll supplant ex-Raider All-American Dusty McGrorty in sixth place. Lake, who stands 5-8, 205 pounds, rushed for 159 yards in the semifinals and is averaging 111.2 on the season. He had 104 yards and two TDs on 23 carries in Marian's 30-27 overtime win over Morningside in the 2012 title game.

Hayden Northern, a 6-3 junior quarterback, didn't become the starter until the sixth game of the season. He's been serviceable, completing 58 percent of his attempts for 203.7 yards per game, 18 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. His top target is easily 6-4 sophomore Krishaw Hogan, who's pulled in 76 passes for 1,004 yards and 10 touchdowns. Anthony Jones Jr. is next in line with 551 yards and five TDs. The Knights are more likely to trust the run, though; they've attempted at least 40 rushes in 11 of 13 games.