NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES – QUARTERFINALS
10 a.m. PST Saturday – #7 SOU (9-2) at #2 Baker University (Kan.) (11-1) – Liston Stadium
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Where to Watch in Ashland: Northwest Pizza & Pasta, Oak Tree Northwest Bar & Grill, Red Zone Sports Bar & Grill.

ASHLAND – This should sound familiar: The Southern Oregon University football team will attempt to pull off an NAIA Championship Series quarterfinal upset Saturday, on the road, unfavored, and in near-freezing temperatures at best.

For the third time in four years, that'll be the case when the seventh-ranked Raiders (9-2 overall) take on No. 2 Baker University (11-1) in Baldwin City, Kan., at 10 a.m. PST. The teams outscored their first-round opponents 120-29, and they'll enter the game with the fourth- and seventh-highest scoring offenses in the nation to go with defenses that have wreaked turnover havoc.

The Raiders are 4-1 away from home in playoff games dating back to the 2012 season. Last year they had to knock off the Nos. 1, 3 and 7 teams while traveling a shade under 10,000 miles.

"We're back to being road warriors again, but our boys are used to that," fifth-year SOU head coach Craig Howard said. "Baker is a traditional power down in that part of the country, and they've got some weapons. It's gonna be a hard-fought contest and a great test."

How They Got Here: SOU's 8-2 record in the Frontier Conference and No. 7 final ranking was good enough to earn the second of six at-large bids to its sixth all-time NAIA FCS. The Raiders improved to 6-0 in first-round games last Saturday in Ashland with a thorough 52-8 walloping of No. 10 Kansas Wesleyan. They scored three second-quarter touchdowns to go up 28-0 by halftime and didn't allow KWU to get on the board until they had put all their points up with 5:51 left.

Baker, which took the Heart of America Athletic Conference's automatic berth by going 5-0 in the circuit, was also unchallenged in its first-round game against No. 17 Point (Ga.). Clarence Clark caught all four of his touchdown passes of 34, 37, 69 and 17 yards in the first 32 minutes of the 68-21 Wildcats win, and he finished with seven catches for 200 yards. Making his first start of the season, quarterback Logan Brettell threw six TD passes and led Baker to 605 yards.

The Wildcats are 3-1 against teams currently in the NAIA Top 25 with wins over No. 3 Grand View (Iowa) (20-15) No. 23 William Penn (Iowa) (48-13) and Point. Their only loss was at No. 21 Benedictine (Kan.), 35-31.

Championship Series History: The Raiders are 1-4 all-time in the quarterfinals, finally breaking through last year with a 45-42 upset at top-ranked Carroll (Mont.). Since then, they've defeated their last three postseason opponents by an average of 31 points on an average of 610 yards of offense.

This is Baker's 14th appearance in the playoff. After getting to the Div. II semifinals in 1993, the Wildcats went 15 seasons without advancing to the postseason until taking first-round losses in 2008 and '12. In '13, they ended a 20-year winless drought by defeating Sterling (Kan.) in a first-round home game as the No. 4 seed and were knocked out by No. 5 Morningside (Iowa) in the quarters.

Head-to-Head: The teams' only previous meeting was on Oct. 29, 2005 under the lights at Raider Stadium, and SOU took a 44-29 decision for its only win of the season. The Raider quarterback that night was South Medford great Boomer Marshall.

Saturday's game will be the first the Raiders have ever played in Kansas, though 13 of the NAIA's 88 active football programs call the state home.

Playoff Picture: For the second year in a row, the hosts (and higher seeds) went undefeated in the first round, leaving the top-eight teams in the rankings still in the field. The other quarterfinal games are No. 8 Tabor (Kan.) at No. 1 Morningside (Iowa), No. 6 Marian (Ind.) at No. 3 Grand View (Iowa), and No. 5 Montana Tech at No. 4 Saint Francis (Ind.).

The playoff is not bracketed, but the national committee paired teams in the quarterfinals according to rankings. The next matchups will be announced Sunday for the Dec. 5 semifinals, and the championship game will be held in Daytona Beach, Fla., for the second year in a row on Dec. 19.

They Earned the Extra Gravy: SOU's gifted skill-position players and speedy secondary have hogged most of the highlights, but the Raider lines got the credit they deserved Wednesday when offensive linemen Dylan Bratlie and Tylor King and defensive linemen Joseph Lealofi, David Weider and Sam Woods landed on All-Frontier Conference teams.

SOU's offensive line was overpowering again last week, allowing the Raiders to net 317 rushing yards on 8.3 yards per carry. On the season, it has enabled the Raiders' top-five rushers to average a combined six yards per carry. And, after giving up 10 sacks through the first six games of the season, SOU has allowed opponents to get to its quarterbacks just three times in the last five games.

The Raider defense, on the other hand, has amassed 33 sacks and 17 in the last five games. Woods (7 ½), Weider (5) and Sean Rogers (4) lead the team in that category. Opposing quarterbacks are feeling the pressure, made apparent by the fact that the last four to take on the Raiders have completed a mere 44.9 percent of their attempts.

Trosin's Challenge: In addition to being SOU's first dual-threat quarterback in recent history, Tanner Trosin has made his living by taking care of the ball. He's completing 66.2 percent of his passes after last week's 26-of-32, 365-yard, three-touchdown performance, and has only been intercepted four times –once every 66.5 attempts. He's also totaled 729 rushing yards – 81.4 per game and 7.4 per attempt over his last five games – and a team-high 10 rushing TDs.

Staring him down will be the team that leads the NAIA in turnover margin (plus-20) and ranks second in the NAIA with 28 interceptions – nine more than the team with the third-most. The Wildcats have picked off at least one pass in 11 of 12 games this season, and they've forced 21 turnovers in their last five. Over the Raiders' last five outings they've turned the ball over six times.

Quick Hits:
– Jeremy Scottow enjoyed a career-best game in what was almost certainly his last at Raider Stadium, making five catches for 103 yards and a 37-yard TD and notching his first career rushing TD (14 yards). He's led the Raiders in receiving three of the last four games.
– Louis Macklin continued to be a spark-plug at tailback with 12 rushes for 130 yards and TDs of 71 (rushing) and 41 (receiving) yards. He's up to six scores this year despite starting most games as SOU's third option in the backfield.
– The Raiders have taken advantage of their preference to receive the opening kickoff, outscoring opponents 125-24 in first quarters this year.
– With his interception against Kansas Wesleyan, Karrington Jones owns half of SOU's 12 this season to rank second in the NAIA.
– The Raider defense just missed its first shutout since 2003 against the Coyotes, but it took a shutout into the final six minutes of the game for just the second time in the last 10 years.
– The Raider offense now ranks second in the NAIA in third-down conversion percentage (52.2), fourth in scoring average (43.9), seventh in average yardage (501.9), 13th in rushing yardage (239.1) and 14th in pass efficiency.
– SOU has scored 50 or more points four times this season. The Raiders did it five times in 2014.  

About Baker: Mike Grossner is in his 12th season as head coach with a record of 73-28. This edition of the Wildcats has been rock-solid on both sides of the ball and has yet to lose at home. The aforementioned Clark leads the nation in scoring with 16 receiving TDS and 90.3 reception yards per game. His quarterback for most of the season, Nick Marra, is out with an injury, but Brettell is no slouch as a backup: In nine games this season (with the bulk of his work coming in the last two), he's competed 77 of 98 passes for nine TDs and three interceptions. On the ground, Adonis Powell gets the bulk of the carries and has averaged 5.1 yards per attempt on 160 tries.

Defensively, the Wildcats are third in the NAIA in opponents' pass efficiency, seventh in scoring defense (17.0) and ninth in opponents' yardage (298.3). Only two of their opponents have scored more than 21 points, and they've blanked two others. They've logged 34 sacks, led by Adam Novak's seven. Twelve different Wildcats have interceptions, led by Darrian Winston (6) and Tucker Pauley (5).

"They've got some weapons and they do a great job taking care of the ball and forcing turnovers," Howard said. "In playoffs you have to play great defense, have a solid kicking game and you can't turn it over. It's all about the football."