weider
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo.
30
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 10-2
27
Morningside College MC 12-1
Winner
Southern Oregon SOU
10-2
30
Final
27
Morningside College MC
12-1
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
SOU Southern Oregon 6 0 17 7 30
MC Morningside College 0 7 14 6 27

Game Recap: Football | | SOU Sports Information

SOU headed back to Daytona after 30-27 upset of No. 1 Morningside

SIOUX CITY, Iowa –Southern Oregon went into Elwood Olsen Stadium's visiting locker room at halftime Saturday kicking itself, knowing it had missed a chance to blow the top-ranked Morningside Mustangs off their own field early in the NAIA Football Championship Series semifinals.

Unlike a year ago, these Raiders remained in the habit of breaking hearts in the clutch instead. But they're headed back to Daytona Beach, Fla., for a shot at another national championship in a rematch with Marian (Ind.) just the same.

The seventh-ranked Raiders will make their return without a record-setting quarterback or the three other All-Americans who helped delivered the program's first championship, but they'll bring plenty of stories to tell – especially after a 30-27 defeat of the Mustangs, which was their fifth consecutive playoff win as the lower seed and their second knockout of a No. 1 team in as many years.

Trailing 27-23 at their own 7-yard line with 5:28 to play, junior quarterback Tanner Trosin led the Raiders (11-2) down the field by completing five of six passes for 45 yards, benefiting from a Morningside personal foul, then giving way to Sean Tow's two rushes for 25 yards. With 1:20 on the clock on 4th-and-4, Trosin ran in a five-yard score on a draw play that put SOU in front.

With 75 seconds left to travel 71 yards, Ryan Kasdorf took Morningside down the field by converting once on fourth- and twice on third-down. He set freshman kicker Jared Admunson up with a potential game-tying field goal attempt from 41 yards with five seconds on the clock, but defensive back AJ Cooper snuck past the edge of the line for a block that sealed the win.

SOU will have a chance to become the first repeat champion since Carroll in 2009 when it meets Marian on Dec. 19 at Municipal Stadium. The sixth-ranked Knights (11-2) upset No. 4 Saint Francis (Ind.) on the road Saturday, 45-14. Before SOU and Marian made it happen last year, the final had never featured teams that both won on the road in the semifinals, nor had it been without a top-three team in the rankings.

Trosin tossed for a season-high 391 yards and one score, completing 27 of 39 passes with one interception, and rushed 21 times for 109 yards and two TDs. His top target was Matt Retzlaff, who logged the fourth 100-plus-yard game of his postseason career with nine catches for 139 yards. SOU's offense totaled 527 in all.

Morningside (12-2), which entered the day with the NAIA's top-scoring (61.4 points) and top-gaining (604 yards) offense, finished with 446 yards and its lowest point-total since last year's semis. The Mustangs have now reached the postseason a record 12 straight years with just one championship-game appearance and no titles to show for it.

SOU's defense disrupted Kasdorf for most of the afternoon. David Weider was in on all three Raider sacks and Karrington Jones grabbed his seventh interception of the season, which was just Kasdorf's fourth. Devvon Gage had a game-high 13 tackles with two for losses.

Still, the Mustangs stayed in the game thanks to some early SOU miscues. The Raiders turned the ball over three times in the first half (they had three turnovers total in their first two playoff games), including a fumble at the goal line, and were also stuffed on 4th-and-goal after three chances to punch it in.

Instead of leading by multiple scores, Keegan Lawrence's one-yard TD run that was followed by a blocked point-after gave them their only points through two quarters. Tyler Kavan's two-yard TD run with 3:31 left sent the Mustangs to the break with a 7-6 lead.

On the opening drive of the third quarter, Kasdorf – who finished 24-of-42 for 337 yards and rushed 27 times for 61 – fired a 39-yard pass to Jason Vander Kooi and followed it with a 12-yard TD strike to Michael Whitehead. SOU needed just 70 seconds to answer: Trosin's 27-yard pass to Zack Davis in the back of the end zone was perfect, and trimmed Morningside's edge to 14-13.

Weider's second sack forced a Morningside punt on the ensuing drive, and Retzlaff's 40-yard diving catch put Marcus Montano in position to convert a 19-yard field goal that gave the lead back to the Raiders, 16-14.

Again, Morningside answered – this time with an eight-play, 68-yard drive capped by a five-yard Kavan TD that put the Mustangs back on top, 21-16, midway through the third. But again, Trosin didn't flinch, dancing in for a 27-yard rushing TD two minutes later to make it 23-21 in favor of SOU.

Jones' interception – which matched him with Nathan Mart for the most of any Raider in a season since 2000 – followed, but SOU was forced to punt. Working a short, 47-yard field, Morningside went ahead one last time with 9:12 left in the fourth on Kavan's NAIA-leading 33rd TD of the season.

The Raiders were forced to punt again on their ensuing drive. The return was fumbled by Weslee Dvorak, and the SOU temporarily stole possession but fumbled too into the end zone, resulting in a controversial touchback call. With a chance to go up by multiple scores, however, Morningside was forced into a three-and-out.

Trosin's heroics were next, and his team-leading 12th TD run left it up to the Raider defense with 1:15 remaining. Ten plays and one blocked field goal later, the Raiders were back in the title game.

Their resume heading into Daytona will include two overtime wins, three other wins by five points or less, and six wins total over ranked teams. Last year's squad recorded just three of its 13 wins by less than a touchdown, and two were against Carroll.

Tow finished with four catches for 78 yards, while Adonis Griffin and Jeremy Scottow added 43 reception yards apiece. The Raiders were without their leading running back, Melvin Mason, who came down with the flu. They made up for the absence by bottling up Morningside's rushing attack, which averaged just 2.6 yards per carry on 42 tries.
 
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