Game 7 – #16 Eastern Oregon at #8 Southern Oregon
6 p.m. Saturday | Raider Stadium | Asante Breast Cancer Awareness Night
Live Stream | Live Stats | Tickets (kids 12-and-under free)

ASHLAND – Two unpredictable teams will convene Saturday for a matchup that has been even less predictable in recent years, but one thing is certain: The result will leave someone bitter and impaired going forward.

It's one of several signs that the rivalry between eighth-ranked Southern Oregon (4-2 overall, 4-1 conference) and No. 16 Eastern Oregon (3-2, 3-2) is peaking going into its 72nd edition, a 6 p.m. contest at Raider Stadium. Both teams are in good standing at the halfway point of the Frontier schedule – the Raiders are tied in first place with No. 9 Montana Tech, and the Mountaineers are a game back with Rocky Mountain – but another setback for either team would throw a good-sized wrench into their respective postseason plans.

Series Notes:
– SOU leads the all-time series, which began in 1930, 51-17-3. The only opponent the Raiders have seen more is Western Oregon, which they met most recently in 2010 for the 76th time.
– EOU defeated SOU in the season-opener for both teams on Sept. 3, 45-40 in La Grande.  The Mountaineers scored with 1:59 left to take a 45-34 lead, but a quick 73-yard touchdown drive and an onside-kick recovery gave the Raiders the ball and a chance to win with 25 seconds left. After two passes that hit SOU receivers in the hands and fell incomplete, the outcome was sealed.
– Five of the last six meetings have been decided by five points or less, including each of the last three at Raider Stadium.
– On Sept. 12 last year in Ashland, the Raiders trailed 35-14 in the final minute of the third quarter and rallied for a 38-35 win.
– SOU is 28-6-1 against the Mountaineers in Ashland, but two of the losses occurred in 2013 and 2014.
– EOU and SOU have both posted four Frontier records over the .500 mark. EOU joined the conference in 2006, and SOU joined in 2012.

Nighttime Maneuvers: The Raiders' visit to La Grande marked the Mountaineers' first night game since 1987. Likewise, Saturday's will be the first regular-season night game at Raider Stadium since Sept. 26, 2009, when SOU dropped a 31-27 decision against Linfield. The Raiders have lost nine of their last 11 regular-season home night games, but they defeated MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) under the lights on Nov. 22, 2014, by a 44-26 score in the first round of the NAIA playoffs.

Elite Company: In conference play, 10 of the Raiders' last 11 matchups against top-25 teams – including all seven the last two years – have been decided by seven points or less. They're 7-4 in those games and, since Craig Howard took over as head coach in 2011, SOU is 21-10 overall against the NAIA Top 25, including marks of 12-2 at home and 8-2 in the postseason. Since the start of 2015, five of seven Frontier games at Raider Stadium have been decided by four points or less and SOU taken all but one.

Comeback Jack: All redshirt-senior Jack Singler has done since taking over as SOU's starting quarterback is go 4-0, and though not always pretty, he's been at his best in the clutch. In helping SOU overcome a 34-14 deficit last week at Rocky Mountain, he completed 10 of 11 passes in the second half, including all five of his fourth-quarter attempts for 155 yards and touchdown bombs of 73 and 66 yards to Bronsen Ader. When the Raiders trailed Montana Western 21-17 on Sept. 17, he completed four straight passes for 83 yards, including a seven-yard TD strike to Zack Davis with 51 seconds left, to pull of the game-winning drive.

Singler is averaging 319.5 passing yards per game, the best clip in the Frontier, with eight TDs compared to five interceptions. He's also completing 61 percent of his attempts, a mark SOU starters have reached every year since 2012.

Catching on Fast: SOU's banged-up receiving corps has been without Zack Davis for three straight games, Matt Retzlaff for two and Sean McShane since the middle of the Oct. 1 contest against College of Idaho. The clichéd next-man-up mantra, however, is serving SOU well.

After Ader's six-catch, 165-yard performance at Rocky, five different Raiders have now recorded 100-plus-yard receiving games this season – Ben Bachman (season-best 101 yards), Jason Shelley (113), Davis (176) and Retzlaff (166) being the others. And while Ader's two TD catches at Rocky were the first of his career, Chase Cole also made his first scoring grab on a 22-yard connection with Singler in the first quarter.

Missing Retlzaff again would be an obvious blow: In seven career games against the Mountaineers, he's totaled 43 catches for 576 yards and 10 TDs, including a 12-catch, 166-yard, 3-TD performance in the season opener.

NAIA Top 25: After three weeks at the No. 9 spot, the Raiders were finally allowed to move up this week thanks to then-No. 6 Morningside's 69-7 drubbing of then-No. 3 Doane, which was consequently pushed down to No. 10. This week, only one team ranked ahead of SOU plays another top-25 foe as Morningside travels to No. 21 Midland.

Briefly:
– Devvon Gage was voted the Frontier's defensive player of the week for his performance at Rocky. The redshirt-sophomore linebacker registered career highs of 14 tackles and five for losses to go with half a sack, two pass break-ups, and a forced fumble that led to SOU's go-ahead score on the ensuing play. He leads the Raiders with 52 total tackles, the fourth-highest total in the conference.
– SOU's defense has gone three straight games without allowing a fourth-quarter point.
– In their first meeting with EOU, the Raiders scored on just five of eight trips to the red-zone, fumbling away two chances and turning over another on downs. Since then, they've scored on 16 of 20 trips with one turnover.
– The Raiders have converted an astounding 12 of 14 fourth-down tries, the most in the NAIA. They also rank fifth in the country with a third-down conversion percentage of 51 (49 of 97), while opponents have converted 39 percent of their third-down attempts (33 of 84).
– During last year's regular season, the Raiders logged one touchdown play from scrimmage that went for over 50 yards. This year, they've scored on plays of 94, 93, 73, 67, 66, 51 and 48 yards.
– After getting to quarterbacks for one sack over their first three games, the Raiders have tallied seven over the last three. Armando Gauger and Kalan Hoedl lead the team with two apiece. The offensive line, meanwhile, has only allowed four sacks in the last five games.
– With two more touchdowns last week, Sean Tow has found the end zone in his last 10 regular-season games and upped his career total to 28 rushing TDs. He needs 61 more rushing yards to become the seventh player in Raider history to reach the 2,000-yard milestone, and his average of 5.3 yards per carry is the sixth-best in team history.
– With another strong outing last week, Louis DesPrez is now fifth nationally with a punting average of 41.9 yards per attempt.

About Eastern Oregon:
– The Mountaineers are still hunting their first-ever appearance in the NAIA Championship Series, and the schedule after this week favors them: Their two toughest remaining opponents, No. 25 Montana Western and Rocky Mountain, both have to visit La Grande.
– Last week they won at Montana State-Northern, 52-31, behind Zach Bartlow's 325 passing yards and five total TDs. Bartlow's 301 passing yards per game rank second in the Frontier, and he's thrown for 13 touchdowns with just four interceptios.
– EOU is averaging 458 yards per game, the 18th-most in the NAIA. Receiver/punt-returner Calvin Connors is contributing 160.7 yards, which ranks eighth individually.
– The Mountaineer secondary has generated four interceptions, which, among Frontier teams, is only better than SOU's two.
– They're led in tackles by Michal Arenas (55) and Tucker Stanley (55). They've recorded seven sacks and allowed 14.
– In his ninth year, EOU head coach Tim Camp owns a 4-9 mark against the Raiders.