retzlaff
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
34
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 2-2 , 2-1
14
Carroll CC 1-3 , 1-3
Winner
Southern Oregon SOU
2-2 , 2-1
34
Final
14
Carroll CC
1-3 , 1-3
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
SOU Southern Oregon 14 14 3 3 34
CC Carroll 7 0 7 0 14

Game Recap: Football | | SOU Sports Information

No. 9 SOU pounds Carroll, 34-14, for second straight win

HELENA, Mont. – Even though it was playing on the road for the first time with a new quarterback, Southern Oregon was not the team with glaring issues Saturday afternoon at Nelson Stadium.

That would be the Carroll Saints – still licking their wounds after last week's 28-14 loss at lowly Montana State-Northern, and finding no refuge in their rivalry with the ninth-ranked Raiders. Behind Rey Vega's breakout day at tailback and a defense that limited Carroll to 237 yards, SOU skated to a 34-14 victory, its first ever of the regular-season variety in Helena.

Vega, a sophomore transfer, rushed 14 times for 155 yards, the most for a Raider back since Sean Tow's 155 on Nov. 1, 2014, and brought home a 94-yard touchdown run with four minutes left in the first quarter, which was SOU's longest rush since Dusty McGrorty's 96-yarder on Oct. 25, 2003. Vega also caught three passes for 87 yards.

SOU (2-2 overall, 2-1 Frontier) is one of three one-loss teams in the conference, along with Montana Tech (3-1) and Rocky Mountain (2-1), going into next Saturday's 1 p.m. game against College of Idaho at Raider Stadium. At 1-3, Carroll is off to its worst start since 1998 and has now lost eight of its last 10 dating back to last year.

The Raider defense shut down the Saints on nine of their 11 possessions and stopped them three-and-out five times. Carroll's yardage total was the lowest for an SOU opponent in 14 games.

Which allowed the offense to steal the show. After throwing an interception on the first drive, Jack Singler extended SOU's second with a completion to Vega on 4th-and-12 before hitting wide-open tight end Ben Bachman for a nine-yard TD in the middle of the end zone, Bachman's first career score.

Vega's long run put SOU up 14-0, but Carroll quarterback JT Linder's seven-yard TD rush cut the lead in half with five seconds left in the first quarter. The Saints then got a stop and were driving before SOU safety Keegan Lawrence – a converted running back making his first start – changed the game with his first career interception, leading to a 12-play, 60-yard drive that Sean Tow finished on a one-yard TD with 2:55 left in the half, making it the eighth straight regular-season game in which Tow has scored.

A quick three-and-out put SOU's offense back on the field, which allowed Matt Retzlaff to make history. His seven-yard reception from Singler with 34 seconds left was the 33rd receiving TD of his career, matching Dylan Young's Raider record, and his 40th TD overall. He finished with seven receptions for 57 yards and passed his brother, Ryan, for second-place on SOU's career receiving yards list by upping his total to 2,803.

That score made it 28-7 at halftime. Of the nine previous games in series history between the Raiders and Carroll, eight had been decided by six points or less, and an 18-point Carroll win in 2013 was formerly the biggest spread.

Singler, who also hit Jason Shelley three times for 52 yards, completed 23 of 43 passes for 286 yards in his second start. Meanwhile, Carroll's QBs combined to go 12 of 30 for 123 yards.

The Raiders – who tacked on in the second half with Marcus Montano field goals of 27 and 25 yards – totaled 523 yards of offense, which Louis Macklin helped them reach with a season-best 58 yards on eight rushes.

Lawrence and Devvon Gage recorded team-highs of nine tackles apiece, while Armando Gauger and Jacob Proul shared SOU's only sack.
 
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