ader
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo.
19
Montana Western UMW 4-5 , 4-4
44
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 8-0 , 8-0
Montana Western UMW
4-5 , 4-4
19
Final
44
Southern Oregon SOU
8-0 , 8-0
Winner
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
UMW Montana Western 6 0 7 6 19
SOU Southern Oregon 7 21 2 14 44

Game Recap: Football | | SOU Sports Information

Raiders clinch Frontier title on Trosin's 500-yard day

ASHLAND – Southern Oregon demoralized another opponent by halftime on Saturday at Raider Stadium, but scoreboard-watching added intrigue to the latter stages of the afternoon during a 44-19 defeat of Montana Western.

The seventh-ranked Raiders were afforded the luxury of going into cruise control after quarterback Tanner Trosin threw for 301 yards in the first half en route to a 28-6 lead. The senior from Folsom, Calif., completed 33 of 47 passes for three touchdowns and 502 yards in total – notching the fifth 500-plus-yard game in team history.

And while the Raiders were improving to 8-0 for the second time in their existence (the other was in 1946), second-place Montana Tech was in the process of becoming an upset victim at home against Rocky Mountain, falling 30-27 on a 45-yard field goal as time expired and dropping to 6-2.

The implications: With two games remaining, SOU has clinched at least a share of its second Frontier Conference championship. The first was in 2012, the Raiders' first year in the circuit, when they were co-champs with Montana Tech. But if they can defeat last-place Montana State-Northern next week – something only two Frontier teams have failed to do in the last three years – they'd lock down the outright title (and an automatic spot in the NAIA Championship Series) before their regular-season finale at Montana Tech on Nov. 11.

The win against the Bulldogs (4-5 overall, 4-4 Frontier) carried further significance in that it snapped a four-year Senior Day losing streak. For the fourth time this year, they were up by more than 21 points at half.

For his part, Trosin moved into third place on SOU's career passing yards list (6,516) and into a tie for fourth place on the career touchdown passes list (42). With his help, three Raiders receivers had 100-plus-yard days for the first time since 2014: Bronsen Ader collected a career-high 10 catches for 122 yards, Jason Shelley made four catches for a career-high 117 yards, and Jordan Suell pulled in four catches for 110. The triple-digit games were the fourth of the season for both Ader and Suell.

After picking apart UMW on an opening drive that spanned 13 plays and 88 yards and was topped off by Rey Vega's 3-yard touchdown run, the deep-ball turned into a popular option. In the second quarter, Shelley made a 35-yard touchdown catch, Boudreaux made one for 65 yards, and with 18 seconds left before halftime Trosin found Suell wide open in the end zone from 18 yards deep. Four different Raiders finished with receptions of 40 yards or longer.

The Bulldogs scored on their second drive with Bennett Gibson's 24-yard pass to Melvin Walser. On their next three drives, however, they got to SOU's 32-, 28- and 3-yard lines and failed to score each time. Gibson completed 22 of 44 passes for 381 yards and three TDs and Hunter Thomsen logged his fifth consecutive triple-digit rushing game, carrying 23 times for 109 yards, but the Bulldogs trailed 30-6 midway through the third quarter after Tyson Cooper brought down Thomsen in the end zone for a safety.

Cooper and Devvon Gage recorded team-highs of nine tackles apiece. Cooper also recovered a Gibson fumble and broke up two passes, while James Porter notched the team's only sack and Oshay Dunmore, Luke Goins and Stanford Toloke had an interception apiece.

Vega, who rushed 14 times for 44 yards, added a second 3-yard TD in the fourth quarter and Michael Roots had a 1-yard TD dive.

Trosin's previous career-high had been 428 passing yards on Sept. 10, 2016 at UC Davis. He's up to 20 TD passes this year, throwing for at least 300 yards each game with only three interceptions.

The last Raider to hit the 500-yard mark had been Austin Dodge's school-record 573 yards on Oct. 5, 2013. Dodge had three such games during his career.
 
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