vega
Al Case, Ashland Daily Photo.
14
Carroll (Mont.) CC 1-3 , 1-3
35
Winner Southern Oregon SOU 4-0 , 4-0
Carroll (Mont.) CC
1-3 , 1-3
14
Final
35
Southern Oregon SOU
4-0 , 4-0
Winner
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
CC Carroll (Mont.) 0 0 7 7 14
SOU Southern Oregon 21 14 0 0 35

Game Recap: Football | | SOU Sports Information

First-half explosion leads SOU past Carroll, 35-14

ASHLAND – On a day dedicated to Craig Howard, 13th-ranked Southern Oregon did right by its late head coach by beating up on the team he enjoyed defeating most.

If there was a complaint about the Raiders' first home game of 2017, it was that many of the 3,800-plus fans who came to watch it were still finding their seats by the time the fireworks began in a 35-14 win over the Carroll (Mont.) Saints. SOU did all of its scoring before halftime, piling up 408 first-half yards while shutting the visitors out.

Shortly after dedicating a memorial plaque and observing a moment of silence for Howard, SOU got the Raider Stadium crowd buzzing. Twenty-three seconds into the game, a 50-yard Rey Vega touchdown burst put the Raiders on the board. Three minutes in, it was 14-0 after Tanner Trosin's 33-yard scoring strike to Jason Shelley. And by halftime, it was already 35-0.

The new guy, SOU head coach Charlie Hall, has the sixth 4-0 team in Raider history with another Frontier Conference home game against Rocky Mountain (Mont.) on tap next week. The Saints dropped to 1-3.

Trosin surpassed the 300-yard passing mark for his sixth straight starting, amassing 333 on 20-of-32 accuracy, and he scrambled in for touchdown runs of 12 yards at the end of the first quarter and 10 yards with 1:12 left in the second. Between those, he launched a 64-yard TD bomb to Jordan Suell, who caught five passes for 123 yards for his second triple-digit game in a row. Trosin eclipsed the 5,000-passing-yard mark for his career and moved into fourth place on SOU's all-time list.

Vega put forth his best work of the season with 11 rushes for 76 yards and four receptions for 57 more. His score included, the Raiders' five TD drives lasted a total of 4 minutes 41 seconds.

SOU's defense – which came in with Frontier-best defensive marks of 24.7 points and 333 yards allowed per game – was duly up to par. The Saints' first points weren't recorded until a Major Ali TD dive with 10:27 left in the third, and they worked a short, 39-yard field to get it.

For the second time this year, the Raiders had seven sacks. Senior linebacker Isiah Carter accounted for a career-high three of them – he totaled seven tackles, moving into seventh place on SOU's career list at 265 – while Devvon Gage, Tre Holmes, August Forrest III and Kevin Blueford were each credited with one.

Gage also had 15 tackles, the second-highest total of his career, and forced a fumble that Tyson Cooper recovered in the first half. Cooper and Keegan Lawrence got in on 10 tackles apiece, and Armando Gauger had eight.

In total, the Raiders out-gained the Saints 458-307. Carroll quarterback Tanner Gustavsen had 195 passing yards to show for an 18-of-35 effort, including a five-yard score to Paul Hart in the fourth quarter. Saints running back Ryan Walsh was held to 51 yards on 17 carries.

The Raiders have won each of their last seven home openers and three straight meetings with the Saints. They're now 11-1 at home in Frontier play against unranked opponents.

They remained tied in first place with fifth-ranked Montana Tech, which was a 62-14 winner Saturday against Eastern Oregon.
 
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