Game 3 – No. 23 Montana Tech (2-0, 2-0) at No. 3 Southern Oregon (2-0, 2-0)
1 p.m. Saturday | Raider Stadium | Ashland, Oregon
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ASHLAND – Conference championships may not be won in September, but eyes all around the Frontier will be on Raider Stadium this weekend for a matchup that is developing a history of carrying championship implications.

Southern Oregon (2-0) and Montana Tech (2-0) have accounted for the last three titles and will kick off at 1 p.m. Saturday attempting to get a leg up in pursuit of the next one. They're two of three unbeaten teams left in the standings – Montana Western is the other, and Rocky Mountain (Mont.) would be in the conversation had it not forfeited its opener – and with the Raiders at No. 3 and the Orediggers at No. 23 in the latest NAIA coaches' poll, they'll be playing the first Frontier game between two top-25 teams in Ashland since 2016.

SERIES HISTORY:

• SOU is 6-5 all-time against the Diggers in a series that dates back to 2007. Since the Raiders joined the conference in 2012, they're 5-3.
• In 2015, both teams entered a clash in Ashland at 7-1 and Tech clinched a share of the title (they got it outright the next week) with a 21-17 victory. In 2016, the Diggers locked up their second straight championship with a 38-27 win in the regular-season finale at SOU. And in 2017, the Raiders defeated the Diggers 24-10 on the final day of the regular season in Butte to complete an undefeated run through the circuit.
• The teams met twice in 2012 (they'll do the same this year) and split the outcomes to finish as co-champions. In the final game of the regular season, SOU got its win by a 46-28 score to secure a return to the postseason for the first time in 10 years.
• SOU is 2-3 overall against Tech at Raider Stadium. Its last home against the Diggers was a 59-32 decision on Oct. 5, 2013.

HOME HISTORY: SOU's next home victory will be No. 100 all-time at Raider Stadium, where the Raiders are 99-58 overall and have won seven in a row. That includes a 21-5 Frontier record – since joining the conference, they've also played two scheduled home dates at Ashland High, one in Medford, one in Grants Pass and one in Sherwood – and a 6-4 mark against top-25 Frontier opponents.

VEGA LINES: Senior running back Rey Vega, the reigning Frontier Offensive Player of the Week, has been a reliable source of offense during a string of eight consecutive games with a touchdown in which he's totaled 14. In last week's 35-28 win against The College of Idaho, he was the first Raider in almost two years to get more than 20 carries – taking 24 for 158 yards, and breaking off TD runs of 35 and 22 yards. It was the fourth time in six outings and sixth time in 25 games as a Raider that he's eclipsed 100 yards, and his second score made him the ninth player in team history with 20 rushing TDs. He currently ranks seventh in the NAIA in rushing yards per game (131) and will be facing a Tech team that he touched up for 121 rushing yards on 14 carries and three touchdowns a year ago. On 300 career carries, he's averaged 5.1 yards.

RETURN OF THE SACK: A year after leading the NAIA with 61 sacks (4.7/game), the Raiders are on top of the national leaderboard again with 11 through two games (and have already passed the 2009 team's total of seven). Nine different players, including seven linemen, have gotten in on the action, but senior defensive end Sean Rogers is predictably leading the way with three to his name. He picked up two more last week – he has 14 ½ in his last 10 games dating back to last year – and he moved another spot up SOU's career list to No. 3 with 24 ½. With his help, the Raiders have accumulated at least five sacks nine times in 15 games since the start of last season; in 51 games from 2013-16, they hit that number eight times. On the other side of the ball, SOU's offensive line has allowed its quarterback to be sacked just once.

SMALL-SAMPLE THEATER: While leading the Frontier in yardage five out of six seasons, the Raider offense has remained adaptable. To this point in the (admittedly young) season, the Raiders have run on 64 percent of their plays from scrimmage (97 rushes to 54 passes). Last year, when they ranked third in the NAIA in passing yards per game, they ran on 44 percent of their plays from scrimmage (421-521). The shift resembles the Raiders' transition from 2014 to '15, when they went from 58 percent passes and the top passing team in the NAIA to 46 percent passes.

STREAK TALK: SOU's regular-season winning streak has reached 12 games dating back to last year, just two shy of matching the team record (1946-47). If the Raiders win this week, they'll be 3-0 for the ninth time in team history. They've also held 12 straight regular-season opponents under 30 points and shut out nine in a row on opening drives.

FRONTIER FILES: SOU is now 48-14 in conference play since joining the Frontier in 2012. Montana Tech owns the second-most conference wins during that span at 38-24. Sixteen of those losses were amassed during the 2013 and '14 seasons, and since then the Diggers have gone 12-4 on the road.

NAIA TOP 25: Monday's first regular-season edition of the national rankings saw SOU ascend one spot to No. 3, Montana Tech go from unranked to No. 23, and Rocky Mountain jump six spots to No. 14 despite its forfeit. Montana Western is now the first team out of the poll ahead of Saturday's key home clash against Rocky. Two other top-25 matchups are on tap this week: No. 24 Midland (Neb.) at No. 5 Northwestern (Iowa), and No. 16 Kansas Wesleyan at No. 25 Sterling (Kan.).

BRIEFLY:

• Senior kicker Marcus Montano converted two more field goals and three point-after attempts last week, leaving him 12 points away from 300 for his career – a number only three other Raiders have reached. He's now 37-of-53 on field goals as a Raider.
• Charlie Hall (14-1) became the 16th head coach in team history just last year, but with another victory only seven others would own more wins.
• The Raiders have out-gained their first two opponents by a combined total of 791-691 yards. Of greater importance, they've gone 17-of-34 on third-down conversions while holding their foes to 5-of-27.
• Tyson Cooper tops the team with 13 tackles. The senior linebacker has 222 in his career, needing 41 more to break into the top-10 in team history.

ABOUT MONTANA TECH:

• The Diggers started their season with a dominant 36-16 win at College of Idaho. Like SOU, they needed a comeback to defeat Eastern Oregon last week and erased a 14-0 halftime deficit to win 24-17.
• Chuck Morrell has a 43-35 record in his eighth season as head coach. He's led the Diggers to the postseason three times.
• Junior running back Jed Fike, who started his career at Dickinson State, was No. 3 in the NAIA with 139.1 rushing yards per game last year and is averaging 147 with three TDs in the new season. He was out for last year's matchup against SOU.
• Like the Raiders, Tech has been tasked with replacing an all-star quarterback after leading the Frontier in offense a year ago. Redshirt-freshman Tanner Kump started the season with a 25-of-39, 260-yard effort against C of I, and last week went 18-of-36 for 146 yards. He has one of the nation's top receivers at his disposal in Dion Williams, who averaged 106 receiving yards per game last year and 83 as a sophomore. Trevor Hoffman, a 6-foot-4 target, has recorded team-highs of 10 catches and 138 yards to this point.
• The defense is anchored by a pair of all-conference seniors, linebacker Connor Wines and lineman Chance Hansen. They've been stingy against the run, yielding just 2.9 yards per carry and 74.5 per game, and opposing quarterbacks have been limited to a 45-percent completion rate.