BUTTE, Mont. –Southern Oregon's 45-21 loss to No. 24-ranked Montana Tech and an early exit sullied freshman running back Gunner Yates' monster afternoon on Saturday at Alumni Coliseum.

Yates rushed for 212 yards and three touchdowns on just 18 carries in the Frontier Conference matchup, becoming the first Raider since 2014 to eclipse the 200-yard mark. His outing ended due to an apparent injury, though, shortly after taking a pitch 70 yards to the house and trimming Tech's lead to 28-21 in the third quarter.

Big plays ruled the day for the Diggers (5-2 FC), who scored defensive and special-teams touchdowns in the first half and closed the second with 17 unanswered points. Thanks to a couple of upsets around the conference, they moved into a three-way tie for second place and sit one game back of first-place College of Idaho.

The Raiders slipped to 3-4. They fell behind by two scores midway through the first quarter, as Blake Thelen connected with Trevor Hoffman for a 61-yard TD and Clay Fisher returned a blocked punt for another.

Yates got them back into the game by exploding through the line for a 68-yard score, his first of the day. After Thelen's 64-yard TD pass to Logan Kennedy made it 21-7, Yates responded with a 33-yard rush that he shortly followed with a dive into the end zone from the 1-yard line with 5:41 remaining in the second quarter.

The first half ended on a sour note when, trailing by seven points with less than a minute to go, SOU quarterback Blake Asciutto took a mid-throw hit and his resulting floater was picked off and returned 31 yards by Ben Windauer to give Tech another two-score cushion at 28-14.

Yates promptly brought the Raiders back with his 70-yard TD on their first possession of the third. Down 28-21 on their next drive, however, his helmet flew off as he was tackled on a first-down rush and he never returned.

SOU didn't score again, and the Diggers kept tacking on. Thelen finished with 232 passing yards on 9-of-16 accuracy, and Jet Campbell contributed a third TD pass. Blake Counts netted 120 yards and 19 rushes, and Jadyn Downs added another takeaway with an interception.

Jake Regino and Nolan Rinefort had nine tackles each to lead the Raider defense. Asciutto was limited to a season-low 132 passing yards.

SOU is on the road again next week at No. 7 College of Idaho, which was a 40-35 upset victim Saturday at Montana Western.