GAME 9 – No. 23 Carroll (6-2) at SOU (3-5)
1 p.m. Saturday | Raider Stadium | Ashland, Oregon
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ASHLAND – Late slip-ups have plagued the Southern Oregon University football team against the NAIA Top 25 to this point. With No. 23-ranked Carroll (Mont.) coming to town, the Raiders get another shot Saturday afternoon on Homecoming Weekend.

SOU (3-5) and the Saints (6-2) kick off at 1 p.m. in the penultimate game of the regular season at Raider Stadium. While the Raiders are left to play for a chance to get to .500, the Saints still have postseason aspirations as they stand tied for second place in the Frontier Conference.

AROUND THE FRONTIER: College of Idaho retained a one-game lead in first place last week, ducking SOU's upset bid with a 28-24 win sealed by Jon Schofield's four-yard touchdown run with 22 seconds left. The Raiders had a 21-14 halftime lead, lost it on Jacob Arms' 57-yard pick-six in the third quarter, then went up 24-21 with 3:03 remaining when Cesar Ruiz nailed a 30-yard field goal. The Yotes responded with a 14-play, 80-yard drive, and subsequently stayed at No. 12 in this week's NAIA Top 25. Montana Tech climbed three spots to No. 20 after hanging on to defeat Rocky Mountain (Mont.), 20-17, and Carroll jumped two spots to No. 23 with a 37-3 thumping of Eastern Oregon. C of I visits EOU this week and ends the regular season at home against Carroll. If Montana Tech and Carroll win out, there could be a three-way tie for first place for the second year in a row.

HEAD-TO-HEAD VS. CARROLL: The Saints held on to win the first matchup on Sept. 24 in Helena, 26-14, after SOU lost three fumbles in the first half to go down 13-0. The Raiders had a chance to get the ball back late down 20-14, but on 4th-and-1 with two minutes to play Baxter Tuggle exploded through the line for a 41-yard, game-clinching TD run. The Raiders are still up 9-7 in the all-time series with a 7-5 record in Frontier games. They're 6-1 against the Saints in Ashland, including last year's 34-33 victory in which they overcame a 19-point deficit over the final eight minutes and went ahead on Bryce Goggin's second fourth-quarter TD reception with 37 seconds left. Carroll's last win at SOU was in the 2001 NAIA Championship Series. Of the seven matchups in Ashland, only one has been decided by more than three points.

HALL PASSES: As part of the SOU Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2021, the Raiders' 2014 football team will be honored for their induction at halftime of Saturday's game. Under late head coach Craig Howard, those Raiders won the team's first-ever national championship with a memorable run through the NAIA Championship Series – which included a 45-42 upset at then-No. 1 Carroll in the quarterfinal round, and concluded with a 55-31 title-game romp over Marian (Ind.). They finished 13-2 and produced the program's first NAIA Player of the Year, Austin Dodge, who still owns national records for career TD passes (154) and passing yards (17,261).

BRIEFLY:

• Senior linebacker Jake Regino had another big game last week with 13 tackles, his sixth double-figure outing. He still leads the Frontier at 11.5 tackles per game – the next man on the list is at 8.8 – and ranks fifth among all NAIA players. With eight more tackles, he'd become the fourth Raider in the Frontier era (2012-present) to register 100 tackles in the regular season.
• With 164 career receptions, Christian Graney has moved into the No. 3 spot on SOU's all-time list. The senior would need 185 more reception yards to become the 11th Raider to reach 2,000. In his most recent home appearance, a 49-14 win over Montana Western, Graney broke SOU's single-game reception yardage record with 267 on 10 catches. On the Frontier leaderboard, he's No. 1 in receptions (44) and No. 3 in reception yards per game (80.9).
• Before missing last week due to injury, Gunner Yates exploded for 212 rushing yards and three TDs on 18 carries over just 2 ½ quarters of work at Montana Tech. The true freshman is the first Raider to eclipse 200 rushing yards in one game since 2014. Yates has scored nine TDs (8 rushing) over his last four outings and leads the conference in yards per rush at 6.7.
• Blake Asciutto remains the Frontier's leader in passing yards per game (233.8) and is tied with UMW's Jon Jund for the TD passes lead (16).
• Seth Miller, Cente Borja and Stokes Botelho each had an interception last week. Before that, three different Raiders hadn't collected one in the same game since 2017. It marked a step in the right direction in the takeaway department, where the Raiders are last in the Frontier with 11. They're giving up 6.5 yards per pass and 4.1 per rush – their best mark in the former category since 2015, and their best in the latter since 2018.
• This game marks the Raiders' fifth against a nationally-ranked opponent, the most they've faced in a regular season since joining the Frontier. They've dropped six in a row against the NAIA Top 25 since defeating then-No. 18 Eastern Oregon on Oct. 2 of last year.

HOME HISTORY: SOU enters the weekend with a 107-66 all-time record at Raider Stadium. The Raiders are 11-10 against NAIA Top 25 teams at home in Frontier play. Overall against FC teams as the designated home team, they're 35-13.

MORE ON THE CARROLL:

• The Saints are in the playoff hunt despite a middling offense, giving up the fewest points per game (13.8) in the Frontier and conceding six points combined over their last three. They concede the fewest yards per game (224) in the conference by a margin of 53 yards, and their rush-defense is especially stingy at just 2.3 yards allowed per attempt.
• Lineman Garrett Kocab was an all-conference pick in 2021 and likely will be again, leading the team with 44 tackles and five for losses. The Saints top the Frontier in sacks with 24, and Jake Walk owns five of them.
• The Saints boast two running backs who have previously attained All-Frontier status in Matthew Burgess (57.4 yards/game) and Duncan Kraft (43.6). With Burgess out, Kraft had 92 yards on 13 attempts the first time around against SOU.
• They've run on 60 percent of their plays from scrimmage, but second-year starting quarterback Jack Prka is completing 60 percent of his attempts for 174 yards per game with nine TD passes and five picks. Tony Collins is his top target at 57 reception yards per game.
• Fourth-year head coach Troy Purcell owns a 21-12 record. In the pandemic-shortened spring 2021 season, he took led the team to its first NAIA Championship Series appearance in seven years.