No. 25 RAIDER MEN'S SOCCER (13-2-0, 9-1-0 CCC)
12 p.m. Sunday – vs. Evergreen (6-5-4, 5-2-4) | Live Stats
12 p.m. Monday – vs. Northwest (7-5-3, 4-4-3) | Live Stats
3 p.m. Thursday – vs. Bushnell (4-8-3, 0-8-2) | Live Stats
Live Streams | Tickets | Concessions: RedTail Grill

ASHLAND – Dominant through 10 Cascade Conference games, a championship celebration is in the No. 25-ranked Southern Oregon men's soccer team's future if it stays the course at Raider Stadium with three left to go.

The Raiders (13-2 overall, 9-1 CCC) need at most two more wins to clinch the outright title and an automatic spot in the NAIA Championships. They've accumulated 27 points on the CCC table, and second-place College of Idaho (9-2-3, 8-1-2) is at 26 with just two games remaining. C of I owns the head-to-head tiebreaker but finishes its regular season Saturday at Warner Pacific, which means the Raiders will know exactly what they need to do during their homestand by the time they kick off at noon Sunday against Evergreen (Wash.) (6-5-4, 5-4-2). That game will also serve as the team's senior day.

SOU plays at noon Monday against Northwest (Wash.) (7-5-3, 4-4-3) and 3 p.m. Thursday against Bushnell (4-8-3, 0-8-2), the latter game being a makeup of a date that was postponed Sept. 23 due to poor air quality.

PLAYOFF PICTURE: No matter what happens, the Raiders will be in the eight-team CCC Tournament for the seventh consecutive season Nov. 6-10 in Springfield as a top-two seed. The tournament champion gets the CCC's second automatic NAIA playoff bid, unless the top seed wins it, in which case it goes to the other tourney finalist. The 40-team NAIA Championships begin Nov. 16 at campus sites across the country.

NAIA TOP 25: For the second week in a row, the Raiders were No. 25 in Wednesday's latest NAIA coaches' poll. They remain the CCC's only ranked team, though College of Idaho is receiving votes at No. 40 overall. Even if the Raiders clinch the conference early, continuing to churn out positive results will be pivotal in terms of protecting their ranking and improving their national seeding prospects.

LAST WEEK IN REVIEW: Oregon Tech has still never scored a goal in four all-time trips to Raider Stadium after departing with a 3-0 loss last Friday. Evan Norconk, Bryan Mendoza and Alex Hjulmand tallied while Sky Charley-Bolyard, Josue Reyes and Daniel Palomino assisted in the Raiders' sixth consecutive win. The shutout, in which they conceded just three shots on goal, was their fifth in six games.

BRIEFLY:

• Casey Ruvolo was voted the CCC Defensive Player of the Week following his three-save performance against OIT. The sophomore goalkeeper has the CCC's top save percentage (.903) in conference play, with 28 saves and just three goals allowed. His overall goals-allowed average of 0.69 is the 19th-best in the NAIA, but he has been aided by the teammates in front of him who have given up fewer shots on goal (34) that any CCC team in conference matches.
• Adrian Villegas tops the CCC in assists (9) and is tied for the lead in points (27). He has accumulated eight assists in CCC play, the highest total for anyone 2019. Only five other players in the country have at least nine goals in addition to at least nine assists overall.
• One more goal for Villegas would be the 30th in his career; teammate Alan Gaytan, SOU's career goals leader, is currently sitting on 30. Gaytan, a member of the All-CCC first team each of the last two seasons, is second only to Villegas in CCC assists (5) and 10th on the points leaderboard (11).
• Evan Norconk has scored a goal in four of SOU's last five games, bringing his season total to nine. Bryan Mendoza has tallied two games in a row after going scoreless through his first 10 outings as a Raider.
• The Raiders are 4-0 at home, where they have outscored opponents 19-2, and are unbeaten in 12 of their last 13 at Raider Stadium dating back to 2021. Since the start of 2017, they are 38-4-2 at home.