GAME 7 – No. 10 SOU (5-1, 2-1) at Arizona Christian (1-4, 1-3)
7 p.m. Saturday | Glendale, Arizona | ACU Field
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ASHLAND – The No. 10-ranked Southern Oregon University football team will complete the first half of its Frontier Conference schedule with Saturday's 7 p.m. visit to Arizona Christian at ACU Field.

Considering the opponent's struggles, the pressure is on the Raiders (5-1 overall, 2-1 FC) to take care of business against the Firestorm (1-4, 1-3), who picked up their only victory against winless Montana State-Northern and have dropped their other conference games by an average of 26 points. SOU, coming off a 54-14 blowout of last-place Rocky Mountain (Mont.), enters the weekend as one of five teams in the standings with one or no losses.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: SOU took its first and only matchup with ACU last year in Ashland, winning 49-7 and after leading 35-0 by halftime. Blake Asciutto completed 20-of-31 attempts for 264 yards and two touchdowns; he also rushed in his own TD and caught a second on a receiver pass. The Firestorm joined the Frontier in 2023 and went 1-7, posting their first losing record since the program's inaugural season in 2014. Jeff Bowen took over as head coach in 2016 and led ACU to the NAIA Championship Series in the 2020-21 and '22 seasons when the team was part of the Sooner Athletic Conference.

NAIA TOP 25: The Raiders jumped three spots to No. 10 in Monday's latest NAIA Top 25 poll, a week after falling six spots from No. 7 as a result of a 42-35 loss to Montana Tech. Montana Western moved up one to No. 6 on the strength of a 27-21 win over Tech, which consequently dropped three to No. 15. The Orediggers swapped places with College of Idaho, which now stands at No. 12. The Frontier remains the NAIA's only conference with four top-15 teams. Notably, first-place Carroll (Mont.) (4-1, 3-0) is not among the group because the Saints will play all four aforementioned teams consecutively starting next week. Looking ahead, as the Raiders seek their first NAIA Championship Series berth since 2017, the playoff field expanded last year from 16 to 20 teams. In the new format, a top-12 ranking gets you a first-round bye and a top-eight ranking likely means a bye and a second-round home game.

QUICK HITS:

• Gunner Yates scored three more touchdowns in last week's drubbing of Rocky. The sophomore took over the NAIA lead in rushing TDs (17) – he has logged multiple every game this season – and ranks second in total TDs (18). Yates is posting 16.4 more rushing yards per game (141.2) than any other player in the country and is fifth in yards per carry (6.7) among those averaging over 100. With five regular-season games to go, he is five rushing touchdowns away from matching Dusty McGrorty's SOU single-season record.
• Blake Asciutto passed for a season-high 355 yards last week, his fourth 300-plus-yard effort in his last five outings. The senior is one of two quarterbacks in the country with at least 13 TD passes and one or no interceptions. Against Rocky, he also became the fourth player in team history to accumulate 50 career TD passes.
• Sophomore defensive end Adonis Jackson now leads all Frontier players with 5 ½ sacks after registering 2 ½ last week. Gabe Foster is tied for fourth on that leaderboard with three sacks.
• Five different Raiders have collected interceptions after Da'mon Carter and Noah Taylor got the first of their careers last week. Jordan Faifai leads the team with two; Aukai Grace and Arlo Henderson Jr. account for the others.
• The Raiders had won four consecutive road games dating back to last season until dropping their most recent at Montana Tech. They've won 10 of their last 12 games overall.

MORE ON ACU:

• The Firestorm are eighth among Frontier teams in average points (18.2) and yardage (295.2). They're netting just 3.8 yards per rush and 5.2 yards per pass attempt. Their senior quarterback, Johnny Herrera, is completing 53% of his attempts for an average of 115.6 yards per outing.
• The ACU defense has generated three takeaways and only four sacks. Jordan Francis leads the team with 32 tackles, while Jackson Ortiz has four pass-breakups and an interception.
• Celebrating their Homecoming, the Firestorm will be attempting to snap a five-game home losing streak that dates back to last September. They last defeated a Top 25 opponent in 2022.