ASHLAND – Gunner Yates' electric outing Saturday against then-No. 9 College of Idaho made him the NAIA Offensive Player of the Week, the national office announced Monday.

Southern Oregon's star sophomore running back turned 31 rush attempts into 293 yards and four touchdowns at Raider Stadium, giving him the third-highest single-game rushing total in SOU history and making him the fourth Raider ever to log four rushing TDs in a game. Yates accounted for SOU's first four scores of the game with treks to the end zone of 10, 40, 59 and 68 yards.

The 45-27 win made the Raiders 3-0 and resulted in a six-spot bump to No. 14 in Monday's latest NAIA Top 25. The Yotes dropped 10 spots to No. 19 with the loss.

Yates has netted over 100 yards in back-to-back games. His average of 160 rushing yards per game leads the NAIA, as does his average of 8.7 yards per rush among those with at least 50 attempts. The Coquille product is second on the rushing TDs leaderboard with nine.

In 13 career appearances, Yates has logged 19 total touchdowns – seven of which have been on plays of 40 or more yards.

He and the Raiders are home again this week to play No. 4 Montana Western in their Frontier Conference opener. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Raider Stadium.