No. 16 RAIDER MEN'S SOCCER (6-0-1, 3-0-0 CCC)
2:30 p.m. Friday – vs. Carroll (3-2-2, 2-0-1) | Live Stats
2:30 p.m. Saturday – vs. No. 22 Rocky Mountain (4-0-3, 2-0-1) | Live Stats
TICKETS | LIVE STREAMS

ASHLAND – Attempting to stay the course at home this weekend, the unbeaten and No. 16-ranked Southern Oregon men's soccer team will confront the part of the Cascade Conference schedule at which its season took a turn for the worse a year ago.

Standing at 6-0-1 overall and 3-0 in the CCC, SOU faces Carroll (Mont.) (3-2-2, 2-0-1) on Friday and No. 22 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) (4-0-3, 2-0-1) on Saturday at Raider Stadium's Laurel Field. Kickoffs are set for 2:30 p.m. both days.

The Raiders also had an unblemished loss column at this point in 2025, entering matchups against the same teams, before going 2-5-3 the rest of the way. They're playing better and with a healthier lineup this time around, but so are their opponents. Carroll is still led by two of the top-three scorers from its 2024 conference championship squad and took both of its losses in tight contests with top-12 teams, while Rocky has already knocked off the NAIA's preseason No. 1 and is coming off an 11-goal weekend against the CCC's Washington schools.

NAIA TOP 25: In Thursday morning's new NAIA Top 25, the Raiders had their highest ranking since the 2019 preseason at No. 16. The poll – which was the first ever released by the National Selection Committee, as the NAIA transitions away from soccer coaches' polls – represented a significant jump for SOU, which had previously been receiving votes on the outskirts of the Top 25. The last time the Raiders were ranked was in the middle of 2024. Rocky Mountain was the CCC's only other Top 25 team, jumping from the receiving-votes category to No. 22.

BRIEFLY:

• The Raiders are 50-7-4 in home games since Davie Carmichael became head coach in 2018. Carmichael also owns an overall CCC record of 72-16-9.
• Las Vegas native Michael Mutchukian has claimed two CCC Defensive Player of the Week awards in as many weeks of conference play. The 6-foot-5 junior – who was previously an all-region performer at Rogue C.C. – has already recorded three goals and an assist off the back line and helped SOU limit its opponents to five goals on the season. He kept Oregon Tech from scoring an equalizer last Friday by making a sliding, defensive save at the goal line.
• After being sidelined for the entire CCC schedule in 2026 and all non-conference action this season, junior forward Ariel De Dios Cruz has returned as a major sparkplug with two goals and an assist in 80 minutes played across three appearances. Spanning back to his 2025 season debut, the Eugene product has registered eight goals and two assists in his last nine outings.
• The Raiders have yet to concede multiple goals in a game this season. Going back to last year, nine of their last 10 opponents in conference play have tallied one or no goals.
• Redshirt-freshman goalkeeper Daniel Espinosa has made 25 saves. His 83% save rate is the fourth-best in the CCC.
• Jonathan Gaspar and JP Warnell lead SOU with two game-winning goals apiece. Gaspar delivered on back-to-back days to start conference play.

ABOUT CARROLL: After playing Rocky to a 1-1 draw in their conference opener, the Saints won 2-1 at Northwest and 2-0 at Evergreen last week. Since the start of 2024, they've gone 24-2-3 in conference play: they missed repeating as champion last year by one point behind Eastern Oregon. The common threads during the run – under head coach Austin Shick, formerly an assistant on Carmichael's staff – have been 2024 CCC Offensive Player of the Year Felix Billard (4 goals, 2 assists) and all-conference midfielder Sam Loughton (1 goal), both seniors. They earned 3-1 wins against SOU each of the last two seasons – Billard and Loughton both scored in last year's matchup – but the Raiders have a 7-4-1 edge in the all-time series.

ABOUT ROCKY: Despite losing the reigning CCC Offensive Player of the Year, the Battlin' Bears significantly improved a roster that went 8-3-7 in 2025 and have outscored opponents 19-4 combined while getting goals from 10 different sources. In addition to upsetting then-No. 1 Grand View (Iowa), they banked a draw against then-No. 7 William Penn (Iowa) and were at their most dangerous in their most recent game – an 8-1 drubbing of Northwest. Luke Tooze has a team-high four goals and Fynn Sweeting (3 goals, 1 assist) is a dangerous sophomore who accounted for both goals in a 2-0 CCC quarterfinal win against SOU last fall. SOU had won five consecutive meetings before dropping both in 2025 and is 7-5-1 in the all-time series.