GAME 8 – Arizona Christian (0-6, 0-2) at SOU (2-5, 1-2)
1 p.m. Saturday | Ashland, Oregon | Raider Stadium (Laurel Field)
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ASHLAND – The Southern Oregon University football team is a few coin flips gone wrong away from being in the playoff hunt. After dropping three of their last four games by seven points combined, the Raiders will instead aim to get back to .500 in the Frontier Conference West Division on Homecoming Weekend.

The penultimate home game of the regular season pits SOU (2-5 overall, 1-2 FC West) against Arizona Christian (0-6, 0-2) in a 1 p.m. kickoff Saturday at Raider Stadium's Laurel Field. The Raiders will be attempting to rebound from last week's 49-45 loss at Eastern Oregon, and a 28-27 loss to Simpson (Calif.) the week before that. Of their seven games to this point, five have been decided on the very last play.

THE MATCHUP: ACU, a fourth-year member of the Frontier, is winless on the season and has lost 12 of its last 13 games dating back to last year. The Firestorm's most glaring issues have been on offense: They're the lowest-scoring team in the NAIA at 6.3 points per game and were shut out for the third time in four games last week against Ottawa (Ariz.), 39-0. They're also surrendering an average of 44.5 points with opponents registering 170 rushing yards per game and nine passing yards per attempt. SOU won last year's matchup in Glendale, 38-14, and has taken all three meetings by a combined score of 135-28.

QUICK HITS:

• The Raiders' tough luck has been reminiscent of 2024, when they came up one win short of an NAIA Championship Series bid and took their three losses by 14 combined points, and 2019, when they started 0-3 in the Frontier with back-to-back-to-back three-point losses. Until their recent stretch, they hadn't had four straight games decided by seven points or fewer since 1996.
• Running back Fresh Ison continued his exceptional season with 139 yards of offense (103 rushing, 36 receiving) and two touchdowns at EOU. The product of Oakland, Calif., has logged triple-digit rushing yardage three times this season and gone for 130-plus total yards four weeks in a row – now ranking second among FC West players and 12th in the NAIA in rushing yards per game (101.7). Down two of their other top-three running backs at EOU, the Raiders also got solid spot production from Jamin Miller, who caught a 77-yard TD pass and netted 53 more yards on 10 carries.
• Dom Montiel has thrown for 300-plus yards in five of seven games and ranks fourth on the NAIA's passing-yardage leaderboard (289.9). He needs 357 more to get to 5,000 in two seasons at SOU.
• The Raider defense collected its first two takeaways of the season last week in critical spots. The Mountaineers lined up for a 47-yard field goal on the final play of the first half, but the snap went through their holder's hands and Isaiah Griffin retrieved it for a 50-yard touchdown return to give SOU a 24-21 edge at the break. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Raiders trailing 35-30, SOU defensive back Jude Mendoza forced receiver Tyler Creswick to fumble with a big hit and Bryson Kievit jumped on the ball. Five plays later, the Raiders were in the end zone and back in front.
• Junior linebacker Raiden House remains the FC West's leading tackler with 61. His total is the 16th-highest in the country. On the FC West's TFL leaderboard, he and teammate Jojo Czyz are second and fourth with 6 ½ and 5 ½, respectively.
• SOU has lost seven in a row at home, though five of those games were against Top 25 opponents. They're 117-77 all-time at Raider Stadium.

COMING UP: After this week, the Raiders will get two opportunities to play spoiler. They play Oct. 31 at No. 11-ranked Carroll (Mont.), which stands at 3-0 in the FC West, and host top-ranked College of Idaho on Nov. 14 in the season finale. College of Idaho is one of three unbeaten teams left in the NAIA, and the Yotes, Carroll and Eastern Oregon all remain unbeaten in FC West play.