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By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings December 17. 2014 4:30PM SOU football team's run to title game captures valley fans Southern Oregon sophomore Sean Tow runs through a pair of College of Idaho defenders during a regular season game at Raider Stadium. The Raiders take on the Marian (Ind.) Knights on Friday in the NAIA national championship game, in Daytona Beach, Fla. photo by Larry Stauth, Jr. The Southern Oregon University football team will try to make history and become the first in program history to win an NAIA national championship on Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla. That has people on the SOU campus and far beyond in Southern Oregon and elsewhere taking notice. The eighth-ranked Raiders will face the seventh-ranked Marian (Ind.) Knights at 3 p.m. Eastern (noon Pacific) at Municipal Stadium, in a game that will be broadcast live on ESPNU. Southern Oregon's wild postseason ride has already included the first home playoff win in 12 years, a 17-point fourth-quarter comeback at No. 1 Carroll and a 62-point explosion in Chicago in the national semifinals. Now, Southern Oregon (12-2) takes its high-flying offense and opportunistic defense to the Sunshine State, where Friday's forecast calls for 69-degree temperatures and clear skies. Several Rogue Valley sports bars and restaurants will be showing the game and some will be offering special discounts to fans. In Ashland, Northwest Pizza & Pasta Company co-owner Lori Bohn said that customers who wear Raider gear will get a 10 percent discount, and RedZone Sports Bar & Grill owner Austin Loreman says he'll probably cut the price of the popular Raider Red Ale on game day. According to SOU sports information director Josh McDermott, the game recaps that summarized the Raiders' quarterfinal and semifinal wins drew about 40,000 web views each, a huge increase from the typical 2,000-click recap. Also, the numbers of SOU Facebook likes and Instagram followers have also skyrocketed in recent weeks. Ashlanders were asked this week if the SOU Raiders' run to the NAIA national championship game in football has captured their attention and if they planned to watch the televised game Friday. Anna Beauchamp — They've given us release time to go watch the game here on campus so that we can have some community spirit. It should be fun. Even for non-football fans like me, you have to root for them. Students, faculty, everybody's excited about it. John Kearns — You bet. ... It's amazing. I'm really happy for them. They're fun to watch — they score a lot of points and it was pretty impressive what they did in Helena, Montana, in the snow, to beat Carroll College on their home field. Scott Rex — I'll be watching it with everybody else on campus here on Friday in the Student Union. A lot of us will be getting together to watch it there. It's fun. At a small school like this you do get to know a lot of the players and it makes it that much more interesting to follow. John Harkrider — I just came from Omar's making a reservation to see the game on Friday at noon. ... I was an all-state football player in Texas so I have to respect what's waiting. You know, this group is like history — we're going to be, hopefully. I don't know the (players') names, but I will. http://www.dailytidings.com/article/20141217/NEWS/141219832 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->