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Raiders return home to face Montana Western By SOU Sports Information Updated: Oct 06, 2022 05:42 PM A A ASHLAND — Due to a three-way tie for the title last season and a scheduling coincidence put in motion years in advance, the Southern Oregon University football team is set to play a defending Frontier Conference champion for the third time in as many home games. This particular defending champ, Montana Western, has already run out of margin for error. In terms of postseason aspirations, both SOU (2-3 overall, 2-3 FC) and UMW (3-3, 2-3) likely need to run the table the rest of the way to keep their hopes alive. They kick off the second half of the conference schedule at 1 p.m. Saturday at Raider Stadium, where SOU will try to win back-to-back games for the first time this season while the Bulldogs look to stop a two-game slide. After taking the Frontier’s automatic bid to the NAIA Championship Series in 2021, the Bulldogs — behind reigning FC Offensive Player of the Year Jon Jund, a versatile senior quarterback — were picked to win the conference again and ranked No. 17 in the Top 25 just two weeks ago. They’ve since fallen out of the poll with consecutive two-score home losses to Montana Tech and Rocky Mountain (Mont.). With 87 career TD passes, Jund makes the Bulldogs dangerous every time he steps on the field. But with nine TDs and six interceptions this season, he’s well off the pace of his 33-TD junior season and averaging 65 fewer passing yards per game (189.3) after losing some key receivers and linemen. He’s also the Bulldogs’ most frequent rusher, having taken off 100 times for 60.7 yards per game and six TDs, though Reese Neville is an all-conference tailback with 72.8 rush yards per game and 5.5 per carry. Two of the FC’s top offenses got to the Bulldogs in their most recent losses, but they’re still giving up just 20.7 points and 274.5 yards per game. They also top the FC in sacks (18) and takeaways (13). The Raiders are 10-4 in the head-to-head series and 9-4 in Frontier games against UMW, though they dropped each of the last two matchups on the Bulldogs’ home field. UMW is making its first visit to Raider Stadium since 2018 and is winless in seven all-time trips to Ashland — their first being a 30-12 loss in the opening round of the 2002 NAIA playoffs. Last season, on Oct. 9, the Bulldogs beat the Raiders 38-7 by holding them to 287 yards of offense after SOU scored the first touchdown of the game. It marked SOU’s second-lowest point total ever in an FC contest. Briefly — In last week’s 42-14 win at Eastern Oregon, Gunner Yates rushed 13 times for 91 yards and two touchdowns and added a one-yard TD reception. The freshman from Coquille was subsequently voted the Frontier Offensive Player of the Week, SOU’s first since Bryce Goggin in Week 3 of last season. Yates, the son of former Raider three-time All-American Griff Yates, is averaging 5.5 yards per rush on 42 attempts through four games — the third-best mark in the conference and the top mark for any Raider averaging at least 10 attempts per game since quarterback Tanner Trosin in 2015. Against the Mountaineers, he became the first Raider in three years with multiple rushing TDs in a game and the first in four years with three total TDs in a game. The highlight was a 48-yard score, one week after he ran one in from 29 yards out at Carroll. — Goggin, an all-conference first-team selection in 2021, has picked up the pace with four touchdowns over SOU’s last four games and nine of his 16 receptions over the last two. Dating back to last season, the senior receiver has totaled 12 TDs in his last 13 outings. Goggin is one just four Frontier players with at least three TD receptions this year. — Senior linebacker Jake Regino totaled 10 more tackles last week, his third consecutive game in double figures. At 11.2 tackles per game, he tops the Frontier leaderboard, ranks ninth in the NAIA and is threatening to become the first Raider to average double figures since Lauren Calcagno did it in 2014. Calcagno was also the last Raider to record 10-plus tackles in at least four consecutive games, doing so six times in a row during SOU’s national championship season. — Marve Nyembo scored SOU’s first defensive touchdown of the fall last week, a 39-yard fumble return. He and the rest of the unit held the Mountaineers to 262 total yards. On the Frontier leaderboard, the Raiders rank fifth in points allowed (23.0), sixth in yards allowed (339.4), second in sacks (14) and last in takeaways (6). Their average of 5.7 yards allowed per pass, however, is the team’s best in the Frontier era (2012-present). — After struggling last year with inexperience, SOU’s offensive line has transformed into a strength of the team. Despite being without two injured players who opened the season as starters (Braden Reed and Anthony Morales), the line is helping the Raiders generate the most yards per rush (5.3) in the conference and seventh-most in the NAIA after averaging 1.9 last season. They’ve also allowed SOU quarterbacks to be sacked just three times — easily better than any team in the conference except Montana Tech (2). Through five games last season, the Raiders had allowed 13 sacks. — Blake Asciutto eclipsed the 1,000-passing-yard mark in SOU’s fifth game of the season and currently leads all Frontier quarterbacks with 212.4 yards per game and 10 passing touchdowns. As a team, only Montana Tech is averaging more passing yards (242.0) than the Raiders (225.4) in conference play. Due to injuries, each of the top-three teams in the FC standings started their backup QBs last week. — If the current NAIA Top 25 poll were to hold, the Raiders would finish the season having played four of their 10 games against nationally-ranked teams — a number they’ve exceeded in the regular season just once since joining the Frontier. Following UMW, their next two games are on the road at No. 19 Montana Tech and No. 9 College of Idaho, and they’ll return home after that to face a Carroll team that has been in an out of the rankings and is currently receiving votes. SOU's Imarion Kelly breaks tackles on his way to the end zone for a score during a recent game at Raider Stadium in Ashland. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune]