The Raiders lost to their football nemesis yesterday. Details here. Matt Retzlaff broke the SOU career receiving-yards record in today’s photo.

Southern Oregon has outgained all seven of their opponents in total yardage. However, SOU has a negative turnover ratio in five games, three of which were losses.

Surprisingly, Massey still has Southern Oregon at #4 in the country. Of course, Massey considers strength of schedule, and SOU has the toughest opponents of anyone in the NAIA. The coaches won’t be as generous in their rankings come Monday. I’m guessing they will drop the Raiders to #12 or #13. With just four games to go, what will this mean?

The Raiders can still win the Frontier Conference if they win out and Western Montana beats Eastern Oregon. That’s also probably the only scenario that will earn the Raiders a home playoff game in the postseason. One more loss and the Raiders will still have a chance at the postseason but no games will be in Ashland.

Massey has the Raiders as a 7-point favorite at College of Idaho Saturday.

Posted on October 16th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Matt Retzlaff, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, rain, sports photography. Comments Off on Down but not out

Keegan Lawrence and Armando Gauger

@k_law21 @SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball

Details here.

Massey gives SOU a 64% chance of winning and has the Raiders as a 5-point favorite.

The only team in front of the Raiders in the rankings that has a chance of losing is Lindsey Wilson who travels to Faulkner. Even there, Massey gives Faulkner only a 30% chance of victory. The rest of the top teams will receive easy victories.

Posted on October 14th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: armando gauger, football, keegan lawrence, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, sports photography. Comments Off on Big game Saturday

@SOURaiders @RaiderVB @presleylambert @SOU_Football

Posted on October 11th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: courtney macklin, football, kyle alexander, nila lukens, presley lambert, Raider Athletics, Sean McManamon, soccer, SOU Raider Hall of Fame, sports photography, volleyball. Comments Off on SOU Sports Hall of Fame Weekend

#90 Colin Davis

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @Rollpride @brian_schnee

Posted on October 8th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: armando gauger, colin davis, football, grizzly peak, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, Sage Delong, sports photography, Tokina AT-X 11-20mm f/2.8 PRO DX Lens. Comments Off on Presidential off the field

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball @Seantow17

Posted on October 6th, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D750, Raider Athletics, sean tow, sports photography. Comments Off on TBT

Louis Desprez

@jasonshelley_ @k_law21 @SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball

Jason Shelley

Keegan Lawrence

Posted on October 3rd, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, isiah carter, Jason Shelley, keegan lawrence, louis desprez, Raider Athletics, sports photography. Comments Off on Frontier Conference Players of the Week

Louis DesPrez

@SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball

As predicted, SOU remained at #9 in the latest NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll (despite being #2 in rankings that look at schedule strength). A victory at Rocky Mountain this weekend will likely cause movement to #8 or #7 as the Raiders can move past the loser of the Doane – Morningside game and Reinhardt could lose to Faulkner on the road.

Posted on October 3rd, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, louis desprez, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, sports photography. Comments Off on Raiders stuck at #9

Jordan Suell and #24 Jacques Carter battle for the ball

@jacquescarter96 @JordanSuell2 @SOURaiders @SOU_Football #NAIAFootball

The Raiders continued to rack up penalties and lose the turnover battle in yesterday’s game. SOU was penalized for 115 yards, nearly twice the College of Idaho total. The Raiders were also -3 in turnovers. If they can get these parts of their game fixed, they can win out. The two loses were caused by penalties and turnovers as well.

One potential cause of some of the penalty calls against the Raiders late in the game may have had to do with this earlier call. The ruling on the field was that Jordan Suell made this 44-yard reception. From these photos, it’s clear that the call was correct. However, the DB, Carter, ran to the bench saying he caught the ball. The College of Idaho coaches were furious with the officials and gave them an earful about this “blown” call (that led to 7 points for the Raiders). Maybe the officials were trying to even things out later? I don’t know, but they got this call correct. If they hadn’t, I don’t think Southern Oregon may have been able to win with a -4 turnover margin.

Jordan Suell catches the ball between his legs while Carter’s hands are only on Suell

Jordan Suell hits the ground with the ball secure between his legs and arms, a completed pass

Posted on October 2nd, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Jordan Suell, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics. Comments Off on You make the call

Sean Tow averaged over 7 yards a carry in Saturday’s win over the Yotes

Details about yesterday’s Raider win can be found here.

USF fell apart in the second half of yesterday’s game with Marian. That caused them to drop a couple of places in Massey Ratings. The NAIA coaches will likely do something similar, paving the way for Marian and Baker to receive home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Neither Marian or Baker have an even halfway decent opponent on their remaining schedules. SOU will still be #9 in Monday’s coaches poll. USF will likely drop to #5.

Posted on October 2nd, 2016 under only in ashland, people. Tags: football, Jason Shelley, jose sanchez, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II, Nikon D500, Raider Athletics, sean tow. Comments Off on SOU up to #2 in latest Massey Ratings