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Mostly sunny with a high in the 80s and the Raiders first win of the season.
Massey gives Southern Oregon a 70% chance of victory. The spread is a touchdown. If the Raiders have a positive or neutral turnover differential (something they haven’t come close to so far in 2016) then I predict a win by 17 points.
Ahmon Afenegus had two assists in just the first five minutes
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Carlos Magana and Dakota Scott both had hat tricks in this morning’s win over Walla Walla.
Dylan Alexander (342) finished 4th at Western Oregon’s Ash Creek Invitational, helping the Raiders to a 1st place finish overall
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Details here.
Megan Smith
@SOURaiders @SOUWomensSoccer
Southern Oregon will be in Portland this weekend before opening their CCC games next weekend in Ashland. The 3-2 Raiders will play Corban at 3 on 9/23 and Northwest Christian at 4 on 9/24. Both games will be at Raider Stadium. The Opening Welcome for new SOU students and their families will take place at Raider Stadium following the Friday game. Hopefully some of those students and family members will come early to watch the action.
tackling Jr.s
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This Saturday’s game is a nominee for “NAIA Game of the Week”. Click on the image below and then like it on FB to vote.
Click on this image and then “like” to have the Raiders home opener be the NAIA game of the week.
UC Davis vs. SOU Student Body President Colin Davis
Today the NAIA Football Coaches’ Top 25 Poll came out. Eastern Oregon University deservedly moved up from #26 to #10 after beating previously #2 SOU at home and #22 Montana Western on the road to start the season. The coaches have only 3 Frontier Conference teams in the top 20 while the more objective Massey Ratings has 7 Frontier Conference teams in the top 13. Frontier Conference teams are “only” 2-2 against non-conference opponents. However, the losses were both against NCAA DI teams! EOU is the only undefeated team from the Frontier Conference. SOU will get another crack at EOU, this time in Ashland, on October 15.
As I predicted yesterday, the coaches have some teams ahead of the Raiders like Doane (at #5) and Kansas Wesleyan (at #11) who wouldn’t finish in the top half of the Frontier Conference. One example of how the coaches aren’t paying attention is they have Montana Western and Dickinson State tied in the standings even though Montana Western just beat Dickinson State by 16 points at a neutral field.
Jonathan Morales
@SOURaiders
The Cascade Collegiate Conference chose the Raiders as their team of the week for 2-0 and 4-0 victories this past week. Southern Oregon will open CCC play this week in Portland and Walla Walla. They will return to Ashland to play a couple of home games on the 23rd and 24th, just before fall term begins on the 26th.
Jason Shelley with the touchdown catch that was ruled out of bounds
@jasonshelley_ @SOURaiders @SOU_Football
At first glance, yesterday’s game looks like a bit of a blowout with a final score of 52-35. It remains to be seen if the NAIA coaches will punish the Raiders for losing to an NCAA D1 school when the new poll comes out on Monday. They probably will as strength of schedule isn’t something they seem to look at much. Don’t be surprised if they have Doane and maybe even Kansas Wesleyan ahead of SOU even though Massey Ratings has Doane at #17 and Kansas Wesleyan (who the Raiders beat 52-8 in the playoffs last year) at #50.
However, before saying UC Davis dominated SOU, let’s look a little closer at the stats. The Raiders actually gained more yards than UC Davis (653 to 617). Ignoring the interception on the “Hail Mary” at the end of the game, had the turnover differential been zero instead of -4, the Raiders probably would have won the game.
Even with the horrible turnover differential, had three plays been different (two blown calls by the officials and one mental error that turned into a very costly penalty) the final score may have been 42-38 in favor of SOU.
The first was in the second quarter with about 7 and a half minutes on the clock. The refs gave UC Davis a touchdown on a pass that was fairly clearly out of bounds. You can watch a replay of the game, BTW, here.
The second was on a third and long, the UC Davis quarterback threw a pass out of bounds. A late hit resulted in a UC Davis first down (instead of UC Davis being forced to punt on fourth and long) that turned into a touchdown for the Aggies. That TD would not have happened without the penalty against SOU.
The third was in the 3rd quarter with about 10 and a half minutes on the clock. A pass to Jason Shelley was caught in the back of the end zone. He got one foot down, which is all you need in college, and he didn’t bobble the ball at all. I have a series of photos showing this (one pictured above). You can also see it on the video. The official did not give the Raiders the earned touchdown, and SOU subsequently failed to score on the drive.
Rey Vega dives for a touchdown vs. UC Davis
@SOURaiders @SOU_Football @the_reyvega
Details of yesterday’s game can be found here.
The Raiders’ schedule was not ideal, drawing Eastern on the road to start the season and then an NCAA D1 school on the road for game two. However, if the team can learn from their mistakes in the first two weeks of the young season, things can get much better going forward.
Southern Oregon will play at home in week three against a tough 2-1 team. Massey has Montana Western and SOU neck and neck in the rankings. If the Raiders can win games three and four then I think a 9-2 regular season is not out of the question as their schedule will soften a bit after week four.
Massey Ratings (computer rankings for NAIA football)
Don’t forget to catch the home opener at Ashland High School tonight at 7.