Rivalries are always fun, and with the big Civil War game happening later this month, on the south end, Southern Oregon (2-2) and number 24 Eastern Oregon (2-2) are lacing up for the little civil war game.

For the Raiders, they hope to go 7-0 in the Craig Howard era and win four straight against Eastern Oregon, whereas the Moutaineers hope to break out of their free fall and climb back up the NAIA rankings.

The Raiders exploded out of the gates with a 51-7 first half lead behind Austin Dodge’s 468-yard five touchdown performance through the air; with the only Moutaineer touchdown came off of a Jason Simonis 18-yard touchdown run.

Heading into the second half, the Raider had cool the jets on offense behind Phoenix High School graduate Chris Kammel but not before scoring 17 points on Kammel’s 16 for 19 passing for 146 yards in the air.

Defensively, the Raiders raised havoc on Simonis and Ray Walser as they picked both players off three times, doubling their season total in interceptions while holding the Moutaineers to 79 yards on the ground.

Even though the Moutaineers put together two scoring drives in the second half off of a Simonis/Kentrick Starr touchdown pass in the thrid and a Walser/Justin Reynolds touchdown pass in the fourth it was a little too late as the buzzer rang in favor of the Raiders, 68-22.

“It was a rivilary game with Eastern Oregon,” said head coach Craig Howard, “I thought on both offense and defense and the kicking game, we were able to dominate the opponent, they were a top 25 team in the nation.  It was a well played game by the Raiders here at home, it’s our 7th win in a row at Raider Stadium so it was a great victory by our team.”

The Raiders improve to 7-0 during the Craig Howard era.

“We’re in a comfort zone at home, we’re comfortable,” said Howard, “we have a great fan base that’s grown and getting bigger, I really appreciate our student support, our community support, it allows us to play at home and play well.”

The Raiders not just improve to 3-2 on the season and have a dominate winning streak at home, but they also broke several school records.  Scoring 68 points in a game is only second to the 70 point ousting of Moffett Air Force Base in 1964.  The 706 yards on offense is the most ever breaking the previous mark of 691 from 1990.  Dodge’s 468 yard performance is ranked fourth all-time in SOU history.

Next week, SOU is traveling to Montana-Northern then traveling against Montana-Western.  The next home game will be against Carroll College on October 27th.

SCORE BY QUARTER

1                2                3            4

EASTERN OREGON       0               7                7             8  –  22

SOUTHERN OREGON   21              30              10           7  –  68

RUSHING: Eastern Oregon-Jason Simonis 2-18; Joe Fuerst 2-17; Matt
Orthmann 2-15; C. McGinnis-Parker 4-13; Ray Walser 3-10; Nick Magrone 1-2; Sean Hurlbut 5-minus 1. Total: 19-74    Southern Oregon-BARRAGAN, Manny 11-50; WIGGAN, Joseph 12-28; OLSON, Mike 8-22; MARSHALL, Zach 3-11; DODGE, Austin 1-4; OTAGURO, Justin 1-minus 1; TEAM 1-minus 2; KAMMEL, Chris 4-minus 6; SCHRODER, Gannon 1-minus 11.  Total:  42-95

PASSING: Eastern Oregon-Jason Simonis 22-34-2-224; Ray Walser 5-8-1-49. Total:  42-27-3 273.  Southern Oregon-DODGE, Austin 23-30-0-468; KAMMEL, Chris 16-19-0-143; SCHRODER, Gannon 0-0-0-0. Total: 49-39-0-611.

RECEIVING: Eastern Oregon-Jace Billingsley 8-40; Justin Reynolds 6-57; Kedrick Starr 5-91; Luis Ortiz 4-64; Sean Hurlbut 3-2; C. McGinnis-Parker 1-19. Total:Southern Oregon-DONAHUE, Patrick 8-124; SIERRA, Clay 5-118; OLSON, Mike 5-59; TOGIA, Teran 4-62; OTAGURO, Justin 4-62; McKENZIE, Cole 3-128; SCOTTOW, Jeremy 3-33; BARRAGAN, Manny 2-6; LEWIS, Taylor 2-3; KIRKPATRICK, Shane 1-11; McSHANE, Sean 1-3; HERLITZ, A.J. 1-2.  Total: 39-611