Game 3 – #14 SOU (2-0, 2-0) at Montana Western (1-2, 1-1)
12 p.m. PT Saturday | Vigilante Field | Dillon, Montana
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ASHLAND – Before finally making its 2017 Raider Stadium debut, the 14th-ranked Southern Oregon University football team will take its longest bus trip of the year, a two-day trek to the University of Montana Western for Saturday's matchup in Dillon.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. local and noon Pacific Time at Vigilante Field. As the Raiders (2-0 overall, 2-0 Frontier Conference) continue their season-opening tour of the region and attempt to start 3-0 for the eighth time in program history, the Bulldogs (1-2, 1-1) will try to snap a two-game skid that has dropped them out of the NAIA Top 25 from their No. 19 preseason perch.

Series History:
– The first matchup between the teams occurred in the first round of the 2002 NAIA Championship Series, a 30-12 Raiders win at UMW. SOU leads the series 7-2 overall, including a 6-2 record in Frontier games.
– If history is an indicator, the Raiders can expect a fight in Dillon, where they've gone 3-2. Consider their last three trips: In 2016 a five-turnover performance resulted in their most lopsided loss, 43-24, in four years; in 2015 they had to make four straight goal-line stops to seal their first-ever Frontier overtime win, 37-30; and in 2013 they gave up a 10-point lead in the final six minutes, losing 38-34.
– In last year's loss at UMW, the Raiders were held to five rushing yards – easily their lowest single-game total since joining the Frontier. In their 24-20 win over the Bulldogs on Sept. 17 in Ashland, Rey Vega netted 89 rushing yards and Jason Shelley caught six passes for 84 as SOU scored the go-ahead touchdown with 51 seconds left.
– SOU's 31-6 win over the Bulldogs on Oct. 11, 2014 in Ashland still stands as the lowest point total for an opponent since the Raiders' most recent shutout in 2003.

NAIA Top 25: SOU made a bigger jump than any other team from the preseason poll to Monday's first NAIA Top 25 of the regular season, moving up 11 spots to No. 14. Last season the Raiders appeared in the poll every week until their loss at UMW dropped them to 4-5 overall, and they peaked during the regular season at No. 8.

This week's slate features three top-25 tilts: No. 22 Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) at No. 7 Doane (Neb.), No. 16 Benedictine (Kan.) at No. 19 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), and No. 1 Saint Francis (Ind.) at No. 23 St. Ambrose (Iowa). Fifth-ranked Montana Tech, the only team without a Frontier loss besides SOU, visits a Rocky Mountain (Mont.) team coming off a 40-14 drubbing of Carroll (Mont.). Meanwhile, No. 11 Eastern Oregon – the Frontier's only other Top 25 team, still ahead of SOU by logic not intended to be thoroughly dissected despite a neutral-field loss to the Raiders – travels to College of Idaho.

Holmes Cooking: True freshman defensive tackle Tre Holmes, a product of North Medford High, was voted the Frontier's defensive player of the week Monday. At C of I, in his second collegiate game, he recorded 2 ½ sacks – the most for a Raider in two years, and the most for a Raider freshman in six years. He also recovered a fumble and forced one on the Yotes' first two drives. Three SOU freshmen have been named players of the week over the past three seasons, receiver Jason Shelley in 2016 and linebacker Devvon Gage in 2015 being the others.

Small-Sample Theatre: A brief sampling of the numbers through the season's first two weeks:
– SOU's opponents have converted just two of 23 third-down tries, which is the best defensive rate in the nation. Over the previous three seasons, Raider opponents had third-down conversion rates between 38 and 41 percent.
– The Raider defense is also up to nine sacks. Last year, they didn't tally their ninth sack until the season's seventh game and didn't have any through the first two.
– Tanner Trosin is averaging 338.5 passing yards per game and 19.3 per completion. In 2015, his only full season at SOU, he averaged 221.4 yards per start and 11.9 per completion. That same year, during the regular season, he made 12 completions that went for 30-plus yards; he's already up to seven in 2017, including five to Bronsen Ader. He's now gone 144 pass attempts in conference action since his last interception, and in 13 career Frontier games he's totaled 18 touchdowns and four interceptions.
– Speaking of Ader, his 330 reception yards are the most for a Raider through two games since Cole McKenzie amassed 338 in the first two of 2012 – though McKenzie did his work on 19 receptions, and Ader has 11 with three touchdowns. Ader needs 146 more receiving yards to hit 1,000 for his career.

History Lesson: Charlie Hall is the second coach in Raider history to start his tenure 2-0. The other was SOU Sports Hall-of-Famer Al Simpson, whose first team in 1946 finished as the only undefeated outfit in program history with a record of 8-0. The Raiders have started 3-0 seven times: In 1927, 1946, 1947, 1983, 1987, 2001 and 2014.

Rosas Watch: Aldrick Rosas (2013-14) became SOU's first alumnus to ever score in the NFL last Sunday by converting his first career field-goal attempt for the New York Giants, a 25-yarder in a 19-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. He won the Giants' kicking job by hitting all seven of his field-goal tries in the preseason, after going 1-for-1 with the Tennessee Titans and being cut in the 2016 preseason. He and the Giants will be home for Monday Night Football this week against the Detroit Lions.

About Montana Western:
– The Bulldogs have played the Frontier's two tightest games – defeating College of Idaho 16-14 at home on Aug. 26, and losing 27-24 at Eastern Oregon last Sunday. Between those games, they snuck in a 76-0 loss at Weber State, the 21st-ranked team at the NCAA FCS level.
– Trosin will be the third dual-threat quarterback they've faced. C of I's Darius-James Peterson netted 59 yards on 26 carries against them, while EOU's Kai Quinn rushed 20 times for 189 yards and three scores, including the go-ahead 37-yard TD run with five minutes left.
– The Bulldogs graduated all five of their all-conference selections from last year's team that ranked eighth in the NAIA in rush defense. This year's team has given up 5.4 yards per carry and 228 per game, but the secondary has come up with five interceptions.
– Offensively, first-year starting quarterback Bennett Gibson, a redshirt-senior, has completed 35 of 59 passes for three TDs, an interception and an average of 238 yards in conference play. The rushing attack – led by Hunter Thomsen's 99.5 yards per game – has lagged, producing 3.1 yards per carry.
– Ryan Nourse was UMW's head coach in 2011 and '12 and took the job again prior to last season. He's 14-21 overall with the Bulldogs and attempting to lead them to the postseason for the first time since 2002.