CALDWELL, Idaho – Austin Dodge passed for 443 yards and four touchdowns, leading No. 7 ranked Southern Oregon to a 66-16 victory over the College of Idaho at Simplot Stadium.
The Raiders (7-1, 6-1 Frontier) scored touchdowns on their first six possessions and racked up 693 yards of total offense in the victory. Eleven different SOU receivers caught passes in the game, with Ryan Retzlaff making seven catches for 199 yards and two scores and Dylan Young making seven grabs for 186 yards and two touchdowns.
Southern scored on their first play from scrimmage, finding Retzlaff on a 65-yard fade pattern to give the visitors a 7-0 lead. Following a C of I turnover, the Raiders marched 36-yards in four plays, as a Keegan Lawrence nine-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 14-0.
The Yotes (4-4, 3-4) answered on their next drive, as quarterback Teejay Gordon sprinted 41-yards for a touchdown on a draw play to get C of I on the board. Follow a recovered pooched onside kick, a Gordon 20-yard run got C of I into the red zone, but had to settle for a Luke Taylor 25-yard field goal.
The quick strike SOU offense took over for the rest of the half – as a 46-yard Dodge pass to Young set up a Sean Tow seven-yard scoring run – and following a defensive stop, Dodge found Young on a 73-yard strike to extend the lead to 28-10.
A Dodge-to-Retzlaff 50-yard touchdown pass pushed the margin to 35-10, while just before halftime, Dodge found Young on a four-yard slant in the end zone to make it 42-10 at the break.
Melvin Mason got into the scoring act early in the second half, scoring on a three-yard touchdown run to extend the Raiders lead, with Aldrick Rosas making a short 23-yard field goal on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 52-10. Tow made it 59-10 with his second touchdown run of the day, this one from four-yards out.
C of I had their best drive of the day late in the contest rushed for 28 yards on the march, with a 31-yard Gordon pass to Levi Elsberry setting up a 15-yard scoring pass to Austin Diffey.
Southern's second string marched 61 yards inside the final four minutes for the final score, as reserve quarterback Kamerun Smith was 6-for-6 for 54 yards on the drive, capped by a J.J. Latu touchdown run.
Mason led SOU with 80 yards on the ground, with Tow adding 63 yards rushing.
Gordon was 15-of-26 for 124 yards and added 52 yards rushing in C of I's first home loss of the season. Zach Garzoli rushed for 45 yards and added five receptions for 30 yards.
The Yotes return to action next Saturday, traveling to Montana Western for a Noon kickoff.
NOTES: SOU averaged 11 yards per play on the day and had to punt just once on the afternoon…C of I held the ball for over 39 minutes, but were held to a season-low 260 yards of total offense…Laurence Calcagno led the Raiders with 12 tackles including three for loss, with Isiah Carter and Heston Altenbach each recording 10, while Jordan Vielma had seven tackles to lead the Yotes, with Hunter Temple and Brian Dilworth each recording six…Rosas was a perfect 9-of-9 on extra points for the Raiders and remains perfect on conversion kicks this season…with his first quarter extra point, C of I kicker Luke Taylor set the school record for extra points in a season with 28, one more than Charlie Alvaro from the 1959 season…attendance for the break week game was 3,126.
