ASHLAND, Ore. – No. 1 Southern Oregon used an eight-play, 74-yard drive late in the fourth quarter and a 27-yard field goal with four ticks on the clock to down the No. 13 Eastern Oregon University football team, 38-35, on Saturday afternoon at Raider Stadium.

Coming into the game, EOU had won two-straight in Ashland – the only team to do so in Craig Howard's five-year tenure as the SOU head football coach. And for a while, it looked as if the Mountaineers were about to do it again; however, the Raiders rallied to score the final 24 points to survive the upset scare.

"It was one of those games as a coach that I hated to see either team lose," said head football coach Tim Camp. "I know our program is hungry for a win. We were outplayed in the fourth quarter. My team needs to eliminate costly penalties. No excuses, just results are needed at this point."

Junior quarterback Zach Bartlow went 17 of 25 for 218 yards, including two touchdowns with no interceptions. He also had 81 yards on 13 carries in the losing effort.

Senior wide receiver Jace Billingsley caught seven passes for 107 yards, while also registering a season-best 131 yards on 19 carries. A native out of Winnemucca, Nev., Billingsley became the all-time leader in EOU football history with 2,264 career receving yards. 

Sophomore wide receiver Calvin Connors caught six passes for 59 yards, a career high for the Nevada native. Meanwhile, junior wide receiver TJ Esekielu caught one pass for a 24-yard touchdown in the third quarter that gave EOU its largest lead of the game, 35-14.

Defensively, the Navy and Gold saw nine tackles apiece by senior defensive back Adam Bese, junior linebacker Jared Jensen, and senior linebacker Gary Posten. Jensen collected his first-career fumble recovery in the third quarter that ultimately led to the Esekielu touchdown, while Posten collected his fifth-career interception in the first quarter.

The Storyline

It was a tale of two halves at Raider Stadium, as EOU led by as many as 21 points and kept that advantage until the very end when SOU's Marcus Montano hit the game-winner with four ticks on the clock.

"Playmakers make plays," said Camp. "We saw that in every phase of the game today, just not enough. We didn't play a complete game today and that is why we came up on the short end. We need to play and coach four quarters of Mountaineer football to win in this conference."

The first quarter saw a defensive battle between the Frontier Conference rivals. Following Posten's interception, the Navy and Gold drove 51 yards in four plays but ultimately missed a 37-yard field goal to keep the game scoreless.

After forcing SOU to punt, EOU utilized an 11-play, 75-yard drive that began in the first quarter to get on the board (7-0) in the second stanza, as Bartlow found Connors for the nine-yard touchdown pass with 14:55 on the clock.

EOU caught a break later in the quarter, as the Navy and Gold drew a pass interference penalty on SOU's Karrington Jones on fourth-and-16 at the Raiders' 35-yard line. Moments later, Billingsley caught a nine-yard touchdown with five minutes left in the second quarter to extend the Navy and Gold's lead to 14.

Although SOU responded with a touchdown, EOU fired right back in just 17 seconds thanks to a remarkable 72-yard pass from Bartlow to Billingsley, and then a three-yard rush for a touchdown by Bartlow to give the Mountaineers a 21-7 advantage.

Leading 21-14 in the third stanza, the Navy and Gold logged a pair of unanswered touchdowns to claim its largest lead of the contest, 35-14, via an eight-yard Billingsley carry and a 24-yard Esekielu touchdown reception.

But that's when the game changed for the Mountaineers, as Tanner Trosin's 10-yard rushing touchdown sparked a furious 24-0 run by the Raiders to close the wild affair.

EOU opened the fourth quarter with a 3-and-out, and then Trosin hauled in an eight-yard touchdown to pull SOU within seven, 35-28.

With 3:24 left to play, the Raiders utilized a 14-play, 73-yard drive capped by a Melvin Mason touchdown to tie the game at 35 apiece, sending Raider Stadium into deafening elation.

On third-and-10 with just 1:20 remaining, an offside penalty sent EOU to midfield, and then a pass from Bartlow to junior wide receiver Deacon Starr just slipped through the fingertips, forcing the Navy and Gold to punt.

SOU (1-1, 1-1 Frontier Conference) proceeded to drive the ball 74 yards down the gridiron to set up the 27-yard game winner, and the Raiders went on to pull off their biggest comeback since the 1998 campaign. 

Stats of the Game

32 – First downs by SOU – the most by any EOU opponent since 2013 when the Raiders amassed 33 first downs in a one-point loss to the Mountaineers.

Up Next

EOU (0-3, 0-2 Frontier Conference) returns to action next weekend for its home opener against Montana Tech at 1 p.m.