HELENA — No. 21 Carroll College rattled off 21 unanswered points to knock off No. 8 Southern Oregon 21-17 Saturday afternoon in Nelson Stadium.
The Fighting Saints found themselves in a 17-0 hole midway through the second quarter, but ultimately rallied past a Raiders defense that forced four turnovers.
SOU running back Gunner Yates was responsible for the Raiders' first two touchdowns — a 1-yard touchdown run early in the first quarter and a 16-yard catch-and-run touchdown that gave SOU its 17-point lead.
Carroll's first score came with just 3:36 remaining in the first half as quarterback Jack Prka found tight end Carson Ochoa on a 3-yard pass to the back of the end zone. With 4:28 remaining in the third quarter, linebacker Brett Tommasini checked in on offense to cap off another Carroll touchdown drive with a 1-yard run. The Fighting Saints' final scoring drive came at the 10:26 mark of the fourth quarter — and again was capped by a 1-yard Tommasini run.
Trailing by four on their final possession, the Raiders had a chance to take the lead with under 2:00 remaining and no timeouts. However, the SOU drive stalled out at the Carroll 36-yard line as Gunner Yates came up 3 yards shy of the line to gain on a fourth and 10 with under 30 seconds remaining.
Up next, Carroll (7-1 overall, 6-0 Frontier Conference) hits the road to take on Montana Western on Saturday. Southern Oregon (7-2, 4-2) plays next against Eastern Oregon at home.
