HELENA, Mont. – The Carroll Football team earned their second straight victory on Saturday afternoon at Nelson Stadium, defeating Southern Oregon 20-17 in overtime. It was the Saints' first win over Southern Oregon since 2015.
In the first half, both teams saw a good number of opportunities to score, but just could not execute. Carroll lost a fumble deep in the red zone and missed a 37-yard field goal attempt. Southern Oregon, on the other hand, saw their long drives fall short due to penalties and sacks by the Carroll defensive line.
Nevertheless, neither team could get on the board in the first half leading to a 0-0 tie after 30 minutes of play.
In the third quarter, it was the Saints who struck first. A 13-play, 61-yard drive ended with a
Baxter Tuggle touchdown run from a yard out. Carroll led 7-0 with 5:03 left in the third quarter.
The Raiders responded with a drive of their own to tie the game, going 70 yards in just seven plays. Their drive ended with a Blake Asciutto 22-yard touchdown pass to Bryce Goggin.
On the ensuing possession, Carroll went three-and-out and were forced to punt out of their own end-zone. A late-hit was called on the Saints at the end of the punt return, and SOU took over at the 11-yardline. Blake Asciutto tossed another touchdown to Bryce Goggin on the next play to put the Raiders up 14-7.
Just as they have all season, Carroll responded. Freshman quarterback
Jack Prka led the Saints on a nine play, 71-yard drive. The drive was capped off by an 18-yard touchdown pass from Prka to
Kyle Pierce.
Both teams had chances to break the 14-14 tie in the final five minutes, but the game went into overtime.
Carroll won the coin toss and elected to play defense first.
The Saints' defense came through once again and forced a three-and-out. Cesar Ruiz kicked a 42-yard field goal to put SOU up 17-14.
On Carroll's possession, it looked like they were going to have to settle for a field goal after getting stuffed on third-and-one. Coach Purcell decided to roll the dice and go for it.
On fourth-and-one,
Jack Prka rolled out on a play action and dumped it off to
Michael Maafu to convert.
Three plays later, Prka found
Tony Collins from nine yards out to win the game for the Saints by a final score of 20-17.
Jack Prka completed 20 of his 30 pass attempts and threw for two touchdowns in today's victory.
Kyle Pierce caught one of those touchdowns and added 61 receiving yards on five catches.
Raider receiver Bryce Goggin also had a big game, totaling 109 receiving yards and two touchdowns on six receptions.
The Saints will wrap up their season next Saturday at Nelson Stadium as they host 7-2 College of Idaho.
