Sports short: Mountaineers look to bounce back against Southern Oregon

Published 7:00 am Thursday, September 30, 2021

Eastern Oregon University quarterback Kai Quinn hands off to Jordan Eggers during a game Sept. 25, 2021, against the College of Idaho. The Mountaineers lost the game 24-7, dropping the team seven spots in the NAIA Coaches’ Poll ahead of a matchup with Southern Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 2.

LA GRANDE — A week after suffering its first loss of the season, the Eastern Oregon University football team faces another big test — this time, on the road.

Eastern dropped a 24-7 decision on Sept. 25 at home against the College of Idaho, ending an undefeated start to the season. The loss dropped Eastern from No. 11 to No. 18 in this week’s National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Coaches’ Poll. Now at 3-1 on the year, the Mountaineers will be looking to turn things around against the Southern Oregon Raiders.

“I think that the ability to go back out and go to work is the answer,” head coach Tim Camp said. “It was a tough one to swallow, but at the same time there’s still a lot of football to be played.”

Each team enters this week’s matchup coming off a very different outcome in Week 4. Southern Oregon trailed Carroll College 33-14 with just more than 11 minutes left in regulation, but scored 20 unanswered points to stun the Saints and earn the team’s second win of the season. The Raiders are currently just one game behind the Mountaineers in the Frontier Conference standings.

Against the College of Idaho, Eastern struggled to move the ball offensively throughout the losing effort. The Mountaineers totaled 259 yards, compared to 419 from the Yotes, and rushed for just 70 yards as a team. The loss comes on the heels of a narrow 10-7 victory at Carroll College in which Eastern tallied just 179 yards of total offense. Moving into this week’s matchup, Camp emphasized the importance of getting the offense rolling.

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“We have to make plays offensively,” he said. “They’re out there to be made and we’re not making the ones that we’re used to making in the past. It’s not going to change until we change it, so that’s one of the main focus points.”

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