Courtesy: Southern Oregon University Athletics
HAVRE, Mont. – Southern Oregon senior quarterback Austin Dodge (Vancouver, Wash./Skyview) became the NAIA’s new career record-holder for touchdown passes and passing yards with five regular-season games to spare Saturday, pushing the seventh-ranked Raiders to a 45-24 win at Montana State-Northern.
Dodge completed 22 of 38 passes for six touchdown passes and 417 passing yards at Blue Pony Stadium, bringing his totals to 121 TD throws and 13,461 yards. The previous records were established by Ohio Dominican’s Chris Reisert (120; 13,388) in 2008.
The Raiders (5-0 overall) shrugged off a tepid start to improve to 4-0 in the Frontier Conference. They trailed 17-14 until Dodge’s 25-yard TD connection with Keegan Lawrence (Sherwood, Ore./Sherwood) put them ahead for good just before halftime.
Dodge tied the career mark with a 16-yard pass to Dylan Young (Salem, Ore./North Salem), giving SOU a 38-24 cushion with 7:34 remaining. Appropriately, it was a 54-yard bomb to Sean McShane (El Paso, Texas/Franklin) that blew up the old record with 5:29 left.
Dodge has thrown six touchdowns or more on four occasions in the last two seasons.
The Lights dropped to 1-4 overall and 0-4 in the Frontier.
The Raiders, who have a bye next week before hosting Rocky Mountain on Oct. 11, are the fifth team in program history to start a season with five straight wins.