BILLINGS, Mont. – The NAIA’s No. 11-ranked Azusa Pacific took advantage of a pair of short-field situations early in the game to stake its claim to a 10-0 lead and went on to down NAIA rival Rocky Mountain College, 31-17, in a nonconference game at Herb Klindt Field on the Rocky Mountain campus.

Azusa Pacific, making its first-ever appearance in the state of Montana, needed just 6 plays and less than 4 minutes to grab the early lead, using a Ben Buys 13-yard run and a David Ignash 40-yard field goal to go up 10-0 with 11:08 left in the first quarter.

Rocky Mountain, which will play 8 nationally-ranked teams this season, seemed to collect itself after the early onslaught and began to move the ball on Azusa Pacific. However, the Battlin’ Bears could post only a Jeremy Duprey 32-yard field goal on the scoreboard in the first half, squandering a pair of other opportunities. The Cougar defense has yet to give up a touchdown in the first half this season.

Late in the first half, Cougar quarterback Sean Davis, who early in the game hit Jon Miller on a 34-yard pass to set up Buys’ first TD, then connected with Nate Farris on a 47-yard bomb to set up another Buys’ TD, this being a 9-yard run that put the Cougars up 17-3 at halftime.

Now in control of the game, the Cougars put themselves out of reach by taking their second possession of the second half and driving 51 yards on 5 plays, capped by Davis’ 20-yard scoring strike to David Canales to push to Cougar lead to 24-3 at the 7:17 mark of the second half.

The rest was up to the Cougar defense, which again operated under a bend-but-do-not-break philosophy. The Cougars hounded the Battlin’ Bears all afternoon, swarming RMC quarterback Adam Sanchez on everyone of his 62 pass attempts. Rocky Mountain eventually found the endzone on a broken play. After avoiding a near sack, Sanchez broke free and found a wide open Jon Own downfield for a 78-yard strike with 6:38 left in the third.

The Cougars added an insurance touchdown when freshman Grady Thomas went the final 20 yards of an 8-play, 75-yard drive that put Azusa Pacific up 31-10 with 14:14 left in the game.

Rocky Mountain added a late touchdown on a Sanchez keeper with 3:24 remaining to round out the scoring.

Azusa Pacific accumulated 403 yards worth of total offense, including a season-high 267 on the ground. Buys finished with 129 yards on 22 carries (5.9 avg.) for his third straight 100-yard game of the season and the seventh of his 12-game career at Azusa Pacific. Only 5 other Cougars have ever tallied more 100-yard games with Christian Okoye being the standard-bearer with 15 such games. Thomas rushed for a season-high 62 yards on just 9 carries, while fellow freshman James Keeler added a season-high 45 yards on 7 carries.

Davis finished the game 9-for-22 passing for 136 yards and 1 TD. He was intercepted once, at the Battlin’ Bear 5-yard line, which not only thwarted a Cougar drive deep in RMC territory but also snapped a Cougar QB string of 115 passes (5-plus games) without an interception.

Rocky Mountain had the ball for 22 more plays than Azusa Pacific (94 to 72), but other than 78-yard TD play, the Battling Bears averaged just 3 yards a play while the Cougars chewed up 5.6 yards each snap of the ball.

Linebacker Jed Thurner led the Cougar defense with a season-high 9 tackles, which included his first sack of the season, while senior defensive end Nick Tavaglione added 7 tackles with a sack as well and forced an RMC fumble.

The victory, which is only Azusa Pacific’s fourth ever outside the California boundaries, pushes the Cougar record to 3-0 on the season. Azusa Pacific has now won 12 of its past 13 games. Rocky Mountain, which earlier this season lost 34-9 to No. 9-ranked University of Mary, falls to 1-2 on the season and visits top-ranked Carroll College next week. Meanwhile, the Cougars return home to host Cal Lutheran in a 6 p.m. contest in Cougar Stadium.