AZUSA, Calif. – After spotting Cal Lutheran 10 points, the NAIA’s No. 10-ranked Azusa Pacific went into lockdown and stuffed the Kingsmen into submission which resulted in a 31-10 Cougar verdict before a crowd of 2,416 in Azusa Saturday night.

Cal Lutheran put the scare into Azusa Pacific in the early going and took advantage of a less than focused set of Cougars by accumulating 123 yards of total offense in the first 12 minutes to scoot out to a 10-0 lead. Cal Lutheran QB Casey Preston capped a 10-play, 84-yard drive by converting a fourth-and-2 situation for the game’s first TD with a burst up the middle that not only gave the Kingsmen a 7-0 lead but it put Azusa Pacific in a hole for the first time this season.

The Kingsmen turned right around and scored on its next possession with an Alex Espinosa 29-yard field goal that put Cal Lutheran up 10-0 with 2:39 left in the first quarter.

On offense, Azusa Pacific had no answer, managing just 27 yards on its first 24 plays of game, and clearly Azusa Pacific was rattled by its inability to get control of the game.

”We were playing like a team that expected someone to hand them a victory tonight,” said Azusa Pacific coach Peter Shinnick. “Cal Lutheran isn’t like that and is too good a team to take for granted.”

While the offense struggled, the Cougar defense collected itself and methodically turned the game around. Azusa Pacific forced the first of 5 Cal Lutheran turnovers, this being an Eddie Torres fumble that Cougar linebacker Joey Prestella quickly pounced on at the Cal Lutheran 16-yard line. A David Ignash 39-yard field goal got the Cougars on the board at 10-3 with 9:55 remaining in the first half.

Azusa Pacific quarterback Sean Davis, who was benched after completing just 1 of his first 8 passes, returned late in the first half for an injured Rudy Carlton and hit senior wide out Nate Farris on the dead run down the left sideline for a 78-yard TD strike that knotted the game at 10-10 with 1:09 left in the half. It was the only sign of life that Cougar offense showed for the first 30 minutes of play.

“That was the worst half of offense I’ve seen,” said Shinnick. “It was horrendous. Cal Lutheran was playing physical and we weren’t. I was embarrassed.”

Behind the running of sophomore Ben Buys and freshman Grady Thomas the Cougar offense turned it around in the second half while the defense continually tightened the screws on Cal Lutheran. Led by defensive end Anthony Diggs, the Cougars continually squashed Cal Lutheran’s offensive effort, allowing the Kingsmen a mere 132 yards on 13 consecutive possession following the Espinoza field goal. The Kingsmen punted 7 times and turned the ball over the 5 times (one drive ended at halftime).

“This defense is great, but it could be better,” said Diggs, who finished with 6 tackles, including 3 for loss, 2 sacks, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection that led to an interception. “We have a tendency to start out slow, but we turned it around and got it going.”

With Cal Lutheran going nowhere on offense, Azusa Pacific settled down at halftime and got its own offense going in the second half. Of course, a little encouragement from Shinnick helped too.

“Coach got in our face at halftime and knocked some sense into us,” said Davis. “We had a lack of focus in the first half.”

Using the opposite running styles of the bruising Buys and scattering Thomas, the Cougar ground game got in high gear in the second half, chewing up 148 yards on the ground. Buys alone accumulated 91 of his game-high 117 yards in the second half, scoring on a pair of TD runs of 12 and 34 yards.

Meanwhile Thomas accounted for all 55 of his yards on 9 carries in the second half and propelled the Cougars toward the victory with a 26-yard TD run around the right end that put Azusa Pacific up for good at 17-10 with 4:56 left in the third quarter.

“That was a good change of speed for us,” said Shinnick, “and it got us going. Grady gets lost among our linemen, and when he jumps out of there he’s gone before you know it.”

Buys applied the finishing touches with his 2 fourth-quarter scores. The Cougars nearly added another touchdown when Davis looked for Farris on another bomb, but the usually sure-handed Farris dropped a sure 58-yard score when he was all alone at the Kingsmen 15-yard line.

The fleet-footed Farris, who is an NAIA champion in track & field’s 600 meters, found himself continually running by Kingsmen defenders all night. He finished with 185 all-purpose yards on just 5 plays. Along with his 77-yard TD catch, his lone reception of the night, Farris returned 4 punts for a whopping 108 yards (27.0 avg.).

Azusa Pacific came into the game allowing just 77 rushing yards a game and held Cal Lutheran to a mere 59 yards tonight. Junior defensive tackle Peder Moore led the Cougars with 9 tackles, including 2 for loss. Senior cornerback Brian Rocheleau had 7 tackles to go along with a pair of pass deflections to raise his season total to a team-high 8.

For Cal Lutheran, Preston finished the game 26-for-52 passing for 292 yards. Jimmy Fox was his favorite target with 8 catches for 105 yards. Alex Gonzales had 7 grabs for 104 yards, including a “jump-ball” 40-yarder that set up the Kingsmen’s only TD of the game.

Davis was 3-for-12 for 130 yards and 1 TD. In his limited appearance in the game, Carlton was 3-for-4 for 19 yards. Meanwhile Buys registered his fourth straight 100-yard rushing game of the season and the eighth of his brief 13-game career. With thiseffort he moves into ninth place on Azusa Pacific’s all-time rushing chart with 1,392 yards.

With the victory, Azusa Pacific improves to 4-0 for only the sixth time in program history. Cal Lutheran falls to 1-3 on the season.