Azusa Pacific at Chapman
Saturday (Oct. 9)
Ernie Chapman Stadium, 7 p.m.

Records:

Azusa Pacific – 4-1

Chapman – 3-1

THIS WEEK: Azusa Pacific, attempting to rebound from its first defeat of the season, a knee-buckling 12-0 setback to top-ranked and 2-time defending NAIA champ Carroll College, hits the road this week to take on NCAA Division III Chapman University in a 7 p.m. tilt in Orange, Calif., Saturday (Oct. 9).

ON THE REBOUND: For only the fourth time in the past 25 games Azusa Pacific has to bounce back from a defeat. The Cougars haven’t lost back-to-back games since the close of the 2001 season, and ironically it was Chapman that had a hand in that double dip. Matt Deter’s 51-yard field goal with 5 seconds left lifted Chapman to a 27-25 victory over Azusa Pacific Nov. 3, 2001, which combined with the Cougars’ setback the week before against Southern Oregon, was the last time Azusa Pacific suffered consecutive defeats.

SERIES NOTES: Azusa Pacific and Chapman have split 10 previous meetings, however the Cougars have won 5 of the past 6 meetings with the only loss being the aforementioned 27-25 defeat in 2001. In Orange, Chapman leads the series 3-2 but the Cougars have been victorious in 2 of their past 3 visits there

A year ago, Azusa Pacific downed Chapman, 32-7, in Azusa, where Cougar QB Sean Davis enjoyed his finest game, completing 11-of-24 passes for 218 yards and 2 TD scores. The Cougars jumped out to a 17-0 first quarter lead thanks in part to Davis’ 56-yard TD toss to Nate Farris, and Azusa Pacific cruised in for the victory to clinch an NAIA playoff berth.

LAST TIME THERE: In its last visit to Chapman, Azusa Pacific crushed the Panthers, 48-7, in 2002. Ben Buys rushed for 130 yards and 2 TDs on just 17 carries while WR Ryan Allen tallied career-high of 9 receptions for 99 yards and 2 TD catches.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Azusa Pacific has won 9 of its past 12 road games and 10 of its past 14 dating back to the 2001 season. Included in the Cougars’ current road fortunes is this year’s first-ever victory at Southern Oregon (13-9). Since 1996, Azusa Pacific is a fine 27-15 on the road.

vs. NCAA DIVISION III: For the first time ever Azusa Pacific is not playing a member of the NCAA Division III-affiliated Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and only 2 NCAA DIII teams dot the Cougar slate this year, the fewest ever since the NCAA’s adoption of the Division III format in the 1970s. With Chapman this week and Trinity next week, Azusa Pacific is playing back-to-back NCAA Division III teams and then will finish out the schedule with 3 NAIA members (Eastern Oregon, Crown, Valley City State) and 1 NCAA Division II school (Western New Mexico). Since 1996, Azusa Pacific is 37-7 vs. NCAA Division III teams. The Cougars had won 12 straight from 1998 to 2001 and 15 of 16 during one stretch. However, losses in 2001 to Cal Lutheran and Chapman cut the string. Since then, the Cougars have strung together 10 straight wins over NCAA DIII teams.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Azusa Pacific head coach Peter Shinnick, son of former Baltimore Colt linebacker and UCLA All-American Don Shinnick, is in his sixth season at Azusa Pacific. He has fashioned an excellent 40-16 (.714) record to date and only Cougar Hall-of-Famer Jim Milhon (1978-94) has won more game at Azusa Pacific (81). Shinnick led Azusa Pacific to the 1999 NAIA semifinals and put the Cougars back in the NAIA playoffs in 2000 and again last year. Against Chapman, Shinnick is 4-1.

Chapman’s only coach since the program was reinstated in 1994, longtime Southern California collegiate coach Ken Visser is in his 11th season at Chapman where he has carved a 46-49-1 record to date. Including 3 years at Whittier College, Visser owns 57-66-1 career mark, which includes a 6-6 record vs. Azusa Pacific.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is ranked No. 9 in this week’s NAIA Coaches Top 25 Poll, falling 2 spots after last week’s loss to top-ranked Carroll. The Cougars have appeared in 28 consecutive NAIA Polls dating back to Sept. 17, 2002.

Though Chapman is off to its best start since 1996, the Panthers are not ranked this week in any NCAA Division III poll.

BUYS OUT CLAUSE: Senior RB Ben Buys, who is currently fourth on Azusa Pacific’s all-time rushing chart with 2,254 yards and who needs just 1 more TD to become the program’s all-time leading scorer, will have to wait at least a couple of weeks before he can break Christian Okoye’s all-time scoring record of 204 points. Since the season-opening game vs. San Diego, Buys has been nursing an assortment of injuries, a list that grows weekly and now ranges from both ankles, to a knee, both shoulders and his hand. Over the past 2 games (vs. Southern Oregon and Carroll), he has rushed for just 74 yards on 32 carries, well below his the 5.2 yards-per-carry career average he boasted coming into this season. As a result, Buys will sit out at least the next 2 games (vs. Chapman and Trinity), if not more depending upon his recovery.

IN HIS STEAD: Sophomore Marcus Lampkin and true-freshman Alex Peltier will stand in Buys place in the Cougar backfield against Chapman. Lampkin, who just returned from an injury, looked very sharp the first 3 weeks as Buys’ primary back-up, rushing for 140 yards on 24 carries (5.8 avg.). Peltier surprised the Cougar coaching staff with his ability during 2-a-days and moved onto the depth chart the opening week of play. In the second game of the season at Olivet Nazarene, he rushed for 34 yards on 11 carries and scored his first collegiate TD on a 23-yard screen pass in which he danced around defenders down the right sideline for the score.

ON THE DEFENSIVE: Azusa Pacific’s defense not only ranks among the best in the NAIA this year, it also rates up there with some of the top defenses in Cougar football history. To date, the Cougars have allowed just 54 points in the first 5 games and the defense has allowed just 4 touchdowns. In this week’s NAIA statistical report, Azusa Pacific is ninth in the nation in scoring defense (10.8 avg.) and total defense (250.4 avg.), fourth in rushing defense (84.8 avg.), 18th in passing defense (165.6 avg.) and third in quarterback sacks (22 for minus-156 yards).

MORE DEFENSE: The most impressive fact of this Cougar defense is that of the opponents’ 62 possessions this year, only 4 have covered more than 50 yards in length, and 44 of the opponents drives have yielded no more than 1 first down. The Azusa Pacific defense has held on 58-of-85 (.682) third-down situations this season.

RETURN OF THE SACKMASTERS: The 1981 Cougar defense set the school season record with 56 sacks in 10 games. The 2004 Cougars are just off the pace with 22 in 5 games. However, in the past 4 games, Azusa Pacific has collected 21 sacks of the opposing QB. Junior DT Chuck Asiodu, a transfer from Mt. SAC via Colorado State, leads the way with 6 sacks all in the past 4 games. Additionally, he has 4 forced fumbles. Junior LB Steve Holte, who has led the team in tackling the past 2 seasons and continues to do so this year with 41 in 5 games, is second with 3.5 sacks along with senior DT Jed Thurner, who has 3.5 sacks among his 18 tackles this season.

WHAT A KICK: Junior college transfer Mike Betancourth has become quite a weapon for Azusa Pacific. Not since the early 1990s has Azusa Pacific had one player handle both punting and place-kicking duties and not since the great Brad Kramer of the mid-1970s has any Cougar been as successful at both duties as Betancourth. In 27 punts this season, Betancourth is averaging 39.8 yards a kick, well within range of the 41.6 school-record pace first set by Bruce Webb in 1969 and matched by Kramer in 1974. As a place-kicker Betancourth has already converted 7 field goal attempts this year, just 1 shy of what the Cougars made all of last year. On the season, he is 7-for-9 in field goal attempts, which includes a 6-for-7 clip from beyond 30 yards. In the Cougars’ opening-week victory over San Diego, he converted a 23-yarder, his first attempt in 2 years, to tie the game at 17-17 with less than 4 minutes to play. He then made 3 more attempts at Olivet Nazarene, including boots of 44 and 42 yards to become only the second Cougar ever to kick 2 40-yard field goals in the same game (Michael Wade hit 49- and 44-yarders vs. San Diego in 1993). Last week, in Azusa Pacific’s first-ever victory at Southern Oregon, he converted 2 second-half field goals of 30 and 33 yards to lift Azusa Pacific to a 13-9 come-from-behind victory.

MAN OF MANY LIMBS: Whether it’s with his arm or his legs, Cougar QB Sean Davis is doing his best to keep the ball moving downfield. Davis, who a year ago took over the starting position from program’s all-time leading passer Luke Winslow and then endured the growing pains through the first 6 starts of his career, has turned the corner and over the past 9 starts he has completed 118-of-221 (.534) passes for 1,363 yards and 5 TDs. Over the past 3 games he has completed 41-of-75 passes for 399 yards and has rushed for 72 yards on 17 carries (minus 3 sacks). For his career, Davis has thrown for 2,127 yards to become only the 11th Cougar ever to eclipse 2,000 passing yards.

ABOUT THE PANTHERS: By winning 3 of its first 4 games, Chapman is off to its best start since the 1996 season when the Panthers went 7-2. The Panthers opened with victories over Occidental (31-28) and Pomona-Pitzer (24-17) before falling to Redlands (28-21). They rebound last week with a win over Lewis & Clark (33-12) in Portland, Ore. This week’s game at Azusa Pacific is its first venture outside of NCAA Division III foes this season and is its first home game since the season-opening game vs. Oxy on Sept. 11.

Head coach Ken Visser employs a winged-T offense that features 4-year starting QB Patrick Josten, who has accounted for 822 of Chapman’s 1,571 yards of total offense. Josten has completed 43-of-90 passes for 623 yards and 5 TDs, while rushing for 199 yards on 46 carries (4.3) and scoring 4 TDs on the ground. Josten’s favorite targets are sophomore WR Harrison Dull and senior WR David Ortega (Hacienda Hts., Calif./Bishop Amat HS), who each have 12 receptions. Dull is the big-play receiver, averaging nearly 20 yards a catch. Sophomore RB Chase Tedwell, who a year ago rushed for 68 yards on 20 carries and scored the Panther’s lone TD against Azusa Pacific, currently leads the team in rushing with 271 yards on 51 carries (5.3 avg.) and has scored 3 TDs.

On defense, the Panthers are holding the foe to less than 50% completions of their pass attempts and a little more than 190 passing yards a game. On the ground, Chapman is yielding just 3.7 yards a rush. Junior LB John Vander Pyl leads the team with 39 tackles. Senior LB Nick Heinle has 36 followed by junior LB Josh Goedl’s 31, which includes a team-high 7 for loss.

SHINNICK SAYS: “We just need to be more consistent on offense and execute at a higher level,” said Cougar coach Peter Shinnick. “Penalties and turnovers in critical situations have really hurt us in recent weeks and those kind of miscues have kept the offense from doing what it is capable.”

“I have a lot of confidence that this offense will get going. This is a hungry offense. They want to play well. It’s not a matter effort but a matter of execution. They want to prove how well they can play. Now that we know Ben (Buys) is out for a couple of weeks it changes our focus, and we’ll need to emphasize a couple of different things on offense.”

“I can’t say enough about our defense. They have come together from day one and been on the same page. In any defensive scheme, you have to have people who can execute it, and what our scheme does is create a lot of confusion. Remember, we have a lot of redshirt freshmen running around in this defense and there’s a good blend of youth and experience working together and making this scheme work.

“Chapman is a much improved team. They changed their offense from last year and are running more of winged-T. They’ve recruited well and have the people to do it. They have the same great quarterback for 4 years. They are a lot stingier on defense than in the past and it shows in the film that we’ve seen thus far. We’ve seen a number of goal line stands. Their one loss came in the final minute so they’re about a minute away from being an undefeated team.”

ON THE AIR: Azusa Pacific’s student-run radio station KAPU will carry the Azusa Pacific-Chapman game. Click here to listen to Mike Dennis, Alex Charles and Kristen Buckner call all the action starting at 6:55 p.m. Saturday (Oct. 9)

DIRECTIONS: To attend the Azusa Pacific-Chapman game, take the 210 east to the 57 south. Exit the second Chapman Ave. (next to Anaheim Stadium) and turn left. Enter into "round-about" and go 3/4 of the way turning onto Glassell. Go about 1/2 a mile and stadium will be on the right.