Friday Night Lights
« Back to Stories
 |  |  |  |
Valley City State vs.
Azusa Pacific
Friday (Nov. 12)
Cougar Stadium, 6 p.m.
Records:
Azusa Pacific – 8-2
Valley City State – 5-4
THIS WEEK: Azusa Pacific closes out the 2004 regular season with an unusual Friday-night game against an unusual opponent – Valley City State University of Valley City, North Dakota, an NAIA member which is making its first-ever trip to California. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. in Cougar Stadium.
RADIO: Azusa Pacific’s student-run radio station KAPU will broadcast the Azusa Pacific-Valley City State game. Click here to listen to Mike Dennis, Alex Charles and Kristen Buckner call the action starting at 5:55 p.m.
TICKET PRICES: Tickets for the Valley City State game are sold at the gate on game day, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Prices are $5 for general admission, and $3 for students with ID. Children age 12 and under are free.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: For the first time in 37 years Azusa Pacific is playing a game on a day other than Saturday. Not since a 55-28 victory over the Cal Poly Pomona freshman team on Friday, Oct. 20, 1967, have the Cougars not played on the traditional college game day of Saturday.
SERIES NOTES: This is the first meeting ever between Azusa Pacific and Valley City State. The Vikings will be Azusa Pacific’s fifth straight “first-ever” opponent and the sixth this season. Prior to the 2004 campaign, Azusa Pacific had never played Carroll, Trinity, Western New Mexico, Eastern Oregon and Valley City State.
Valley City State is a member of one of the NAIA’s better football conferences, the Dakota Athletic Conference which is also known as the DAC-10. The Cougars are 1-1 vs. DAC-10 teams with both meetings coming in the postseason. In 1998, Azusa Pacific knocked off Huron (now Si Tanka), 26-24, in the closing minute of the NAIA semifinals to earn a berth into the NAIA Championship game (which Azusa Pacific won 17-14 over Olivet Nazarene). Last year, the Cougars visited the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D., for a first-round NAIA playoff game and lost 20-2 in the snow.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is ranked No. 11 in this week’s NAIA Coaches Top 25 Poll. The Cougars have appeared in 33 consecutive NAIA Polls dating back to Sept. 17, 2002.
Valley City State is not ranked.
PLAYOFF PICTURE: In essence, the postseason begins this week for Azusa Pacific, which is gunning for its second straight NAIA playoff berth and its fifth in the past 7 years. A victory over Valley City State will lock up a spot in the 16-team postseason field. A loss, on the other hand, will put the Cougars back on the bubble near playoff oblivion where they finished the 2002 season despite having a 9-1 record.
PLAYOFF INFORMATION: The NAIA will announce the 16-team playoff field and first-round pairings on Sunday (Nov. 14) at 11 a.m. (PST). Azusa Pacific needs to be ranked in the top 20 and be the highest ranked independent to secure a playoff berth. Eastern Oregon is the only other independent in playoff consideration and would need to win its game at Montana State-Northern and have the Cougars lose to Valley City State in order to leap-frog the Cougars and clinch a berth.
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 44-17 (.721) record to date and only Cougar Hall-of-Famer Jim Milhon (1978-94) has won more games 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.
Dennis McCuloch is in his eighth season at Valley City State where he has carved a 52-38 (.578) record to date. He led the Vikings to DAC-10 championships in 2000 and 2001 and along with them came NAIA playoff berths. Prior to taking over the VCSU top job, McCuloch served as an assistant on the Viking staff for 3 years.
NO PLACE LIKE HOME: They say that there is no place like home, and Azusa Pacific seems to prove the adage. Since 1998, Azusa Pacific is 34-6 at home, which includes a school-record 12-game home field winning streak that was snapped earlier this year by 2-time defending national champion and then top-ranked Carroll.
GOING NOWHERE, FAST: The Azusa Pacific defense has been sterling throughout the entire 2004 campaign. The Cougars have yielded just 11 TDs (5 rushing and 6 passing) in 10 games. This is a stingy bunch that doesn’t allow the opponent to motor up and down the field. In fact, of the foe’s 127 possessions this year, only 9 have traveled more than 50 yards in length and 83 drives are done after surrendering just 1 first down. The Cougars are allowing just 69.6 rushing yards a game which rates among the NAIA’s 5 best this year. Additionally, they have allowed just 141 first downs, fewest among all NAIA members who have played 10 games to date.
RETURN OF THE SACKMASTERS: This year’s Cougar defense is on par with some of the best in school history, including the 1981 Cougars who set the school record with 56 quarterback sacks in 10 games. This year’s set of Cougars have tallied 42 sacks in 10 games (4.2 avg.), second in the NAIA only to Georgetown’s 59. The Cougars accumulated 6 or more sacks in a game 3 times this season, including a season-high 9 in the victory at Western New Mexico. Junior DT Chuck Asiodu, a transfer from Colorado State, leads the team with 11.5 sacks to date. Senior DT Jed Thurner follows with 7 sacks. In all, 12 different Cougars have had a hand in at least 1 sack.
COUGAR NOTES: Junior college transfer Mike Betancourth has made 10-of-16 field goal attempts this year, the most by a Cougar place-kicker since fellow Chaffey College transfer Mike Spelman banged 14-of-24 during the 12-game 1999 season. Devon Jones holds the school record with 16 field goals made in 10 games during 1981 … With 3 catches last week vs. Crown
NATIONAL STATS: In this week’s NAIA statistical report, Azusa Pacific is sixth in the nation in scoring defense (11.2 avg.), third in total defense (216.8 avg.), fourth in rushing defense (69.6 avg.), and 15th in passing defense (147.2 avg.).
ABOUT THE VIKINGS: Valley City State is 5-4 on the season after knocking off DAC-10 member Dakota State, 28-23, at home last week. The Vikings are 2-2 on the road this year, beating Si Tanka (33-21) and South Dakota Tech (27-21) while falling at Jamestown (18-15) and Minot State (38-20).
Azusa Pacific is the Vikings’ third nationally-ranked foe this year. On Oct. 2, VCSU lost at home to No. 9 Dickinson State (38-16), and on Oct. 23 fell again at home, this time to No. 9 Mary (21-15).
Valley City uses a balanced attack of running and throwing the ball on a 50/50 clip, but the Vikings have found more success in the air where they are averaging 219 yards a game and have scored 20 of their 30 TDs.
Junior WR Rochenel Absolu, a transfer out of North Iowa Community College, has been the Vikings’ big-play man on offense. He leads the team with 41 receptions, averaging a hefty 15.4 yards a catch. He has scored a team-high 9 TDs, 8 through the air and 1 on the ground. Junior RB Kenard Walker out of Dimond High in Anchorage, Alaska, heads the ground game, tallying 704 yards and averaging 4.5 yards a carry while scoring 6 TDs.
Defensively, senior LB Josh Kasowski not only leads the DAC-10 with 15.6 tackles a game, he is also VCSU’s all-time leading tackler. Sophomore Paul Mehle leads the DAC-10 in interceptions with 8, thanks in part to 3 picks in a season-opening victory over Black Hills State.
As a team, Valley City is averaging 24 points a game (fourth in the DAC-10), and 335 yards a game (fourth). Meanwhile, the Vikings are allowing 20 points a contest (fifth), 312 yards a game (fifth), including 146 (sixth) on the ground.
SHINNICK SAYS: “Valley City State legitimately could have beaten Mary which obviously raises our eyebrows because we know first-hand just how good the Mary program is. Valley City does a great job offensively of putting the ball in the hands of the right people at the right time. They have some dangerous people in (WR Rochenel) Absolu and (RB Kenard) Walker and are very smart in how they use them so that they create unique problems for a defense. They seem to be able to find the open guy at the right time.
“Defensively, they move around a lot and give you a variety of fronts. They keep everything in front of them. They’re coming in here with nothing to lose and certainly with a lot of emotion. It should be a great game, and we have to be prepared for them. This is a very good team in a very good conference.”
“Right now, we’re in a neat place to be as a team. We’re healthy, we’re coming off a great game, we’re playing for the playoffs, we’re playing on a Friday night, and we’re at home. We can not ask for anything better than to be on our grass. It’s huge considering the month of October that we went through.”
(on playing a Friday game) “It’s a little hectic right now. We’re running around trying to get everything in. I’ve gained a new respect for guys who play those Thursday and Friday games and do it more than once in a season. We had a 2-hour practice Monday, which is a day that we usually practice for only an hour. We’ve tweaked this practice thing. The nice thing about this is that if we win, we’ll be done and can give the guys Saturday and Sunday off. We can do some different things that can put us ahead the following week.”