Azusa Pacific vs.
Valley City State

Saturday (Nov. 10)

Fargo Dome, 8:15 p.m. (CST)

Records:

Azusa Pacific – 5-3

Valley City State – 7-2

THIS WEEK: Being a national power and an independent at the same time has created scheduling challenges for Azusa Pacific that oftentimes requires unique and sometimes bizarre solutions. This week is a prime example. The Cougars play their first-ever Thursday night contest which coincides with their first-ever indoor game with the latest-starting kickoff in program history. The Cougars take on nationally-ranked Valley City (N.D.) State University in the Fargo Dome of Fargo, North Dakota, on Thursday (Nov. 10) at 8:15 p.m. (CST - note change in kickoff time). And not to be lost in all the distinctiveness of the moment is that fact that a berth into the upcoming NAIA playoffs is on the line for both teams.

TICKETS: Tickets for the game are $7 for adults and $3 for students with ID.

RADIO: The Azusa Pacific-Valley City State game can be heard live on the Internet at Live Viking Sports. Ryan Cunningham, Tyler Schlecht and Josh Bertaccini will call all the action beginning with a "Sports Rush" talk show at 3 p.m. (PST)

HOW THIS CAME TO BE: Azusa Pacific’s long trek to Fargo, N.D., was put in place more than a year ago as a return trip to the Valley City State’s appearance in Azusa last year. However, it was supposed to be part of an extended doubleheader. The Cougars were originally scheduled to play Crown College last Saturday in St. Bonifacius, Minn., and then stay in the north central for 5 days while traveling several hours west to play Valley City State on Nov. 10. However, last spring Crown asked out of its contract with the Cougars, feeling somewhat overmatched after Azusa Pacific’s 58-6 victory in Azusa last year. Thus the Valley City State game became a one-game trip.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is ranked No. 10 in this week’s NAIA Coaches Top 25 Poll. The Cougars have appeared in 45 consecutive NAIA Polls dating back to Sept. 17, 2002.

Valley City State is currently ranked No. 18. The Vikings first cracked this season’s NAIA polls back on Sept. 12 and climbed as high as No. 15 on Oct. 17.

FOR THE MARBLES: Both Valley City State and Azusa Pacific are on the cusp of earning berths into the NAIA football playoffs. However, each team likely needs to win Thursday’s game to clinch a berth. The top 20 ranked teams in the final NAIA coaches poll released Sunday (Nov. 13) are playoff eligible. A victory will assure a berth for the victor while a loss would likely end either team’s season. In essence, the NAIA playoffs begin now.

SERIES NOTES: The Cougars won the only other previous meeting with Valley City State, shocking the Vikings, and themselves as well, with a record-breaking 68-6 victory in Azusa last year. Azusa Pacific scored the first 6 times it touched the ball by returning a fumble, punt and interception for touchdowns while also kicking a field goal and rushing for 2 other TDs. The Cougars were up 38-0 and there were still 30 seconds left in the first quarter. Azusa Pacific forced 6 turnovers, sacked VCSU quarterbacks 3 times and allowed just 267 yards of offense.

vs. NAIA: Azusa Pacific is 18-11 vs. NAIA teams since 1998 and has won 5 of the past 7 with both losses coming against national champ Carroll College.

SEASON REVIEW TO DATE: After dropping its first 2 games to start the season (a program first since 1997), Azusa Pacific has rebounded quite nicely to win 5 of its past 6 games, including wins over NCAA Division II Humboldt State (Cougars’ first win in Arcata since 1997) and Western New Mexico. The lone loss in that stretch was to NCAA Division I-AA Sacramento State. The Cougars are coming off their best effort of the season, a convincing 47-6 win over No. 23 Eastern Oregon, Oct. 29. Azusa Pacific put together its most complete effort on offense and defense in manhandling the Mountaineers.

ABOUT THE COACHES: Azusa Pacific head coach Peter Shinnick, son of former Baltimore Colt linebacker and UCLA All-American Don Shinnick, is now in his seventh season at the Cougar helm. He is currently 52-20 as a head coach, and is now second on Azusa Pacific’s all-time win list (Jim Milhon, 1978-94, leads with 81 Cougar victories). Shinnick just brought Azusa Pacific through its best 6-year span in program history, guiding the Cougars to victory in 47 of the past 65 games, which includes an impressive 28-6 record over the past 3 seasons. In Shinnick’s tenure the Cougars have appeared in 71 of 82 NAIA Coaches Top 25 Polls, including the past 45 in a row, which has translated into 4 NAIA playoff berths, 2 of which had the Cougars advance to the semifinals. Shinnick has coached 22 All-Americans, 11 scholar-athletes and 73 school records have been broken since his 1999 arrival.

Dennis McCulloch is in his 12th season as the head coach at Valley City State, where he has fashioned a 54-36 record to date. McCulloch just guided the Vikings to their second Dakota Athletic Conference championship in the past 6 seasons.

LAST WEEK: Azusa Pacific enjoyed its second bye week in 3 weeks, allowing the Cougars 11 days to prepare for Valley City State. Meanwhile, the Vikings have just 4 days to get ready for the Cougars after dumping Dakota State, 29-21, on the road this past Saturday. The Vikings led 17-0 at halftime and were still up 29-7 before Dakota State scored 2 late TDs. Viking QB Chad Lueck completed 22-of-34 passes for 249 yards and 3 TDs while Ryan Drinkwater rushed for 145 yards on 28 carries.

COMING AROUND: A year ago the Azusa Pacific defense was tops in the NAIA. However, with the graduation of 4 key personnel, it has taken some time for this year’s unit to reach a similar level of performance. They may be there now, however. In the past 2 games (vs. Western New Mexico and Eastern Oregon), the Cougar defense has allowed just 10 points (excluding a TD scored on a kickoff return) and is holding the foe to just 127 passing yards each outing. They’ve recorded 10 QB sacks, forced 6 turnovers and allowed just 22% of third downs to be converted, all of which translates into per-game averages on par with last year’s defense.

GETTING HIS KICKS: Senior place-kicker Mike Betancourth, who a year ago led the NAIA with 19 field goals made, is likely the top place-kicker in the NAIA and one of the best in all of college football. He has made 11-of-14 attempts this season, including the 8 in a row. He has 6 kicks over 40 yards in length. He has converted 21 of his past 24 attempts, which included a school-record 12 straight that stretched from last year into this year’s season-opener at San Diego. Twice he has booted 52-yard field goals, including one against Valley City State last year, just 2 yards shy of Brad Kramer’s 1974 school-record 54 yarder. For his career, he has 30 made field goals in just 22 games and is 6 field goals shy of All-American Devon Jones’ (1978-81) school career-record of 36 that he established over the course of 4 seasons. Betancourth is 30-for-40 (.750) for his career and his 144 points scored are ninth on Azusa Pacific’s all-time chart (he’s just 13 points shy of fifth). Additionally, he has made 45 consecutive PATs.

ALL-AMERICAN PLAY: Senior LB Stephen Holte, a 2004 NAIA All-American first teamer who has never missed a game in his Cougar career starting the past 41 games in a row, is playing even better than he was a year ago. Last year, Holte averaged 7.1 tackles a game, but through 7 contests this year, he is averaging a hefty 14.1 tackles per outings and become the first Cougar since All-American Jeremiah Beery in 1999 to record over 100 tackles in a season. Against the NAIA’s No. 1-ranked Carroll (Sept. 10), he recorded 21 take-downs, just 1 shy of the school record. He came back against Willamette and registered another 18 tackles. Holte also tops the team with 11 tackles for loss, 4.5 QB sacks, and 3 interceptions. His next pick will be the most by a Cougar linebacker since Greg Smith’s 5 interceptions in 1995.

LIGHTING THE LAMP: Junior RB Marcus Lampkin had his 5 game 100-yard rushing streak snapped against Eastern Oregon. Still, the 5-foot-6, 170-pound junior continues to top the team in rushing (81.2 yards/g and 5.0 yards/c). The former walk-on transfer from Lewis & Clark has rushed for 595 yards in the past 6 games and has 6 century-rushing efforts in his career (only 8 other Cougars have registered more). He is the first Cougar to string together 5 straight 100-yard rushing games since 2-time All-American Jack Williams did so to close the 1999 campaign. Lampkin leads the team with 927 all-purpose yards (115.9 avg./g) with a season-best 159 in the victory over Humboldt State.

RUDY, RUDY, RUDY: Since becoming a starter for the first time in his career 3 games ago, junior QB Rudy Carlton has shined as the director of the Cougar offense. In fact, he has gotten better as each game goes by. As a starter, he has completed 46-of-87 (.529) passes for 737 yards (245.7 avg./g) with 4 TDs. In the victory over No. 23 Eastern Oregon, Carlton was near flawless, completing 16-of-21 passes for 3 TDs and 353 yards, the most yards by a Cougar QB since 2000.

ABOUT THE VIKINGS: Valley City State is enjoying one of its best seasons in program history. After going 5-5 last year, the Vikings have come back this season to win 7 of 9 games, losing only to conference rival Dickinson State (13-6 on Oct. 1) and at the University of Mary (17-13 on Oct. 22).

Valley City State is averaging 287 yards of offense and 24.4 points a game while surrendering 282 yards and 12 points on defense. The Vikings have been a quick-strike offense, jetting out to early and comfortable leads and cruising in for victory. Also an opportunistic team, they have created a whopping 33 takeaways, averaging nearly 4 a game. Their hard-hitting defense has produced 22 fumbles, 19 of which they have recovered, while they have also intercepted 14 opposing passes.

Senior QB Chad Lueck is enjoying an all-conference-like season, completing 59% of his passes and averaging 198 passing yards a game. He has thrown 17 TDs. His favorite targets have been flankers Ray Caylor (40 catches, 3 TDs) and Justin Folk (38 catches, 2 TDs)

The Viking ground game has struggled throughout most of the year and is averaging just 2.9 yards a carry with 5 TDs. However, junior Ryan Drinkwater gave VCSU a much-needed boost with 145 rushing yards in last week’s victory over Dakota State.

Defensively, the Vikings have kept 3 of their 9 opponents out of the end zone this season and held powers Dickinson State and Mary to a combined 30 points. Junior DE Joe Maresh has team-high 9.5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles.

FOR PETE’S SAKE: “There is a lot of uniqueness to this game,” said Cougar coach Peter Shinnick, “but really we’re treating it like any other game. The 8:15 start is just like 6:15 out here when we play. We’re used to the short week because we did this last year by playing Valley City on a Friday night. Now playing inside creates some excitement, but that’s good. We’ve been on turf before so that’s not new to us.

“Valley City has to be thinking the same thing we are … this is playoff football. You’re going against a ranked opponent, there is some travel involved, and the game is not going to be easy. This is great preparation for the real thing the following week.

“Last year’s score will definitely be on their mind. I anticipate Valley City to be very motivated and prove that’s not the team they are. We just happened to get some early breaks, got up on them and stayed up. I think we were as shocked by the score as much as they were. We expect a fired up Valley City State that remembers last year’s score and play its best football.

“Valley City has a terrific defense that is playing lights out. I’ve never seen a team with 34 takeaways to in 9 games. If you can give the ball that many times to your offense only good things can happen. And they have faked a punt in nearly every game. Truly, they are much improved team over a year ago

“Coming off the Eastern Oregon game, we could not ask for a better opportunity than what we have right now. We played very well against Eastern and we got some rest. Now we get to travel, play a game with playoff implications, and with a tremendous atmosphere surrounding the game. The guys feel good.

“Anytime both sides of the line are playing well like they did against Eastern Oregon, it makes everyone feel good. With this year’s team we need all phases to play well for us to win, and against Eastern Oregon they all played well. Now it’s just a matter of keeping momentum going and adding to it. We’re in as a good situation as we could imagine.”