Azusa Pacific at Malone

Saturday (Sept. 9)

Fawcett Stadium, 2 p.m. (EDT)

Records:

Azusa Pacific – 0-1

Malone – 1-0

THIS WEEK: Azusa Pacific continues its 3-game season-opening road trip by visiting NAIA member Malone College on Canton, Ohio, Saturday (Sept. 9). The game kicks off at 2 p.m. (EDT, 11 a.m. in Southern California) in famed Fawcett Stadium, the 22,500-seat home of the NFL’s annual Hall of Fame game.

TICKET PRICES: Tickets for Saturday’s game at Fawcett Stadium are $5 for adults, $2 for students and seniors, and free for children ages 12 and under.

RADIO: The Azusa Pacific-Malone game can be heard live on WNPQ Radio. Clint Scroggs and Kevin Miller will call the game.

SERIES NOTES: This is the first meeting ever between Azusa Pacific and Malone, a game that was set up between Azusa Pacific’s Senior Executive Vice-President Dr. David Bixby and his longtime friend, Howard Taylor, the vice president for college advancement at Malone.

vs. NAIA: Azusa Pacific is the only NAIA school in California that plays football and is 1 of only 2 west of the Rockies. Opportunities to play NAIA members are relatively rare. Since 1998, the Cougars are 19-12 vs. NAIA foes. They have won 6 of their past 9 verdict vs. NAIA teams with all 2 of the losses coming in the NAIA playoffs the past 2 years.

vs. MSFA: Malone is a member of the Mid-States Football Association, a 16-team, NAIA-affiliated conference of Midwest schools. Azusa Pacific is 4-0 against the MSFA with all 4 victories coming at the expense of Olivet Nazarene University (Ill.), including the 1998 NAIA championship game that the Cougars took by a score of 17-14.

HALL PASS: The Cougars fly to Canton Friday (Sept. 8) and will visit the NFL Hall of Fame Saturday morning before crossing the street to suit up for the 2 p.m. game in Fawcett Stadium. It will be only the second day game for Azusa Pacific in the past 12 contests.

ABOUT THE COACHES: A pair of first-year coaches battle this weekend when Azusa Pacific’s Victor Santa Cruz takes on Malone’s Mike Gardner. A sixth-year Cougar staff member and former defensive coordinator, Santa Cruz was named Azusa Pacific’s ninth head coach Dec. 14, 2005, taking over for Peter Shinnick, who resigned after 7 years to become the head coach of the newly-established program at North Carolina-Pembroke. Santa Cruz, 34, is a former 4-year linebacker at the University of Hawaii who came to Azusa Pacific in 2001 after spending 5 seasons as an assistant for at El Camino High in Oceanside, Calif. Santa Cruz has been the overseer of the Cougar defense the previous 2 seasons, including the 2004 squad that ranked among the best in the NAIA that season.

Gardner is in his first year at Malone after turning around the program at Tabor College in Hillsboro, Kan. In his 2 seasons at the Tabor helm, Gardner fashioned an excellent 20-3 record and guided the Blue Jays to a pair of NAIA playoff berths, which included last year’s first-round victory over Graceland University, the first playoff victory by a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference member in over a decade.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is ranked No. 11 in the 2006 NAIA Coaches Preseason Top 25 Poll. The first regular-season poll will be conducted and released Sept. 12. The Cougars have appeared in 48 consecutive NAIA Polls dating back to Sept. 17, 2002.

Malone is not ranked.

LAST WEEK: Azusa Pacific and Malone opened their respective 2006 campaign with opposite results. The Cougars fell to the University of San Diego, the top-ranked team of NCAA Division I-AA mid-major, 27-0, in a rare Friday night game in San Diego. The Cougars were shut out for the first time in 2 years and suffered their first season-opening blanking since the program’s first game in 1965. The Cougars managed just 113 yards of total offense and collected 9 first downs. It was Azusa Pacific’s most lopsided loss since 2001 when the Cougars fell to Southern Oregon by 43 points (64-21).

Meanwhile, Malone opened the new season with a 25-7 victory over Trinity International. The Pioneers led 7-0 at halftime and then added a trio of second-half TDs to assume a 25-0 advantage before TIU tallied a late score on a 54-yard bomb.

ON THE REBOUND: Azusa Pacific has lost back-to-back games just once in the past 4 seasons, that coming at the start of last season when the Cougars fell at San Diego (30-6) and at Carroll (27-7) before righting the ship and winning 6 of their next 7 to qualify for the NAIA playoffs.

ROAD WARRIORS: No one in the NAIA, perhaps in all of non-Division I football, travels this year as much as Azusa Pacific. The Cougars journey over 7,500 miles during their 10-game schedule, including the longest road trip in program history – this week’s visit to Malone in Canton, Ohio. Previously, the Cougars longest road trip was to Savannah, Tenn., for the aforementioned 1998 NAIA Championship game against Olivet Nazarene. This marks only the fourth time Azusa Pacific has ever played east of the Mississippi River and the other 3 contests were all against Olivet Nazarene (1998 in Tennessee, 1999 and 2004 in Bourbonnais, Ill.).

Following this week’s excursion to Ohio, the Cougars turn right around and fly to Wisconsin next week to take on reigning NCAA Division III runner-up Wisconsin-Whitewater. Later in the season, Azusa Pacific will tour Spokane, Wash. (Whitworth), Ashland, Ore. (Southern Oregon) and Bethany, Okla. (Southern Nazarene). Since the 2002 season, Azusa Pacific is 16-9 on the road.

THE GOOD NEWS: Even a season-opening shutout loss has some silver linings to its story, though granted those linings are thin. Freshman Andrew Lutton averaged 40.4 yards over the course of his 5 punts in the game, including a booming 53-yarder and 2 others that stopped inside the Torero 20-year line ... Though Azusa Pacific managed just 76 rushing yards on 31 carries, the Cougar offensive line did not surrender a quarterback sack in 16 pass plays.

UP THE LADDER: With 52 yards on 12 carries at San Diego, senior RB Marcus Lampkin moved into tenth place on Azusa Pacific’s all-time rushing chart. The former 29 Palms High School standout has now accumulated 1,384 yards to pass Paul Hontz (1,375) and move into tenth place. Lampkin, who last year tied legendary Christian Okoye’s single-game school record with 248 rushing yards in a victory over Valley City State, needs 265 more yards to move past James Brewer (1,548) and into ninth.

BRIDGING THE GAP: It had been almost 3 years since he had taken a live snap on the gridiron, so please pardon redshirt freshman Ryan Bridges if his nervousness showed when he unexpectedly entered the San Diego game midway through the second quarter. Bridges, who has sat the Cougar bench the past 2 seasons as a reserve well down the depth chart, was pressed into duty when starting QB Rudy Carlton went down with an injury to his non-throwing hand. In his place came Bridges, who hadn’t seen live action since November of his 2003 senior season at Foothill High in Redding, Calif. To calm his nerves in the heat of the situation, Bridges turned to his staple skill – running the ball. With the Cougars trailing 13-0, Bridges moved the team downfield on his own feet, picking up 52 yards on 2 carries. In fact, he appeared to be headed for a TD on a 32-yard scamper until a hand-swipe tripped him up at the USD 10-yard line with Bridges eventually stumbling to the ground at the 4. The Cougars couldn’t punch the ball in from there. Still, Bridges worked off the rust by playing the entire second half and completing 3-of-7 passes. Carlton’s status for the Malone game won’t be determined until later in the week. In the meantime, Bridges is set to continue in his newfound role as leader of the Cougar offense.

ABOUT THE PIONEEERS: Malone kicked off its 14th season of intercollegiate football with a 25-7 victory at home over Trinity International (Ill.) last Saturday. The season-opening win capped the successful debut of first-year Pioneer coach Mike Gardner.

Gardner takes over a program that has fallen on hard times after qualifying for the NAIA playoffs in 1995, 1996 and 1998. The Pioneers have gone 7 years without a winning season, which includes a 15-35 (.300) clip over the past 5 campaigns.

Gardner inherits 55 players from last year’s 3-7 team. High on his list of returnees is senior QB Brad Reifsnyder who is coming off a highly efficient game against Trinity International in which he completed 17-of-20 passes for 205 yards and 1 TD. A year ago Reifsnyder completed 176-of-301 (.585) passes for 2,063 yards and 17 TDs. In the win over TIU, Reifsnyder shared the wealth with 4 different receivers tallying at least 3 catches, yet it was junior Josh Settlemire who took the spotlight with 4 grabs for 78 yards. Defensively, returning starting LB Justin Murphy, who had 9 tackles against TIU, leads a defense that yielded just 19 rushing yards last Saturday vs. Trinity International.

CONNECTIONS: The Malone roster features 5 Californians, all from the Los Angeles area. Junior RB Bernard Payton, who rushed for a game-high 91 yards on 25 carries and scored 3 TDs in last week’s win over Trinity International, is a Pomona native and a transfer from nearby Chaffey Community College where as a 2005 sophomore he averaged 143 rushing yards, fourth best in the state last year. Other Californians dotting the Pioneer roster are OL Kyle King, a senior out of nearby Charter Oak High in Covina, sophomore OL Shelby Santizo and kicker Mike Skvor from Long Beach Poly High and Emmitt Williams, a freshman WR from Dorsey High in Los Angeles.

Azusa Pacific does not have an Ohioan on the roster but 4 Cougars are Midwest natives, including Hoosiers Jeremy Lugbill and Adam Bott along with Illinois residents Ben Winslow and Rick Myra.

SANTA CRUZ SAYS: “In looking back at the San Diego game, I thought we competed hard to the end, and we played physical football. We killed ourselves with a lot of little mistakes, just way too many. As I said after the game, we probably played at 70-percent efficiency, and the film confirmed my thoughts. A lot of our drives were going well and then we made mistakes, like mishandling snaps out of the shotgun. Ryan (Bridges) had a lot going on in his head, and you could tell his heart was racing like a rabbit. The good things is that we were able to get him into the game and allow him to get some great experience, and that only helps to have a back-up with game experience.

“On another positive note, we were able to find some guys that can play ball and test them out in a game situation. Guys like (WR) Jon Davis and (LB) Mac Gebbers really played well and improved their stock.

“Malone has to be excited about it football future. I’ve known Mike Gardner for a few years now, having served on some committees with him. He is a very good football coach. They will be well-prepared, and we’re going to have to bring our best. We know of Bernard Payton because he played his junior college ball near here. He is a slashing type of a running back, and we’re going to have to keep our eyes on him. He is going to be a heck of a challenge for us.

“Attending the NFL Hall of Fame is not going to be a distraction for us. We don’t anticipate being tourists while we’re back there, and yet I want our guys to see and gain a greater respect for the great game of football. The more you can see and learn about the men who built this game, the greater appreciation you’ll have for the game itself. Visiting something like the Hall of Fame helps diffuse a lot of the ‘me’ attitude that you see in today’s players. Once you stand in the Hall of Fame, you have only great respect for the sacrifices made by the men of the game, and then you realize that the game is bigger than all of us.”