Azusa Pacific at Southern Oregon

Saturday (Oct. 7)

Raider Stadium, 6 p.m. (PDT)

Records:

Azusa Pacific – 1-4

Southern Oregon – 1-3

THIS WEEK: Two teams full of past glory and tradition, now desperately in need of a victory, meet on the gridiron when Azusa Pacific visits Southern Oregon, Saturday (Oct. 7) at 6 p.m. in Ashland, Ore.

RADIO: The Cougar-Raider game will be broadcast live via the Internet by the Southern Oregon radio crew. A Datacast of the game will also be available.

TICKETS/DIRECTIONS: Tickets for the Azusa Pacific/Southern Oregon game are $10 for General Admission. Seniors and children under 12 are $5. From Southern California, take the 5 Freeway north, 11 miles into Oregon. Exit 99 north (Siskiyou Blvd.). Turn right on Indiana Street. Raidar Stadium will be on the right

THE BACKGROUND: For the first time in the 8-year series history, both Azusa Pacific and Southern Oregon enter this game with sub-.500 records. Together, they are a combined 2-7 to date. To the victor of Saturday’s game comes a chance to turnaround the season and still make it a winning campaign.

SERIES NOTES: In a series that began in 1999, Southern Oregon leads Azusa Pacific, 4-3. However, the Cougars have won the past 3 meetings in a row, including a nail-biting 13-9 decision at Raider Stadium during the Cougars’ 2004 NAIA semifinal season. It was the Cougars’ only victory in 3 previous trips to Ashland.

A year ago, the Cougars scored 10 points in the final 8 minutes to come away with a 27-17 victory in Azusa. The Cougars led 17-3 at halftime and appeared to be headed toward an unusually easy win over the Raiders. Yet, it wasn’t to be. SOU rallied with a pair of second-half TDs, the second tying the game at 17-17 early in the fourth quarter.

HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE: Since their inaugural meeting in 1999, Azusa Pacific and Southern Oregon have staged a spirited rivalry that for the first 5 years had NAIA playoff implications written all over it. In fact, it was that first meeting that gave the rivalry its emotion. Back in 1999, Southern Oregon man-handled defending NAIA champ Azusa Pacific, 41-32, to snap the Cougars’ 11-game home field winning streak. Yet at the season’s end, it was Azusa Pacific that received the NAIA independent playoff berth, not the 8-2 Raiders. Ever since, Southern Oregon has had a chip on its shoulder. The Raiders pummeled the Cougars in 2000 (31-0), and yet again it was Azusa Pacific that landed in the playoffs, not SOU. So in 2001, the Raiders left no doubt and crushed the Cougars, 64-21, to finally claim that seemingly elusive playoff berth. In 2002, the Raiders kicked a late field goal to beat Azusa Pacific for the fourth straight year, 17-14, and return to the playoffs. In 2003, Azusa Pacific finally the got the best of Southern Oregon, beating the Raiders, 23-14, for the first time ever and returning to the playoffs. Now the Cougars have a 3-year streak of beating SOU and earning a postseason berth each time.

TOUGH FOES: Azusa Pacific’s first 5 opponents – San Diego, Malone, Wisconsin-Whitewater, Wisconsin-LaCrosse and Whitworth – are a combined 19-1 this season, and the 1 loss was Azusa Pacific’s victory over Malone. Additionally, the Cougars’ first 5 foes are all nationally-ranked.

vs. NAIA: Azusa Pacific is the only NAIA school in California that plays football and is 1 of only 2 west of the Rockies (Southern Oregon is the other). Opportunities to play NAIA members are relatively rare. Since 1998, the Cougars are 20-12 vs. NAIA foes. They have won 7 of their past 10 verdicts vs. NAIA teams with all 3 of the losses coming to playoff teams.

NATIONAL RANKINGS: Azusa Pacific is not ranked in this week’s NAIA Coaches’ Top 25 Poll and had a streak of 50 consecutive NAIA Coaches’ Poll appearances snapped last week.

Southern Oregon is not ranked.

ABOUT THE COACHES: A pair of first-year head coaches carries on the Azusa Pacific-Southern Oregon rivalry.

A sixth-year Cougar staff member and former defensive coordinator, Victor Santa Cruz was named Azusa Pacific’s ninth head coach Dec. 14, 2005. 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.

On Jan. 25, 2006, Steve Helminiak was named Southern Oregon’s 14th head coach in the program’s 73-year history. A Midwest native, Helminiak had served the past 2 seasons as the offensive coordinator at NCAA Division III member Rockford (Ill.) College. He had spent the previous 11 seasons on the coach staff of his alma mater, Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He prepped at Immaculate Conception High in Elmhurst, Ill.

LAST WEEK: Azusa Pacific lost its third straight game to an NCAA Division III nationally-ranked team, falling 17-14 at No. 17 Whitworth College in Spokane, Wash. Cam Collings’ 28-yard field with 2:57 left to play lifted the Pirates to the victory. The Cougars lost starting QB Rudy Carlton to a broken collarbone on the fourth play from scrimmage. Sophomore Ryan Bridges was admirable in a back-up role, completing 9-of-18 passes for 99 yards while rushing for 53 yards on 12 carries in only his second significant action in college.

Southern Oregon fell to 1-3 on the season after Humboldt State scored 2 late TDs to register a 30-13 victory over the Raiders.

ABOUT THE COUGARS: For the first time since 1994, Azusa Pacific finds itself 1-4 on the ledger. However, never before has Azusa Pacific opened a season with as difficult a schedule as this year (all 5 opponents are nationally-ranked). The Cougars have struggled to move the ball on offense, averaging just 215 yards and 12 points a game. Defensively, though, the Cougars have been sterling, holding all 5 foes well under their own season averages. In last week’s setback at Whitworth, the Cougars stymied a Pirate offense that came in averaging 400 yards to just 280 yards.

BY THE NUMBER: With 79 more rushing yards in the game against Whitworth, senior RB Marcus Lampkin remains ninth on Azusa Pacific’s all-time rushing chart with 1,645 yards. The former 29 Palms High School standout needs 61 more yards to move past Joe Schulter (1,705) and into eighth place ... The Cougar offensive line has allowed just 1 sack on 105 pass plays this season ... Azusa Pacific ran a season-high 62 plays at Whitworth last week ... The Cougars have been penalized 134 more yards than the opponent this year and have been flagged more than the foe in all 4 of their losses ... Senior LB Scott Ellis (13 & 11), sophomore LB Travis Bengard (11), senior SS Mike Perez (11) and senior DE Josh Zeno (11) have all registered single-game performances of double-digit tackles ... The Cougars are struggling in the second half, having scored just 1 TD after halftime this season.

ABOUT THE RAIDERS: Southern Oregon heads into Saturday’s game having dropped 3 of its first 4 games, including the past 2. Inner-state rival Eastern Oregon used 3 field goals to beat the Raiders, 9-3, in Ashland in the season opener. The following week, the Raiders won in dramatic fashion at Menlo, 16-13. After the Oaks appeared to have won the game on a TD with 42 seconds left to play, SOU’s Jared Elarmo returned the ensuing kickoff 79 yards for the game-winning TD with 27 seconds remaining. After a bye week, the Raiders returned to the gridiron and were thumped by arch-rival Western Oregon, 38-0, in Ashland. Last week, SOU fell 30-13 at Humboldt State. In that game, SOU scored its first TDs from scrimmage this season, 21- and 1-yard runs by sophomore RB Patrick Preyer, the second pulling the Raiders to within 3 at 16-13 by halftime. Like the Cougars, the Southern Oregon offense has struggled to move the ball, averaging just 197 yards and 8 points a game, but in defense of the Raiders, they are quite young. Freshman QB Casey Mitchell (46-for-94, 397 yards and 7 int) spearheads an offense that features just 3 seniors. Sophomore LB Damario Watson heads the defense with 26 tackles, 1 sack and 1 interception.

COUGAR HISTORY: Azusa Pacific has sponsored intercollegiate football for 42 years, all as a member of the NAIA. The Cougars didn’t make their first NAIA postseason appearance until 1998, and they didn’t waste that initial opportunity, running the table to capture the NAIA national championship, with a come-from-behind 17-14 victory over Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) while finishing with a program-best 12-2 record. Azusa Pacific has qualified for the NAIA playoffs 6 of the past 8 seasons, advancing to the semifinals in 1999 and 2004. Since 1998, the Cougars are 66-27 (.710) on the gridiron.

Sixty-six Cougars have earned NAIA All-American recognition, none more famous than former Kansas City Chief running back and 1989 AFC MVP Christian Okoye, who came to Azusa Pacific in 1982 as a track & field Olympic hopeful and left as the Chief’s second-round draft choice in 1987.

CONNECTIONS: Sixteen Californians play for Southern Oregon, primarily all from the northern parts of the state. However, the Raiders do feature RB Sean Houston, a former All-CIF standout at nearby Northview High in Covina. Houston has yet to carry the ball this season.

For the first time since 1997, Azusa Pacific’s 104-player roster does not sport an Oregonian.

SANTA CRUZ SAYS: “The next 5 games are going to determine this season more than the first 5 games,” said Cougar head coach Victor Santa Cruz. “This is a great opportunity for us to be the men who we say we are. We can go around and talk about ‘what ifs’, unfortunate injuries and the ball bouncing the wrong way, or we can go to work this week and build something great. In the big picture of us building champions, it’s these moments now that may be more valuable in the rest of life for these young men. How will they respond to adversity? This is the laboratory of life where real men step up.

“You have to give credit to Whitworth. They are a very good team, and I thought we did an excellent job against an outstanding offense. We had a bad snap and put that offense 5 yards from the end zone. You just can’t do that. The timeliness of our mistakes and injuries are amazing. They could not happen at a worse time.

“Southern Oregon is a great place to visit. We love playing them up there. We’ve had some great games and great stories involving our time with Southern Oregon. The guys are excited to play an NAIA opponent and can’t wait to play the next game. No one is backbiting. No one is quitting. Everyone is still hungry to play football. In my heart this is a great team of men. They’re taking it on the chin right now, but they are measuring up.”