AZUSA, Calif. – For the rest of his life Marcus Lampkin will remember his final carry before the home fans. In fact, he’ll treasure it.

Lampkin zigzagged his way 11 yards up the middle to score the game-winning touchdown with 34 seconds remaining in the game to lift unranked Azusa Pacific to a 21-14 upset of No. 28 Webber International, Saturday evening in the Canyon City.

Just moments earlier on the game-winning drive, Lampkin etched his name in the Cougar record books by becoming only the sixth player ever to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a career, plus he notched the eighth 100-yard rushing game of his career. Only 4 Cougars have tallied more century rushing games. None of that matter to Lampkin. Only the TD.

“It was a dream situation for me,” said Lampkin, who finished with 111 yards on 18 carries, “with a chance to win the game in the final minute of my final home game.”

Lampkin’s sprint to paydirt capped a 6-play, 65-yard drive in which the Cougars responded to a Webber touchdown that had knotted the game at 14-14 with 4:19 left in regulation. Lampkin tallied 27 yards on the drive, including a 9-yard scamper that sent him over the 100-yard mark for the game and 2,000 yards for his 29-game career. However, it was a ruse that actually set up Lampkin’s final score.

On a second-and-2 at the Warrior 47, Cougar QB Chris Lamkin faked an option run into the line, stepped back 3 yards and lofted a 37-yard floater to a wide-open Jordan Farrell, who made a nifty over-the-shoulder grab and rumbled down to the Webber 10-yard line with a minute-30 left in the game. Two plays later, Lampkin scored the game-winner.

“We went out there on that last drive fearless because we didn’t want’ to leave any ‘what ifs’ on the field,” said Lampkin. “On that last drive my o-line told me ‘we’re going to move ‘em’ and we did.”

Early in the game, Azusa Pacific found it hard to move on a rather strong Webber defensive unit. The Cougars managed just 37 yards of total offense in the first half, and actually considered themselves rather fortunate to be tied 7-7 at halftime. For the second straight week Trent Sakioka returned a punt for a TD, sprinting 71 yards untouched to account for the Cougars’ only first half score.

Azusa Pacific, however, took control in the second half, and on the opening drive of the third quarter the Cougars muscled their way 69 yards downfield on 9 plays, highlighted by an impressive 20-yard Lampkin weave through the Warrior defense to score his first TD of the game and put the Cougars up 14-7 at the time.

“Webber is a fast team and they protected the outside real nice,” said Lampkin. “So our coaches made some changes at halftime to make us run up the middle and gut ‘em.”

The plan worked. Lampkin tallied 100 yards on 13 second-half carries, including 54 yards in the third quarter alone.

Even Lamkin the quarterback enjoyed some second-half running as well, picking up 28 yards over the final 2 quarters.

Webber came into the game with a lot riding on the contest, hoping to prove that as a mere 5-year-old program it was now ready for the NAIA’s national stage by beating perennial NAIA power Azusa Pacific and perhaps move ever so close to an NAIA playoff berth. However, the Warriors left the west coast as “not-ready-for-primetime players,” ending all hopes for a postseason berth after falling to a Cougar squad that is enduring a sub-par campaign.

Initially, Webber took advantage of a sloppy Cougar punt team, blocking one kick at the Azusa Pacific 25-yard line to set up their first score, a Ranier Rackley 3-yard run around right end that tied the game at 7-7 with 9:51 left in the second quarter. However, the Warriors misfired on 2 other golden opportunities off Cougar punt attempts. First, they were unable to track down Cougar punter Andrew Lutton after a snap sailed well over his head and back to the 10-yard line. A scrambling Lutton was able to get off a kick that Warrior JaMarcus Watkins fielded at midfield only to fumble the ball back to Azusa Pacific. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Cougars clinging to a 14-7 advantage, another punt-snap jettisoned well over Lutton’s head, and this time the Warriors got possession of the ball at the Cougar 12-yard line. However, a dead-ball personal foul and a 5-yard loss on a rush pushed WIU back to the 31-yard line, and instead of opting for a 48-yard field goal (Webber badly missed a 42-yarder earlier in the game), the Warriors punted into the Cougar end zone to end the threat.

Azusa Pacific collected 3 takeaways in the game, including Brent Willard’s first-ever interception at the Cougar 22-yard line late in the third quarter to thwart another Warrior chance.

Webber could not put together a sustained drive for nearly the entire game, going no farther than 26 yards on any of its first 10 drives. However, on the Warriors final real drive of the game, they moved 70 yards on 10 plays, completing the drive on Justin Mitchell’s 5-yard TD run to tie the game at 14-14 with less than 5 minutes left and create talk of a possible overtime.

However, Lampkin and his mates were talking a different subject.

“It excited me to see us in a tight game like this because it means these guys are growing,” said Cougar coach Victor Santa Cruz. “It was great for our confidence to march downfield on that final drive and punch it in for a touchdown instead of a field goal.”

Lamkin finished the game just 4-for-12 passing for 72 yards, and half of that came on the floater to Farrell that set up Lampkin’s game-winning score.

Azusa Pacific, which averaged less than 2 yards a play in the first half, nearly tripled its production in the second half by collecting 5.2 yards a snap.

“The sign of a good team is making the right adjustments at halftime,” said Santa Cruz. “It was good to see our guys know themselves well enough and understand the offense enough to make the right individual adjustments.”

Led by sophomore LB Travis Bengard, who registered a season-high 13 tackles including a pair of quarterback sacks, the Cougar defense held Webber to just 110 rushing yards on 38 carries (2.9 avg.) and frustrated the Warrior aerial attack into 9-for-22 passing which included a pair of Cougar picks.

Azusa Pacific has now won 5 straight regular-season home finales dating back to 2002 and with tonight’s victory improves to 3-6 on the season. The Cougars close out the 2006 campaign with a first-ever visit to Southern Nazarene University near Oklahoma City, Okla. Webber International falls to 5-4.