{"id":50128,"date":"2015-10-03T19:37:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T02:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.midvalleysports.com\/?p=50128"},"modified":"2015-10-03T23:51:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-04T06:51:23","slug":"azusa-pacific-21-central-washington-14-half","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=50128","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Fall a Yard Short"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Cougar defense held Central Washington to 10 second half points but got no help from the offense in the third and fourth frames. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Glendora) – Kurt Scoby caught a short pass from Chad Jeffries, who was being tackled at his own 20, and took off down the field.\u00a0He broke several tackles and\u00a0 weaved his way in and out of defenders, before finally being brought down at the one-yard line as the clock hit zeroes.\u00a0It was a last gasp but the air ran out\u00a0on Azusa Pacific in a 24-21 loss to Central Washington Saturday night at Citrus College.<\/p>\n

The Cougars got the ball back with 22 seconds left after they forced Central Washington to punt.\u00a0On the last play,\u00a0Jeffries found\u00a0Scoby in desperation. Despite a heroic effort\u00a0by Scoby, the Cougar fell a yard short.\u00a0Instead of a storybook it was a heartbreaking defeat that will leave a bitter taste.<\/p>\n

\"Chad<\/a>

Chad Jeffries scores twice on the ground for APU. (Photo by Duane Barker)<\/p><\/div>\n

APU had its opportunities. Late in the fourth quarter down 24-21, the\u00a0Cougars went for it on fourth down\u00a0at the Wildcat three but Scoby was hit and fumbled and Central Washington recovered at the two.<\/p>\n

With 2:31 left in the fourth, Azusa Pacific was stopped on fourth down at its own 44 when\u00a0Jeffries was chased out of the pocket and his pass fell incomplete.<\/p>\n

The Cougars also had a field goal attempt blocked\u00a0in the first half.<\/p>\n

Azusa Pacific jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the second quarter\u00a0and still led 21-14 at the half.<\/p>\n

APU scored first when Jason Schwartz recovered\u00a0a fumble on a sack and the Cougars cashed in when\u00a0Jeffries scored on a 22-yard run for an early 6-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats responded when a\u00a0bad snap led to a short punt for APU setting up Central Washington at the Cougar seven. Arthur Burns\u00a0scored on a seven-yard jaunt to put Central Washington up 7-6\u00a0with 3:02 left in the first.<\/p>\n

Jeffries got his\u00a0second of the night on a 16-yard run later in the first. The Cougars kept the drive alive when Jeffries\u00a0hit Tarik Myles on a big third and 16 pass play.<\/p>\n

Scoby scored on a 30-yard run\u00a0right through the heart of the Central Washington defense and Jeffries went\u00a0in on a\u00a0two-point\u00a0conversion to give APU a 21-7 lead with 8:20 left in the half.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats then got one back that came back to haunt the Cougs. They pulled\u00a0within a touchdown\u00a0with 16 seconds left in the half on a two-yard run by\u00a0Burns to make it\u00a021-14 at half.<\/p>\n

Jeffries ran for\u00a062 yards and the two scores in the first half while Scoby has 56 yards rushing. Jeffries\u00a0was\u00a07-12 for 168 yards\u00a0through the air.<\/p>\n

The Cougars missed another chance in the third quarter when they\u00a0went for it\u00a0on fourth down in\u00a0Central Washington territory but was\u00a0thwarted when a Jeffries pass was tipped and fell\u00a0incomplete.\u00a0Central Washington took over and marched\u00a0down the field.\u00a0Burns capped\u00a0the drive\u00a0with an 18-yard touchdown run. His third score of the night tied it at 21 late in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

On the ensuing possession\u00a0Jeffries was\u00a0picked off by Myles Carelock who returned it to the Cougar 13. Sean McDonald\u00a0booted a 35-yard field goal to give the Wildcats their first lead of the game at 24-21 with 21 seconds left in the third.<\/p>\n

The Cougars appeared to be on the verge of taking the lead with just under two minutes left but that\u2019s when Scoby was hit and the ball popped loose at the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had opportunities but we didn\u2019t take advantage\u00a0of them. We have to score down the red zone,\u201d\u00a0said APU HC Victor Santa Cruz. \u201cIt\u2019s the same whether you win or lose. You go to back to work to try to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoby finished with 161 yards on 18 carries. Jeffries had 107 yards rushing and 319 passing\u00a0completing 12 of 27.\u00a0Burns was the majority of offense for Central Washington rushing for\u00a0155 yards on 26 carries.<\/p>\n

Azusa Pacific is now 0-2 at home and falls to 3-2 overall.\u00a0For Central Washington it\u2019s the Wildcats\u00a0third straight victory as\u00a0they improve to 3-2.<\/p>\n

And for now the Cougars are left thinking about the longest yard.<\/p>\n

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By Tim Peterson (Glendora) – Kurt Scoby caught a short pass from Chad Jeffries, who was being tackled at his own 20, and took off down the field.\u00a0He broke several tackles and\u00a0 weaved his way in and out of defenders, before finally being brought down at the one-yard line as the clock hit zeroes.\u00a0It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[871],"tags":[11553,8101,11551,11552,3798],"class_list":["post-50128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-arthur-burns","tag-azusa-pacific-football","tag-central-washington-football","tag-chad-jeffires","tag-kurt-scoby"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50128"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50138,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50128\/revisions\/50138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}