{"id":56152,"date":"2016-10-29T17:41:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T00:41:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=56152"},"modified":"2016-10-30T00:06:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T07:06:19","slug":"azusa-pacific-vs-central-washington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=56152","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Wrap up GNAC, 44-7"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The APU Cougars hoist the GNAC Title banner and hardware!<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Glendora) – Andrew Elffers threw for 321 yards and four touchdowns and the\u00a0defense forced four turnovers as\u00a0Azusa Pacific\u00a0routed Central Washington\u00a044-7 Saturday night before a Homecoming crowd at Citrus College. With the victory, the Cougars (8-1) wrapped up the GNAC title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Azusa Pacific\u00a0grabbed the lead\u00a0the lead on its first possession on\u00a0a 30-yard field goal by Jacob Hall.<\/p>\n

C.J Broussard picked\u00a0off then Central Washington quarterback Justin Lane and returned\u00a0it to the 12 -yard line.\u00a0On the first play of the series\u00a0Elffers hit Weston Carr for a 12-yard touchdown\u00a0strike\u00a0for a 10-0 lead.<\/p>\n

\"Weston<\/a>

Weston Carr hauls in one of his four td’s.<\/p><\/div>\n

On the ensuing kick\u00a0off\u00a0the Cougars recovered a fumble by Central Washington and were in scoring position again.\u00a0Aaron Baltazar then\u00a0took full advantage of the turnover when he blasted into the endzone from a yard out\u00a0and just like that it was 17-0 Cougs with 2:39 still left in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Early\u00a0in the second quarter a 22-yard run by Kurt Scoby set up a\u00a028-yard field attempt by Hall but the kick\u00a0was no good as the Wildcats held.<\/p>\n

Later in the quarter Central Washington went for it\u00a0on fourth and nine from the\u00a0APU 29 but Lane’s pass fell incomplete.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/a>

Andrew Elffers looks to avoid the rush.<\/p><\/div>\n

After the stop Elffers moved the Cougars down the field and connected with Carr again\u00a0on a 27-yard touchdown strike\u00a0for a 24-0 advantage with 4:55 left in the first half.<\/p>\n

Broussard\u00a0got his second\u00a0pick of the night, this one off of freshman JoJo Hillel who replaced Lane, to give Azusa Pacific a first down at the Wildcat 37 with 1:07 left in the half.\u00a0After a first down pass\u00a0to Ethan Zeidler\u00a0put the Cougars at the Central Washington\u00a013 yard line, Elffers found Zeidler again\u00a0for a touchdown\u00a0with\u00a041 seconds left in the half. It was Elffers third TD pass of the night as the Cougs took the 31-0 lead.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats\u00a0worked their way into position to attempt a 38-yard field goal\u00a0but the boot was\u00a0partially blocked\u00a0and the Cougars took the 31 point lead into the break.<\/p>\n

At the half Elffers had thrown for\u00a0212 yards on 13 0f 21 completions with the three scores. Carr was the go to guy with five receptions for\u00a0109 yards\u00a0and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Central Washington had three turnovers and just 127 total yards.<\/p>\n

The Cougars picked up right where they left off in the second half\u00a0as Elffers and Carr\u00a0hooked up again.\u00a0After forcing Central Washington\u00a0to punt on the first series of the second half\u00a0they put together a drive that culminated with a 23-yard pass from Elffers to Carr. For Carr it was his third score of the night\u00a0and it was Elffers’ fourth TD pass.<\/p>\n

Hillel tossed his second interception of the night, and the Cougars third pick\u00a0overall, as APU\u00a0linebacker Sam Fleming stepped in front of a pass\u00a0late in\u00a0the third quarter. Azusa couldn’t\u00a0take advantage of the turnover however and was\u00a0forced to punt.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats finally got on the board\u00a0late in the fourth quarter when Hillel hit Jesse Zalk for\u00a016 yards to make it 37-7.<\/p>\n

Chad Jeffries,\u00a0in place of Elffers, hit Weston Carr\u00a0for a 44-yard touchdown pass with 1:o5 left for the 44-7 Final. It was Carr’s fourth touchdown of the night.<\/p>\n

“Our guys were so focused this week and they’re peaking at the right time. They\u00a0understand that every snap matters,” said Azusa Pacific Head Coach Victor Santa Cruz. “I couldn’t be more proud of a group that just gets after it. I’m\u00a0very happy. The defense was really good and tonight they showed that. I like the way they mixed up the pressure and the zones. I can’t speak enough about these guys and how fast they played whether it was a base defense\u00a0or regular defense.\u00a0They played with their\u00a0hair on fire.”<\/p>\n

Broussard, a senior who led the defensive surge with his two interceptions, was happy with his team’s effort.<\/p>\n

“That doesn’t just come with coming out here tonight and showing the effort,\u00a0that came from weeks prior and the week leading up to this game. We knew it was going to be a battle and knew we had to\u00a0come out here and just do what we do,”\u00a0Broussard said. “That was just a product of hard work and great coaching. This is my fourth year here now and I kind of know what’s going on.\u00a0We’re a just an older group, more mature and we know how to handle the success.”<\/p>\n

Carr, Elffers favorite target, finished\u00a0with 189 yards on nine catches to go with his four touchdowns.<\/p>\n

“Passing wise we knew we needed to come out and be aggressive. We knew they were going to be aggressive\u00a0with their blitzes,\u00a0and we needed to be perfect on the outside,” Carr said.<\/p>\n

Central Washington fell to 5-3 with the loss.\u00a0Azusa Pacific will host Western Oregon next Saturday at 6:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Glendora) – Andrew Elffers threw for 321 yards and four touchdowns and the\u00a0defense forced four turnovers as\u00a0Azusa Pacific\u00a0routed Central Washington\u00a044-7 Saturday night before a Homecoming crowd at Citrus College. With the victory, the Cougars (8-1) wrapped up the GNAC title.\u00a0<\/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":[12377,3827,8101,10466,11551,3424,1652,11554,12402,12404,12401,3798,12403,12327],"class_list":["post-56152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-aaron-baltazar","tag-andrew-elffers","tag-azusa-pacific-football","tag-c-j-broussard","tag-central-washington-football","tag-chad-jeffries","tag-citrus-college","tag-ethan-zeidler","tag-jacob-hall","tag-jojo-hillel","tag-justin-lane","tag-kurt-scoby","tag-sam-fleming","tag-weston-carr"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56152","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=56152"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56176,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56152\/revisions\/56176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}