{"id":56299,"date":"2016-11-05T17:48:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-06T00:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=56299"},"modified":"2016-11-06T00:34:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-06T07:34:23","slug":"azusa-pacific-vs-western-oregon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=56299","title":{"rendered":"Cougar Defense Locks Down Western Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aaron<\/a>

Aaron Berry and the APU defense put the clamps on Western Oregon.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Glendora) – Azusa Pacific’s defense held Western Oregon to zero yards passing and just 29 overall in the first half\u00a0and went on to beat the Wolves 33-8 Saturday night at Citrus College on Senior Night.<\/p>\n

Western Oregon ended up with\u00a0235 overall (70 rushing) but most of those came after the game had\u00a0already been decided. The Wolves didn’t score until 4:41 left in the contest.<\/p>\n

Aaron Berry led the Cougars with nine tackles and was a force throughout the contest.\u00a0“First of all it\u00a0was senior night.\u00a0So this could be our last game here at home. You never know. Our thing is every game is a playoff. You lose one game and you’re done,” Berry said. “Our effort out there was to not let them get in.\u00a0Our coach told us let’s get to the ball first so that’s what it was about. We’re just a brotherhood. It seems like we bond.”<\/p>\n

Azusa Pacific got on the board first\u00a0when Andrew Elffers hit Josiah Thropay for a two-yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars\u00a0 7-0 lead.<\/p>\n

With the 10:53 left in the second quarter Aaron Baltazar\u00a0capped a drive\u00a0with a one-yard run\u00a0to\u00a0put\u00a0APU up by two scores. Jacob Hall missed the extra point.<\/p>\n

On the next possession, Chad Jeffries, in place of Elffers, fired a 41-yard TD strike to Ethan\u00a0Zeidler\u00a0who\u00a0sprinted into the end zone.\u00a0The ball was tipped but Zeidler was still able to\u00a0hold on and make the play.<\/p>\n

\"Ethan<\/a>

Ethan Zeidler was stopped on this play but still managed 97 yards and a touchdown.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Cougs\u00a0took the 20 point lead into the half.<\/p>\n

Neither team was able to generate\u00a0much offense in the third quarter.\u00a0The Wolves moved the ball down to the\u00a0APU 16 yard\u00a0line but a 33 yard field goal attempt was missed.<\/p>\n

Early in the fourth quarter the Cougars put together a drive that was\u00a0aided by a pass interference penalty. Elffers finished the march at the 13:38 mark with a five-yard run faking the handoff and then getting outside and into the end zone.<\/p>\n

Western Oregon again moved the ball down into APU territory before the drive stalled at the 33. A 50-yard field goal attempt fell short.<\/p>\n

The Cougars immediately responded with a long pass from Jeffries to Tanner Henry setting up a nine-yard TD pass to Henry for a 33-0 lead as the extra point was missed. For Jeffries, the former Glendora High School quarterback, it was his second touchdown pass of the night.<\/p>\n

Western Oregon finally broke through in the fourth quarter on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Nick Duckworth to Paul Revis. Duckworth hit Andy Avgi for the\u00a0two point conversion that made it 33-8.<\/p>\n

With less than a minute left Sam Flemming picked off a pass when Duckworth tried to get rid of it while being sacked. He\u00a0returned\u00a0it 37 yards for an apparent\u00a0touchdown\u00a0but he was called for excessive celebration when he did a flip as he entered the\u00a0end zone and the\u00a0score was called back. The Cougars then ran out the clock.<\/p>\n

Former Bishop Amat star Torreahno Sweet had 65 yards on 11 carries for Western Oregon.<\/p>\n

For APU, Elffers completed 20 of 27 for 177 yards and a touchdown\u00a0without an interception while Jeffries was\u00a06 of 8 for\u00a0128 yards and two scores. Brandon Jackson had six catches for 82 yards and Zeidler had four for 97 and a touchdown. But the defense was the main story.<\/p>\n

“This defense, they’re just great guys to be a part of.\u00a0I’ll tell you what their work effort shows up every single day.\u00a0They push and challenge themselves,” said Azusa Pacific Head Coach Victor Santa Cruz.\u00a0“We play great defense every year here. So it’s a great effort but we still have a\u00a0long ways to go.”<\/p>\n

With the victory Azusa Pacific improved to 9-1 overall (7-0 in the\u00a0GNAC) and will travel\u00a0to Colorado Mesa next week. A win\u00a0would put the Cougars in the mix for a spot in the Division 2 playoffs.<\/p>\n

“The goal here is to win one game at a time and now you’ve put yourself in a position to make a playoff run. Obviously next week is big. We’re playing a nationally recognized team.\u00a0Mesa is a great program,” Santa Cruz added.”\u00a0But we’re hungry to get to the playoffs. Our guys will get to work on Monday\u00a0and we’ll get after it.”<\/p>\n

Western Oregon dropped to 3-6 and 2-5 in conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Glendora) – Azusa Pacific’s defense held Western Oregon to zero yards passing and just 29 overall in the first half\u00a0and went on to beat the Wolves 33-8 Saturday night at Citrus College on Senior Night.<\/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":[12377,12379,3827,8101,8043,3424,1652,12417,12418,11554,8337,12402,517,12416,10712,12419,8322,12420,7040,10710],"class_list":["post-56299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-aaron-baltazar","tag-aaron-berry","tag-andrew-elffers","tag-azusa-pacific-football","tag-bishop-amat-football","tag-chad-jeffries","tag-citrus-college","tag-colorado-mesa-football","tag-division-2-playoffs","tag-ethan-zeidler","tag-gnac","tag-jacob-hall","tag-josiah-thropay","tag-nick-duckworth","tag-paul-revis","tag-sam-flemming","tag-tanner-henry","tag-torreahno-sweet","tag-victor-santa-cruz","tag-western-oregon-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56299","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=56299"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56327,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56299\/revisions\/56327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}