The Cougars took on Humboldt State on Thursday night in the much-anticipated GNAC rematch between the two California schools. The Cougars defeated the Lumberjacks 55-21 in the rivalry game, which moved Azusa Pacific to a 5-1 record on the season.
Humboldt State came into the matchup ranked No. 24 in Division II football, and had trounced the Cougars in the Redwood Bowl 30-10 Sept. 13. In that game, Humboldt State stopped the Cougars’ rushing attack, holding senior running back Terrell Watson to a mere 51-rushing yards with 18 carries.
The Cougars got off to a shaky start on Thursday night, falling 14-0 in the first quarter due to a plethora of mistakes, including three penalties in four plays as well as two high snaps.
“You know we just need to keep playing,” head coach Victor Santa Cruz said. “Being down 14 points, we knew the game plan would start to take over at that point, and our guys came out firing.”
In the second quarter, the Cougars quickly regained their composure after redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Elffers ran the ball for a 56-yard touchdown run. From there, the Cougars went on to score 34 unanswered points.
Going into this week, senior running back Terrell Watson was a mere 119 yards shy of reaching the coveted 1,000 rushing-yard mark on the season, and at halftime he was 28 yards back of being the first NCAA player to reach that milestone this season. In the Cougars’ first offensive play of the half, Watson reached his mark while taking the ball into the end zone on a 77-yard rush.
“I think it is an honor, but I know it’s because of the linemen, the linemen won every single yard, I just run the ball,” said Watson, who led the Cougars in rushing with 208 yards and three touchdowns.
At the end of the third quarter, the Lumberjacks answered with a big play of their own when freshman quarterback Robert Webber completed a 65-yard pass to Kelechi Nwadibia, scoring Humboldt State’s first points since the first quarter.
The Cougars took over in the fourth quarter when redshirt freshman quarterback Chad Jeffries scored two touchdowns off a 16-yard run and 55-yard pass to junior Blake Robertson. Junior running back Ryan Adams capped the scoring for the night with a final 40-yard run with just over a minute left in regulation.
“Last time around we didn’t play our best football, and my job as a head football coach is to see if we are getting consistently better,” Santa Cruz said. “We have a lot of football left, we have a great game next week at homecoming, so the big goal is to continue to grow and get better.”
The Cougars will take on Dixie State University Oct. 18 at 6 p.m. for the homecoming game. The last time the Cougars and Red Storm met Sept. 24, Azusa Pacific won 42-23.