Terrell Watson's 80-yard touchdown run gave the Cougars the 19-18 edge that won the game.
Photo Credit: Blake Standal
Coming into Saturday night’s matchup, Azusa Pacific’s football team needed a victory if it wanted to keep its playoff hopes alive and have a chance to win the conference crown for the second straight year. The Cougars were riding a six-game winning streak dating back to Sept. 20. They fulfilled their hopes and pulled through with the 19-18 victory against Western Oregon, earning a share of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference title.
Western Oregon’s dominant offense came out strong in the first quarter, with senior quarterback Ryan Bergman going 8-of-14 on passing and gaining 96 yards total in the period. However, despite two solid drives from Bergman, Western Oregon was unable to put up any points due to two missed field goal attempts.
Halfway through the second quarter, APU put up a touchdown off a 12-yard run from senior running back Terrell Watson. However, the snap was too high for freshman Andrew Elffers, which forced junior kicker Jamie Cacciatore to jump on the ball and forfeit the extra point. Shortly after, the Wolves put up a field goal on their third attempt, making the score at halftime 6-3 with Azusa Pacific in the lead.
Western Oregon responded well to the powerful Cougars’ running game, bottling up Watson behind the line of scrimmage several times throughout the night.
“I knew I just had to be patient out there tonight,” Watson said. “I knew that my offensive linemen would open holes up for me and if I just followed them, I would break eventually.”
Watson ended up putting up 202 yards worth of running on the night while retaking the lead as the top running back in all of NCAA play.
Both teams scored touchdowns in the third quarter. The Cougars were the first to strike, with sophomore tight end Josiah Thropay getting a 13-yard pass from freshman quarterback Chad Jeffries, but Western Oregon responded 28 seconds later with a deep 68-yard pass from Bergman to Paul Revis. Jamie Cacciatore’s extra-point attempt was blocked, which made the score 12-10 with the Cougars still leading the Wolves.
Western Oregon started the scoring against the Cougars in the fourth quarter, taking the lead off a 46-yard pass from Bergman to Daniel Thomas. The Wolves attempted and failed a two-point conversion, giving them a four-point advantage over the Cougars. Several minutes later, APU was forced to take a safety in its own end zone or risk giving up a touchdown.
Down by six points with only three and a half minutes left, APU handed the ball off to Watson, who promptly responded with an 80-yard touchdown run to give the Cougars the lead. Western Oregon had two and a half minutes remaining, but on the last play of the game, junior defensive end Matt Hackett blocked the game-winning field goal, which gave the Cougars the 19-18 victory.
“If they kicked that and they made it, they would have won,” Hackett said. “I knew I had to do something and step up, and that’s something that Coach really stresses on.”
Although only giving up 18 points to a high-powered offense, Azusa Pacific’s secondary allowed 403 passing yards to Ryan Bergman, who also threw for two touchdown passes.
“We knew we had our hands full tonight. We took some hits in the chin but held in there really strong tonight,” head coach Victor Santa Cruz said. “Bergman is a heck of a quarterback and their two receivers are blazers. We knew it was going to be tough tonight, but we pulled through.”