Football 11/9/1985 10:15:00 PM Gary Pine

A Season-Saving Comeback

Cougars rally from 21 down to tie San Francisco State

AZUSA, Calif. -- Led by quarterback David Russell, the NAIA's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific, which at one point had been out-scored 38-3, rallied from 21 down in the final 16 minutes of the game to tie San Francisco State, 38-38, Saturday afternoon on the Hillside Field. With the tie, the Cougars keep their undefeated season intact and more importantly their first-ever playoff berth remains within reach.

Russell, who completed 27-of-40 passes for 272 yards and 3 TDs, all career highs, completed 17-of-20 second-half passes, threw for a pair of TDs, and scored the game-winning touchdown on a 1-yard plunge with 21 seconds left in the game.

Azusa Pacific, which came into the game with a program-record 13-game winning streak dating back to last year, appeared to be easily headed to its 14th straight win after jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the first 10 minutes of play with a Christian Okoye 4-yard run and a 15-yard TD pass from Russell to Ted Campbell.

However, San Francisco State, behind its vaunted passing game, connected on several round-house punches, and not only came back, but blitzed by Azusa Pacific to assume a 38-17 lead late in the third quarter. At one point, Gator QB Richard Strasser completed 12-of-20 passes for 313 yards and 3 TDs, including bombs of 51 and 87 yards, the second score giving SFSU a 28-17 halftime lead. The Gators tacked on 10 more points in the third quarter to take what appeared to be an insurmountable lead at 38-17 with just under 4 minutes left in the third quarter.

That's when Russell went to work, answering Strasser's effort with his best. Russell engineered 3 scoring drives for Azusa Pacific, including a 72-push that began the comeback with a Russell 8-yard swing pass to fullback Scott Greene that pulled the Cougars to within 14 at 38-24 with 55 seconds in the third quarter. After a Terry Patterson interception that he returned 45 yards, Russell completed 4 short passes, capped by a 5-yard TD toss to junior TE Kimball Chase with 10:25 left in the game.

After stalled drives by both SFSU and Azusa Pacific, San Francisco State got the ball back needing just 2 first downs to exhaust APU of timeouts and run out the clock for the win. However, senior safety Mark Bitetti, who already had 2 interceptions in the game, pounced on a Dave Willoughby fumble at the Gator 42-yard line with less than 3 minutes left in the game to give Azusa Pacific one last breath, and the Cougars used it well. Using Okoye as a decoy, APU instead relied on some trickery and senior FB Greg Johnson, who motored 12 yards on 3 carries and took a Russell pass another 16 yards downfield. All-purpose player David Titchenel, playing for the injured Jon Milhon who went down in the first half, rambled another 5 yards on a run, and then later in the drive, faked a run and completed a 10-yard pass back to Russell to surprise the Gator defense, all setting up Russell's dive for the game-tying TD.

"We, as coaches, had decided that if we were able to comeback that we would go for the tie," explained eighth-year Cougar Head Coach Jim Milhon on his reason to not got for the 2-point try after Russell's TD. "I didn't want the season and the NAIA playoffs to come down to one play. It would not have been fair to the players."

Patterson snuffed out any chance of a miracle Gator rally by intercepting Strasser on the first play of the ensuing drive. It was the Cougars' fourth pick on the day. In fact, Azusa Pacific turned 3 of the 5 Gator turnovers (4 interceptions and a fumble) into 21 points.

Okoye, who tallied his seventh 100-yard game of the season with a game-high 156 rushing yards on 27 carries with 1 TD, broke Jim Farmer's 1973 single-season rushing record of 1,132 yards with a 6-yard run in the second quarter. Okoye now has 1,216 yards on the season with at least one more game this season. He is averaged 6.9 yards a carry and 152.0 rushing yards a game, and his 10 TDs are one shy of the school record. Johnson finished with 38 rushing yards on 7 carries and collected a game-high 6 receptions for 67 yards, including a key 16-yard catch-and-run on the Cougars' game-tying drive.

"I have never witnessed a more emotional crowd at Azusa Pacific," added Milhon. It was an impressive sight to see our fans just beyond the endzone when we scored at the end of the game. I have to leave the hill. This field and the atmosphere that does along with it ... there's really nothing like it at all."

Bitetti finished the game with 9 tackles, 2 interceptions, and a fumble recovery. Junior noseguard Rod Price tallied 6 tackles to go along with a sack of Strasser, who finished with 361 passing yards and 3 TDs, but was picked off 4 times, 2 each by Bitetti and Patterson.

Azusa Pacific is now 7-0-1 on the season, and would likely clinch the program's first-ever playoff berth if it can get by arch-rival Cal Lutheran next week in a 1:30 p.m. game in what is scheduled to be the last game on Hillside Field (APU moves into a new facility on the valley campus next year). The Cougars have won the past 2 meetings with the Kingsmen, but those are Azusa Pacific's only 2 wins in series' 13-year history.

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Players Mentioned

#1 Ted Campbell: WR; 6' 0"; Senior

#7 David Russell: QB; 5' 11"; Senior

#8 Terry Patterson: DB; 6' 0"; Senior

#28 Jon Milhon: RB; 5' 7"; Senior

#30 Scott Greene: RB; 6' 1"; Senior

#35 Christian Okoye: RB; 6' 2"; Senior

#41 Greg Johnson: RB; 5' 8"; Senior

#49 Mark Bitetti: DB; 5' 9"; Senior

#64 Rod Price: NG; 6' 2"; Junior

#80 Kimball Chase: TE; 6' 4"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#1 Ted Campbell
: 6' 0"; Senior
: WR

#7 David Russell
: 5' 11"; Senior
: QB

#8 Terry Patterson
: 6' 0"; Senior
: DB

#28 Jon Milhon
: 5' 7"; Senior
: RB

#30 Scott Greene
: 6' 1"; Senior
: RB

#35 Christian Okoye
: 6' 2"; Senior
: RB

#41 Greg Johnson
: 5' 8"; Senior
: RB

#49 Mark Bitetti
: 5' 9"; Senior
: DB

#64 Rod Price
: 6' 2"; Junior
: NG

#80 Kimball Chase
: 6' 4"; Junior
: TE