AZUSA, Calif. -- When Azusa Pacific tailback
Jack Williams went down with a rib injury in the Cougars' win at Whittier last week, Cougar head coach Vic Shealy confidently entered junior running back
DeAngelo Gossett and he promptly ran for a career-high 99 yards. This week, in only his second career start, Gossett surpassed that with a 194-yard, 2 TD effort, to lead the NAIA's No. 10-ranked Cougars to a 49-7 win over Occidental, in Azusa Saturday night.
"Last week DeAngelo was forced into the game and played real well," said Shealy. "Jack could have played tonight but we thought the right thing to do was sit him out. DeAngelo stepped up, found some nice holes and played an outstanding game."
Senior QB
Geoff Buffum was 14-for-19 passing for 198 yards and threw 3 TD passes, all to senior All-American WR
Dexter Davis. Davis had 6 catches for 56 yards and his 3 TD catches tied him for the Azusa Pacific single season record for TD receptions in a season with 11. Buffum's 3 TD passes give him a school record 18 on the season passing the former mark of 17 set by Greg Gano in 1978.
The win puts Azusa Pacific 1 win away from its first-ever NAIA playoff berth.
"We're really close to something awesome," said Buffum. "We don't want to let it slip away. All I want to do is go to the playoffs."
Less than 5 minutes into the game, Buffum hit Davis for a 19-yard catch-and-run TD. Gossett then scored the first of his TD scores, a 4-yard scamper, 6 minutes later. In the second quarter, Buffum hit Davis twice for TD's, first for 10 yards and then for 3 yards.
Occidental scored its lone TD of the game with 4:14 left in the second quarter when LB Kevin Danni intercepted a Buffum pass and returned it 9 yards for a score.
With 55 seconds remaining in the half, Cougar FB
Adam Shelly scored his first collegiate TD, a 1-yard run. The Tigers tried to march down field and score before the half, but freshman CB
Mike Cory intercepted his second pass in as many weeks, returning the pick 53 yards for his first collegiate score to gave the Cougars a 42-7 halftime lead.
Playing mostly reserves in the second half, the Cougar offense sputtered a bit, with Gossett's second 5-yard TD accounting for the only points of the half.
"I had a lot of fun out there tonight," said Gossett. "I just tried to follow my fullbacks and I would see open field."
Azusa Pacific's defense allowed only 197 yards in total offense, and turned away a quartet of Tiger fourth down attempts. The Cougars finished with 475 yards in offense. Senior TE
Justin Duarte had 3 catches for 56 yards. Senior SS
Scott Thomas led the Cougars with 9 tackles and seniors
Matt Zaengle and
Steve Symington each tallied 8 tackles.
"Our guys played very well tonight," said Shealy. "We were so prepared that we could have put anyone on the field tonight, and we would have had the same result."
The Cougars wrap up their regular season next weekend when they travel to Claremont for a 1 p.m. game with Pomona-Pitzer.
Scoring by Quarters
Occidental 0 7 0 0 -- 7
Azusa Pacific 14 28 7 0 -- 49
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
SCORING
AP - Dexter Davis 19-yrd pass from Geoff Buffum (Jim Daichendt Kick)
AP - DeAngelo Gossett 4-yard run (Daichendt Kick)
AP - Davis 10-yrd pass from Buffum (Daichendt Kick)
AP - Davis 3-yrd pass from Buffum (Daichendt Kick)
OXY - Kevin Danni 9-yrd interception return (Christian Rasmussum Kick)
AP - Adam Shelly 2-yrd run (Daichendt Kick)
AP - Mike Cory 53-yrd interception return (Daichendt Kick)
AP - Gossett 5-yrd run (Daichendt Kick)
PASSING
Geoff Buffum (AP) 14-19, 198 yrds, 3 TD, 1 INT
Steve Bowman (Oxy) 6-17, 70 yrds, 0 TD, 1 INT
Nick Montera (Oxy) 2-2, 48 yrds, 0 TD, 0 INT
RUSHING
DeAngelo Gossett (AP), 22 att., 194 yrds
Andrew Pattison (Oxy), 13 att., 47 yrds
Houn Hib (AP), 2 att., 34 yrds
RECEIVING
Dexter Davis (AP), 6 rec., 56 yrds
Justin Duarte (AP), 3 rec., 56 yrds
Rhone Rarick (OXY), 3 rec., 30 yrds
TEAM STATISTICS
APU OXY
FIRST DOWNS 19 10
TOTAL YARDS 475 yds 197 yds
RUSHING 277 yds 79 yds
PASSING 198 yds 118 yds
FUMBLES/LOST 0-0 0-0
PENALTIES/YDS 3-20 6-45
3rd DOWNS 7-9 3-13
