AZUSA, Calif. – It was straight out of sandlot football. A play drawn up in the dirt, never practiced before, carrying with it the outcome of the game.
Sophomore QB Luke Winslow's 14-yard naked bootleg TD run with 3:09 left in the game assured the NAIA's No. 18-ranked Azusa Pacific of a 35-32 victory over Humboldt State Saturday night in Azusa.
With the Cougars facing a third-and-5 situation and clinging to a slim 28-24 lead, Winslow faked a hand-off to TB Jesse Aust, circled to his left, and trotted untouched to the end zone for the game-clinching TD.
"We don't have that play but Coach (Peter Shinnick) said I was doing my fake so well after handoffs that we had to call it because they weren't respecting me on the rollout, " said Winslow. "I rolled out, and there was no one there. I didn't think it would be that wide open. It was a good play-call more than anything."
The TD was the third of the game in which Winslow played a key part. He hooked up with senior WR Kevin Carlsen on 2 outstanding timing passes that resulted in 7 points in each half. His 25-yard lob to Carlson with 3:32 remaining in the first half gave Azusa Pacific a short-lived 21-14 lead. Winslow then connected again with Carlson on a 19-yard lob into the corner of the end zone early in the fourth quarter to give the Cougars a 28-24 lead that they would not relinquish.
"This guy is growing up and doing a great job of it," Shinnick said of Winslow. "He sat in there and played extremely well."
Though statistically it wasn't his best game, this was certainly Winslow's finest as a signal caller. He finished with 285 yards on 24-of-33 passing, primarily using Carlsen and senior WR Caleb Willis to put together an effective short-passing game.
"Our objective going in was to attack their corners," said Shinnick. "We didn't think they were very physical at the corner position and we were going to make them work which loosened things up for Luke."
Aust tallied his first-ever 100-yard rushing game, finishing with 124 yards on 25 carries. He scored his third TD of the season on a 4-yard run in the second quarter that gave Azusa Pacific a 14-7 lead. His final carry of the game, a 23-yard run to the Lumberjack 6-yard line with 43 seconds left, was his longest jaunt of the night, and secured the win after the Lumberjacks failed to execute an onside kick with 1:47 remaining.
"I didn't have to do much except run straight ahead," said Aust, who had 88 rushing yards in the second half. "Humboldt couldn't key on anything, so it was hard to stop any of us."
Carlsen, who came into the game as the NAIA's second-leading receiver, had 7 catches for 88 yards and now has a team-best 6 TDs this season.
"Their corners were a little smaller than most we've faced," said Carlsen. "We felt we could just punish them and get 8 yards a pop and go right down the field."
It was a game plan that worked well, because all 5 of the Cougars' scoring drives were at least 9-play drives, each covering at least 55 yards.
Humboldt was paced by TE Evan Collins, who had 5 catches for 77 yards while scoring 3 TDs and a 2-point conversion with less than 2 minutes left in the game that kept the Lumberjacks' hopes alive for at least a tie.
The teams played to a 21-21 tie at the half after Collins scored his third TD on a 1-yard pass from Travis Mari with 15 seconds left in the half. The Cougars scored on their opening possession when junior FB Adam Shelly capped a 10-play, 55-yard dirve with a 1-yard TD plunge, his first score of the season.
Winslow was quietly putting together his best half of the season, completing 13-of-18 passes for 159 yards and 1 TD.
For the second straight week, the Cougar defense stepped up in the second half, holding HSU to just 11 points, 8 of which came on a Mari to Dana Cabera 15-yard TD pass late in the game. The Lumberjacks had only 4 second-half possession and 2 of them resulted in 3-and-out series.
HSU appeared to have taken a 28-21 lead when Mitch Jones barreled in from 5 yards out midway through the third quarter. However, the Jacks were whistled for an illegal shift, negating the TD. The Cougars then held, thanks to a nice tackle by CB Mike Cory and LB Matt Huffman on a screen pass that lost a yard, forcing HSU to settle for a 28-yard Giuseppe Cracchiolo field goal. Led by Cory's team-high 10 tackles and LB Miguel Ramos' 9 take downs, including 2 for loss, the Cougar defense limited Humboldt to just 120 yards in the second half.
The win, which avenges last year's 38-34 setback in Arcata (1 of only 3 losses suffered by the Cougars on their way to the NAIA Final Four), pushes Azusa Pacific's record to 4-2 this season and 17-1 in games decided by a TD or less since 1998. Humboldt State, which earlier this year knocked off the NAIA's No. 11-ranked Rocky Mountain College (19-13) and NCAA Division I-AA Montana State (23-14), falls to 2-4.
