AZUSA, CALIF. – The NAIA's No. 22-ranked Azusa Pacific, which finds itself in a keen battle to make the upcoming 16-team playoff field, produced a much-needed blowout victory, downing Chapman University, 38-6, in Azusa Saturday night.

Sophomore quarterback Luke Winslow completed 17-of-28 passes for 228 yards and 3 touchdowns to pace a Cougar offense that collected 504 yards of total offense. It is the third straight game Azusa Pacific has netted over 500 yards in offense.

All 3 of Winslow's touchdown passes came in the first half. His 10-yard toss to Kevin Carlsen capped a 13-play, 58-yard opening drive that gave Azusa Pacific a quick 7-0 lead. Midway through the second quarter he connected with junior Houn Hib on a 21-yard strike to push the lead to 17-6. For Hib, a third-year starter, it was his first-ever collegiate TD after 64 career receptions.
With less than 3 minutes remaining in the half, Winslow found Caleb Willis on a 5-yard slant to give the Cougars a 23-6 halftime advantage.

"The past 3 years we haven't had too many blowouts like this," said Winslow. "We were getting worried in the first half; we knew we were going to win, but we had to make it convincing to help our playoff chances."

The Azusa Pacific defense, which has struggled in recent weeks, allowing 130 points in the past 3 games (43.3 avg.), put together its best effort of the season, holding Chapman to a season-low 6 points and just 204 yards in total offense. The Cougars sacked 2 Chapman quarterbacks a combined 6 times and held the Panther ground game to just 55 yards on 32 carries.
"We came out with an attitude tonight," said senior linebacker Miguel Ramos, who had 2.5 sacks toward his team-high 7 tackles. "We put an exclamation point on these guys. We knew we had to blow them out to move up in the rankings and make the playoffs."

Despite not having a 100-yard rusher, the Cougar ground game produced a season-best 276 rushing yards. Sophomore tailback Jesse Aust led the assault with 86 yards on 15 carries. His back-up, true freshman Jonathan Lott, tallied 83 yards on 15 carries as well. Lott gave the Cougars a 29-6 lead midway through the third quarter with a 14-yard scamper around right end to cap a 4-play, 61-yard drive.

The Cougar defense, which held Chapman to just 4 yards total offense through the Panthers' first 4 possessions, produced five 3-and-out Panther possessions in the first half.

Azusa Pacific forced 3 Chapman fumbles. Early in the fourth-quarter, a Rick Hewitson hit on Panther running back Jason Young forced the pigskin loose. Azusa Pacific's Louis Jamison scooped the ball off the turf and returned it 85 yards to finish the evening's scoring.

"For the first time we played a complete football game – both offense and defense," said second-year Cougar coach Peter Shinnick. "That was exciting. It was the best game the defense played all year. Miguel (Ramos) played out of his mind on the option. Their quarterback did not want to run the option any more."

With the NAIA's Nos. 17-, 18-, and 19-ranked teams losing today, coupled with No. 15 Southern Oregon's 33-0 loss at home to Pacific Lutheran, the Cougars should move back into the Top 20 when the next NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll is released on Tuesday (Nov. 7). The NAIA's top-ranked independent is guaranteed a playoff berth if it is among the top 20 in the final poll. Southern Oregon was the highest ranked independent, but the Raiders, who earlier this year knocked off the Cougars 31-0, now have 4 losses of the season and will probably fall out of the top 20 and behind Azusa Pacific, making the Cougars the top-ranked independent. The final poll is released on Sunday, Nov. 12.

The Cougars have completed the regular season and now wait for the next 2 polls and next weekend's results from other Top 25 teams.

"Looking at the schedule and who was playing who today we thought that 4, maybe 5, teams ranked just ahead of us might lose," said Shinnick. "So 4 of them lost and the fact that Southern Oregon lost was huge. Theoretically, we'll be the highest ranked independent. And there's another week where people can lose, and we can continue to improve our position."

"We'll go anywhere and play anybody. We're just thrilled to finish on a high note and put ourselves in position to get a playoff spot.
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Now 6-3, the Cougars secured their third straight winning campaign, a first since the 1988-89-90 seasons.