Football 9/29/2001 11:50:00 PM Gary Pine

Cal Lutheran Ends SCIAC's Dry Spell

AZUSA, Calif. –  Chris Czernek's 33-yard TD pass to Brian Woodworth with 5:20 left in the game clinched Cal Lutheran's 35-28 upset of the NAIA's No. 16-ranked Azusa Pacific Saturday night.

Czernek's third TD pass of the night assured that Cal Lutheran would not suffer a similar fate of a year ago when the Kingsmen allowed Azusa Pacific to rally from 27 down to win  54-51 with a TD on the final play of the game.  Additionally, Cal Lutheran becomes the first team from the NCAA Division III affiliated Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to beat Azusa Pacific since 1994, snapping the Cougars' 12-game win streak over the SCIAC (Cal Lu was the last SCIAC member to beat the Cougars).

"This is a different team and we weren't going to let last year happen again," said Woodworth.  "Third down is the most important down for us.  We need to get those and we did tonight" (CLU was 10-of-17 on third downs)

"Cal Lutheran really played great," said Azusa Pacific coach Peter Shinnick.  "Their offense kept us off the field and their defense gave us all sorts of trouble early in the game."

Cal Lutheran took advantage of numerous Azusa Pacific miscues and penalties to race out to a 29-6 lead and then held off a fourth-quarter Cougar rally.  Czernek completed 30-of-42 passes for 363 yards and 3 TDs, including a 9-yard strike to Jimmy Fox to put CLU up 7-0 less than 6 minutes into the game.

Lathian Tyler answered for the Cougars on the ensuring drive with a 5 yard TD run around right end to cap a 6-play, 50-yard drive.  However, Matt Ryburn missed his first PAT in 10 attempts this year, allowing the Kingsmen to keep the lead at 7-6.

Cal Lutheran then responded with 23 consecutive points stretching across a trio of quarters.  Woodward scored on a 1-yard blast to make it 16-6 Cal Lutheran.   Czernek needed just 50 seconds then to move the Kingsmen 38 yards on 5 plays, highlighted by a 25-yard TD strike to Fox to put CLU up 23-5 with just 8 seconds left in the half.  To open the second half, Cal Lutheran went 64 yards on 6 plays and scored on a 8-yard Justin Magruder run up the middle to increase the lead to 29-6 less than 3 minutes into the third quarter.

"We didn't play with enough urgency tonight," said Shinnick.  "Our guys felt too good about themselves coming into this game.  That's my job as a head coach to get them ready and in position to play."

Later in the third quarter Cal Lutheran squandered 2 potential scoring drives inside the Cougar 10-yard line allowing Azusa Pacific to stay in the game.  A Kingsmen holding penalty at the Cougar 7-yard line negated one drive that eventually ended on downs at the 6.  The other threat was stopped when Davin Lum intercepted a deflected Czernek pass in the end zone.

Junior QB Luke Winslow engineered 3 Azusa Pacific scoring drives late in the game, hitting Jo Jo Herrera, Franie Tapia and Ryan Allen on TD strikes of 12, 14 and 22 yards to pull the Cougars to within a TD with less than 2 minutes left in the game.  Cal Lutheran ran out the clock when the Cougars' onside kick went out of bounds following the Ryan TD.  Winslow finished the game 22-olf-33 passing for 268 yards and 3 TDs.  His lone interception was a key one, coming midway through the fourth quarter in Kingsmen territory.

The Cougars were their own worst enemy in the first quarter.  A pair of holding penalties killed the opening drive and 2 big plays.  Another holding penalty pinned the Cougars at their own 2-yard line, setting up Cal Lu's safety, which came on yet another holding Cougar penalty in the end zone, automatically resulting in a safety while Cougar QB Luke Winslow was scrambling.
"We've been penalized all year long," added Shinnick.  "We have to find ways to get better and cut down on the penalties.  We hurt ourselves tonight."

In all, the Cougars were whistled for 12 penalties, including 7 holding infractions, for 122 yards.
With the win, Cal Lutheran improves to 3-1 overall.  Azusa Pacific falls to 2-2.

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