Week 2: Azusa Pacific (0-1, 8-4 in 2018) at
Missouri Science & Technology (0-1, 10-2 in 2018)
Location – Allgood-Bailey Stadium, Rolla, Missouri (about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis)
Conditions – Game time is 7:00 p.m. CDT (5:00 p.m. PDT). Game time temperature is projected to be 75 degrees, with partly cloudy skies and the sun setting around the end of the first quarter.
Livestream --
https://glvcsn.com/mst (free of charge)
Head Coaches – Azusa Pacific: Victor Santa Cruz (14
th season, 83-61). Missouri S&T: Todd Drury (1
st season, 0-1)
Preseason Predictions – Azusa Pacific was the coaches’ pick to repeat atop the GNAC, receiving two of the four first-place votes. Missouri S&T was projected to finish fourth in
the eight-team Great Lakes Valley Conference, which is part of Super Region 3 for NCAA playoff purposes.
About Last Week – The Cougars opened their 2019 schedule with a difficult road test, opening up a brand new stadium against West Texas A&M. The Cougars fought hard and had the lead entering the fourth quarter, but the Buffaloes bottled up the rushing attack, holding the Cougars to just 24 net yards on the ground. Offensively, West Texas turned the game around with 147 rushing yards after intermission, scoring 28 unanswered points in the second half to hand Azusa Pacific a 35-16 defeat. Tyrone Williams threw for 258 yards and a touchdown in a losing effort, but a costly interception in Buffaloes’ territory late in the 3
rd quarter gave West Texas all the momentum it needed to recapture the lead for good. It was the Cougars' first opening day loss since 2013 at Grand Valley State (MI). The Cougars would rebound from that loss to win 10 of their final 11 games that season.
Meanwhile, Missouri S&T were having issues stopping the run against a Lone Star Conference opponent themselves. Playing on the road against an option offense in Eastern New Mexico, the Miners were gashed to the tune of 472 rushing yards by the Greyhounds in a 35-28 loss. The Miners put up over 200 yards both rushing and passing in this game, but it wasn’t enough against one of the best rushing attacks in all of college football, and the result is a pair of 0-1 teams desperate to salvage any aspirations of postseason play squaring off in Week 2.
Miners’ Defense attends the Wharton School – Any discussion of the Miners’ defense has to begin with their stalwart defensive lineman Tershawn Wharton, who was a preseason first-team All-American selection by both D2Football.com and Lindy’s Sports. Wharton entered the season one sack shy of the school’s career record with 28. Wharton recorded 54 tackles and 9 sacks during his junior year, which was capped off with an MVP award for his performance in the Miners’ 51-16 rout of Minnesota State-Moorhead in the Mineral Water Bowl, where he had eight tackles, two sacks, and returned a fumble 53 yards for a touchdown. Sophomore LB Ben Straatman and senior DE Joeseph Boettcher will also be key players to get a block on up front for the Cougar line.
Offense: Miners Digging for a QB – for the last three years, Missouri S&T’s offense was led by quarterback Tyler Swart, who threw for 8,800 yards and 89 touchdowns over the course of his career. But Swart has now graduated, and the Miners held an open competition to determine his successor. The winner of said competition was Brennan Simms, who threw for 202 yards and 2 touchdowns on opening night and had the Miners in the red zone with under three minutes remaining, but a costly interception ended their last chance to tie the game.
Simms has plenty of help in the backfield, led by 2017 Harlon Hill nominee Deshawn Jones, who had 750 yards rushing and 8 touchdowns in an injury-shortened season last year. Jones holds the school’s single-season records for rushing yards (1,579) and rushing touchdowns (16), and had a streak of 10 consecutive 100-yard rushing games that carried over into the start of the 2018 season. Jones had 80 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries against ENMU in the opener. The Miners are not afraid to take deep shots, and had three plays of over 45 yards, including a 61-yard TD pass to freshman WR Josh Brown in the first quarter.
History – This is the first-ever meeting between Azusa Pacific and Missouri S&T. The last time the Cougars played either an opponent from Missouri or a current GLVC side was in 2011, Azusa Pacific’s final season in the NAIA. That year in late October, the Cougars flew to St. Charles to take on Lindenwood, who were themselves a former NAIA program further along in the transition process. It was a back and forth affair that saw the Lions score two touchdowns in the final three minutes to rally for a 38-31 victory despite a 121-yard rushing effort from freshman Terrell Watson, the first time the Cougars’ all-time leading rusher eclipsed the 100-yard threshold.
Up Next – The Cougars finally come home to open conference play against Western Oregon at Citrus Stadium on Sept. 21. Missouri S&T will play another non-conference game when they take on Miles College out of the SIAC.
GNAC Schedule for Week 2 (all times Pacific):
Texas A&M-Commerce at Western Oregon, 1:00 p.m.
Ferris State (MI) at Central Washington, 4:00 p.m.
Simon Fraser at Angelo State (TX), 4:00 p.m.
Azusa Pacific at Missouri S&T, 5:00 p.m.
