Things went pretty much as planned yesterday. League leader Azusa Pacific maintained its one-game advantage over Central Washington as both teams won, with Dixie State putting on yet another offensive showcase.

Azusa Pacific 38, Western Oregon 28
You've got to give credit to Azusa Pacific. After defeating Central Washington on the road last week, yesterday's home game could have been a trap game. The Cougars however, maintained a comfortable lead over the Wolves for the 38-28 win and more importantly kept their lead over CWU in the GNAC standings with two more weeks left in the regular season.
APU's Terrell Watson did what he's done so many times this season, rushing for 173 yards and three touchdowns. Watson, quarterback Dasmen Stewart and receiver Tarik Myles were the most notable trio of the incredibly balance Cougar (7-2 overall, 7-1 GNAC) offense. APU rushed for 197 yards and gained 196 in the air for nearly 400 yards in offense.
And it wasn't as though Western Oregon (5-4, 5-3) was a slouch, but it still remained relatively one-dimensional against the Cougars, although the Wolves were a bit better the second time around this season. Devauntae Hoffman had 98 yards on just 14 carries for a 7-yard per carry clip. Take away his long run of 22 yards and he still average 5.8 yards per carry, which is successful enough to wonder why he didn't get the ball more. Quarterback Ryan Bergman threw for 244 yards and three touchdowns, but was sacked five times.
The Wolves knew early on that the football Gods weren't going to make a WOU win easy as the Wolves fumbled the opening kickoff to Azusa, which resulted in a Cougar score moments later. Later on WOU's first offensive play from scrimmage Bergman fumbled the snap, luckily recovering it for a 3-yard loss.
Azusa Pacific hosts Dixie State this next week, in a game that should feature plenty of fan-pleasing offense. Terrell Watson has 1459 yards (162 yard per game) and 17 touchdowns with two more games to play. Dixie's Griff Robles averages 302 passing yards per game. DSU's Joe Don Duncan eclipsed a 1,000 yards receiving already. It's already clear the Dixie/Azusa game is the game of the week coming up.


Central Washinton 21, Humboldt State 14
Central Washington kept within one game of league-leading Azusa Pacific with a 21-14 victory over still-winless Humboldt State in Ellensburg.
The Wildcats (6-3, 6-2) were incredibly efficient with the running game, with the offensive line creating wide-open opportunities for three players (Charles Hall, Jr., 69 yards; quarterback Jake Nelson, 66 yards; Bryce Davis, 61 yards) to rush for more than 60 yards on the squads way to 209 yards in rushing offense.
Conversely, Humboldt State (0-9, 0-8) netted just 76 yards of first half offense and no points to show for it, but CWU's inefficiency on offense generated just a 7-0 halftime lead.
Humboldt pushed backup quarterback Casey Mintz into the game and went with running back Sutter Choisser in the backfield and the results were immediate. Choisser rushed for 25 yards on three carries and Mintz's only pass was his 32-yard scoring strike to Kelechi Nwadibia. Four plays, 57 yards later, the score was 7 apiece.
CWU would score two possessions later and then again on its first possession of the fourth quarter to make it 21-7.
While the game wasn't overly exciting, it was close. Both teams were woefully inefficient on third down (CWU 2-for-12; HSU 3-for-12), but both had glimpses of excitement (CWU converted on a fake punt reverse early in the game; Humboldt had decent success with personnel changes in the second half). Defensively CWU remains very good, holding Humboldt to just 227 yards in total offense.

Dixie State 42, Simon Fraser 35
Everyone expected this game to have offense and with a combined 77 points and 788 yards between the two teams, the expectations were met.
For Dixie Mitch Fei (184 yards receiving, three scores) and Joe Don Duncan (120 yards receiving, two touchdowns) generated the bulk of Griff Robles's passing yards. SFU's Ryan Stanford had 232 yards in the air, about 20 less than his season average, and he spread those yards between four receivers who netted between 31 and 82 yards.
Unfortunately for Simon Fraser (2-6, 2-6), the Clan just can't put together offense on a consistent basis and when they do, it's against a team like Dixie (4-5, 4-4) which is all offense. In Simon Fraser's six straight losses this season, the Clan have scored more than 20 points just twice.
Dixie travels to Azusa next week. Simon Fraser hosts Humboldt State.