All games are highlighted for one reason or another. There's no secret why round two in southern California is circled on everyone's list.

Game of the Week
Azusa Pacific (1-0 GNAC, 4-1 overall) vs. No. 22 Humboldt State (1-0, 5-0)

Doesn't this make you excited? As if it couldn't get any better, it's scheduled for Thursday night - tonight - instead of the usual Saturday evening. Great matchup. Great teams. Two days early.

The winner goes 2-0 in GNAC play as well. A win should push Humboldt up in the national rankings. A win for Azusa could put them back in the D2football.com poll where it was after defeating then-No. 2 Grand Valley State in the season opener.

Yes, this is a second matchup in a month for the teams, with the first one convincingly going in Humoldt's favor, 30-10 in Arcata. The venue has changed to Glendora, but let's take a quick review of Humboldt's win:

1. Azusa Pacific is more than just Terrell Watson, but when Humboldt wraps him up for 51 total yards and no scores, that's significant.
2. In contrast, APU was no match for Nick Ricciardulli (146 yards, one touchdown) and Ja'Quan Gardner (141 yards, two scores).
3. Humboldt was more disciplined and fundamentally sound. The Lumberjacks had three penalties to Azusa's eight and recovered an APU fumble while suffering no turnovers of their own.

So what have the teams done since then? Humboldt State has blown through opponents. Bookending 50-3 and 53-0 wins over Dixie State and South Dakota Mines around a 34-16 victory over Western Oregon. The Lumberjack defense is incredibly scary, probably the best since the 2009 Central Washington defense. Azusa hasn't been as impressive in its wins, but it's still gone 3-0 in the three weeks since it's only loss. The Cougars defeated Simon Fraser (31-24), Dixie State (42-23) and Central Washington (27-20). In last week's game at CWU, APU totaled 315 yards on the ground. Watson had a monster game of 256 yards and two trips to the house and even quarterback Chad Jeffries had two passing touchdowns.

A couple of things to consider for tonight's contest:
1. Some intangibles: Azusa is playing at home, fighting to stay relevant in the pending regional rankings coming out later this month. Humboldt State is undefeated, fighting to keep in the upper echelon of the same pending regional rankings. A loss by APU all but takes them out of the playoff picture. A loss by either puts them a step behind in the GNAC title race.
2. Watson is the No. 1 running back in the land with 176 yards per game. Gardner is No. 36 with a shade under a 100 per game. Ricciardulli is 52nd with just under 90 per game. Huge running game on tap for tonight.
3. Or a huge defensive stand for either team. Humboldt is fourth in the nation in scoring defense with 8.6 points per game, sixth in total defense (243 yards per game) and sixth in the focus of the night, rushing defense, yielding just 70 yards per game.
4. Azusa's fans better be out in force for such a quality game. Anything less than 6,000 in attendance will be a disappointment.

I can't imagine Watson getting skunked against Humboldt for a second straight game, but I also don't see Humboldt getting blasted out of the water in rushing defense as Central Washington did less than a week ago. I'm calling for 90 yards and 1 score from Watson, but not much more from the running game, that's how much confidence I have in the Lumberjacks. The CWU alum in me fumes at the love I'm throwing toward the Lumberjacks and Cougars, but we are really seeing the GNAC's two best teams square off against each other tonight. A win by Humboldt puts the rest of the Super Region 3 on notice, if they're not already there. Humboldt is for real. The Lumberjacks go 6-0 tonight with a 24-13 win over Azusa.