Wow.

You can't get much better than that down in Southern California on Saturday night. Well, for Central Washington at least. Azusa Pacific might have something different to say about the 24-21 score.

Long story short, Azusa jumped out to a 21-7 lead only to be skunked in the entire second half by CWU, who would go on to score the next 17 points by the end of the third quarter. Both teams were held scoreless in the fourth quarter, but that looked like it would change as time expired.

Chad Jeffries - while dodging a for-sure sack - barely got a pass to Kurt Scoby who rumbled down the field 77 yards with no time left on the clock only to be tackled at the one-yard line. Great 77 yard play...that needed to go 78 yards to get the win.

A couple of things that stand out:

Both teams rushed for more than 210 yards, but APU passed for another 319 to CWU's 88. Yet, take a closer look at APU's passing yardage. That 319 included Scoby's 77 yarder that was great for stats and nothing more. It also included Blake Robertson's 68-yard reception to get to the CWU 6 late in the first half. However, the drive resulted in no points as two penalties and negative 15 rushing yards later, APU lost the possession on downs.

CWU's Arthur Burns might be RB1 after this past weekend. CWU has been a bit inconsistent in the ground game which includes a running back-by-committee mentality with Burns, Jordan Todd and Quincy Carter. Todd got hurt on his first rushing attempt, but Burns scored three times on 142 yards rushing. Not bad at all.

Central Washington earned win No. 1 in GNAC play, further distancing itself from the 0-2 start to open the season, including the inexplicable 49-20 loss to Dixie State. Both CWU and APU are 3-2 on the season.

Travel east to South Dakota Mines and the Hardrockers got rocked by No. 20 Humboldt State 59-10.

Ja'Quan Gardner put together another unbelievable performance, scoring five times with 208 yards rushing. Five times! It wasn't just the Gardner show, though. Three other Lumberjacks - Richard Doctor, Blair Zerr and Khalil Ealy - also rushed for more than 100 yards each. That 498 yards on the ground might have something to do with a relatively conservative 118 yards in the air for Robert Webber.

And to think, South Dakota Mines led HSU 10-7 after one quarter. Gardner found the end zone for the early 7-0 lead on the first offensive set of the game, but Mines would later score a field goal to cut into the lead. On Humboldt's ensuing possession, the Hardrockers blocked the HSU punt and pounced on it in the end zone for the short-lived 10-7 advantage.

Humboldt then went on a rampage, scoring the next 52 points.

At 4-0 the Lumberjacks are clearly the team to beat in the GNAC and these next three games will be huge for HSU. First, the Lumberjacks take on Azusa Pacific at home. Yes, the Cougars have two losses, but they are the two-time defending conference champs and I'm sure the 62-41 defeat at home to the Lumberjacks last month will be remembered. Then, Humboldt travels to Texas for the second year in a row to take on Midwestern State. Midwestern State should be ranked when this week's D2football.com poll comes out as the Mustangs just knocked off 10th-ranked Angelo State on the road to improve to 5-0 on the season. Then Humboldt travels to Ellensburg to take on CWU on the 24th in another game that could have an effect on the GNAC crown.

In an earlier contest, Western Oregon defeated Dixie State in St. George. It's easy to assume "earlier contest" means Saturday afternoon. Nope. It meant Friday night. Friday night is high school football. C'mon.

Dixie outgained Western Oregon 500 to 354 yards and the Red Storm dominated in time of possession by 13 minutes. But when you throw three interceptions and your opponent scores on all three possessions immediately afterward, that spells trouble. It did for Dixie and the Wolves left St. George with a 42-24 victory.

Two huge games this weekend: The aforementioned HSU/APU game and Western Oregon's home game against No. 8 North Alabama, a team which should jump in the polls with its 34-12 victory on the road against No. 9 Valdosta State.