Cal Lutheran Next for Red-Hot Azusa

The Azusa Pacific University football team, bidding for its first playoff berth in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics and its first undefeated season, plays Cal Lutheran in its regular season finale at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Mt. Clef Stadium in Thousand Oaks.

Azusa Pacific, ranked No. 3 in NAIA Division II before its 38-38 tie with San Francisco State last week, has a 7-0-1 record, and Cal Lutheran is 4-5.

A victory by the Cougars probably would wrap up a postseason berth. The eight playoff teams will be determined by final Division II rankings Sunday.

However, Azusa Pacific Coach Jim Milhon has reason to be concerned about the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen, who have played a strong NCAA Division II schedule and have caused problems for Azusa Pacific in the past. But the Cougars have won the last two meetings, including a 19-10 triumph last year.

Cal Lutheran, which has lost four straight games to NCAA Division II teams, is led by quarterback Tom Bonds, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 205 yards in a 38-7 loss to Sacramento State last week.

Azusa Pacific is headed by 6-3, 250-pound running back Christian Okoye, who has rushed for a single-season school record of 1,216 yards. Okoye rushed for 156 in 27 carries against San Francisco State.

Quarterback Dave Russell completed 27 of 40 passes for 260 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another touchdown against San Francisco.

In other games matching four-year colleges Saturday, Occidental (7-1) will try to wrap up its third straight berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs when it visits Claremont-Mudd (1-7) at 1:30 p.m., and La Verne (4-4) visits Whittier (6-3) and Pomona-Pitzer (1-7) goes to Redlands (3-6) in 7:30 p.m. games.

In community college football, Pasadena City College will try for its second straight Pac 9 Conference victory when the Lancers (3-3 in conference) visit Bakersfield at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Pasadena, 3-5 overall, evened its conference mark with a 49-21 victory over El Camino last week.

In other community college games at 7:30 Saturday, Citrus will take a 2-4 Mission Conference record (2-6 overall) against visiting Orange Coast and Mt. San Antonio (0-5-1, 2-5-1) visits Fullerton in a Pac 9 game.

Pasadena Poly High is the only San Gabriel Valley football team in the CIF Eight-Man Large Division playoffs that start Friday.

The Panthers, who finished second in the Prep League and had a 7-1 overall record, will play host to Julian, an at-large playoff selection from the San Diego Section, at 2:30 p.m. Defending champion Faith Baptist (9-0) is top-seeded in the playoffs.

Poly, No. 4 in the Large Division rankings, is led by running back Bernard Clark, who has rushed for 922 yards in only 67 carries for an average of more than 13 yards.

The run-oriented Panthers have two other solid runners in John Dick, who has rushed for 569 yards in 76 carries, and Michael Wegge, who has 470 yards in 80 carries.

The division semifinals are Nov. 22, the finals Nov. 29.

Cal Poly Pomona men’s cross-country Coach Jim Sackett, who guided his team to an upset victory in the NCAA Division II West Regional last week in Rocklin, has been named coach of the year of the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. and NCAA West Region.

Sackett’s team captured the first four places in the 17-team 10-K race to win the regional with 26 points. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the favorite, was a distant second with 79 points.

The top finishers from Cal Poly--senior Steve Perez, junior Mike Parker, sophomore Eddie Toro and senior Brock Vaughn--were named to the All-CCAA team.

In the women’s division, Pomona’s Joann Howard, who finished 10th with a 5-K time of 17:44 in the regionals, was named to the All-CCAA squad. The Pomona women finished third behind San Luis Obispo and Cal State Northridge.

The men’s and women’s teams will compete in the NCAA Division II championships Nov. 23 at East Stroudsburg State in Pennsylvania.

Defending champion Diamond Bar High School is the top-seeded tennis team in the CIF Southern Section 1-A Division playoffs this week.

Diamond Bar, which won the Hacienda League title and is considered the San Gabriel Valley’s top threat to win a CIF title, has a first-round bye and will play the winner of today’s San Jacinto-Webb match in the second round.

The Cal Poly Pomona women’s volleyball team, ranked No. 3 in NCAA Division II, wraps up its California Collegiate Athletic Assn. season at Cal State Bakersfield at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Pomona, led by All-Americans Terri Dantuma and Clara Piersma, has a 9-2 conference record and is 26-9 overall.

The Mt. San Antonio College wrestling team is ranked No. 7 by the California Community College Wrestling Coaches Assn. The Mounties are led by John Moses, ranked No. 1 in the state in the 193-pound division, and Greg Wallace, rated No. 2 among heavyweights.