SportsScope : Azusa Pacific Aims to Even Its Record Against La Verne

The Azusa Pacific University football team will try to reach the .500 mark when it visits longtime rival La Verne at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Azusa Pacific enters the game with a 1-2 record and La Verne is 1-3.

The Cougars won their second game of the season, 29-0 over Cal Poly Pomona last week. But the game does not count in the standings because Pomona is a club team.

Azusa has been led on offense by its rushing attack that includes fullbacks Tommy Daniel and Jerrold Johnson and tailback James Brewer. Against Pomona, Brewer rushed for 105 yards and a touchdown in 11 carries.

One of the team’s leaders on defense has been defensive back Mario Riveros, who has two interceptions and is also an excellent kick returner.

La Verne, which defeated Whittier by a 23-19 score last week for its first win of the season, has been led by the passing of quarterback Mark Brown. The Leopards also have an outstanding pass-catching corps that includes wide receivers Lamont Landers and Anthony Grove and tight end John Kusleika.

The Leopards, who had been struggling on defense, also turned in one of their top defensive efforts of the season against Whittier.

In other games involving four-year colleges Saturday, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (1-3) hosts Pomona-Pitzer (1-2) at 1:30 p.m. and Occidental (3-1) hosts the University of San Diego (5-0) at 7:30 p.m.

Like La Verne, Claremont also won its first game of the season last week. But La Verne did not have to travel to San Antonio, Tex., where Claremont defeated Trinity by a 42-20 score.

Claremont has been led on offense by the passing combination of quarterback Mike Pembroke and wide receiver Darin Carlsen. Pembroke completed eight of 14 passes for 184 yards and four touchdowns against Trinity and Carlsen caught three passes for 77 yards and two touchdowns.

Pomona-Pitzer suffered a 31-6 loss to San Diego last week. But the Sagehens have an outstanding running back in freshman Chris Smith.

The Cal Poly Pomona women’s soccer team, ranked No. 17 in the NCAA Division II, will make its longest road trip of the season when it plays three games in Colorado this week.

Pomona faces Metro State (5-4) today in Denver. Then they travel to Greeley for two. They will face Northern Colorado (2-4-1) on Saturday and Missouri-St. Louis (8-3-1) on Sunday.

The Broncos, who have a 3-6-1 record, will try to snap a two-game losing streak after losses to NCAA powers UC Santa Barbara (6-0) and UC San Diego (1-0). Santa Barbara was ranked No. 2 in Division I and San Diego finished second in Division III last year.

Pomona has been led by senior midfielder Melissa Rogers, who has two goals and seven points.