AZUSA, Calif. (Oct. 29) -- The Central Washington University football team fell to 16^th ranked Azusa Pacific by a score of 44-7 Saturday evening at Citrus Stadium in Azusa, Calif.
 
With the win, APU improves to 8-1, 7-0 in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, and earns the 2016 GNAC Championship.  The Wildcats fall to 5-3, 4-2 in the GNAC.
 
Both teams came into the game ranked 6^th and seventh in the Super Region 3 rankings, with CWU being the latter.
 
The first half wrote the script for the game as the Cougars put up 31 points in the stanza to take a commanding 31-0 halftime lead.  The APU defense held the Wildcats to 119 first half yards, and its offense garnered 254 yards 242 of it through the passing attack.
 
The Wildcats turned the ball over 3 times in the first quarter and once again in the second, and the Cougars scored touchdowns on each ensuing drive.
 
"They out played us tonight, they executed and made big plays and our execution just wasn't there,"  CWU Head Coach Ian Shoemaker said.  "We had two early turnovers and gave them opportunities with a short field to get ahead of us, and they took full advantage of that."
 
Down 37-0 in the fourth quarter JoJo Hillel found Jesse Zalk for a 16-yard touchdown connection, giving the Wildcats its lone score of the contest.  Hillel drove the Wildcats 72 yards on 11 plays, and Austin Pernell picked up 22 of his 41 rushing yards on the drive.
 
Hillel finished 9 of 119 for 113 yards one touchdown and two interceptions.  He also ran for 81 yards on 11 carries with a long of 24.
 
Kevin Haynes was the Wildcats top tackler, picking up 13 tackles, three for loss and half a sack.  The CWU defense totaled four sacks on the day, and eight tackles for loss.
 
Azusa Pacific out gained the Wildcats 509 to 312, and had 30 first downs to the Wildcat's 17.
 
Andrew Elffers led the Cougars with 321 yards passing and four touchdowns.  Andrew Carr was on the receiving end off most of his passes, hauling in nine passes for 189 yards and four scores.
 
With the loss, the Wildcats playoff hopes slip a little bit as the top seven teams from the region make the playoffs.
 
"We have to start focusing on next week.  We don't know how things will shake out moving into the final weeks, but at this point we can only tackle what is in front of us," Shoemaker said.  "We have seniors who deserve to go out with more victories.  Our focus is to go 1-0 next week and help our seniors, who have invested their time and energy into our program and into us as a staff, go out proud."
 
The Wildcats will return home to the friendly confines of Tomlinson Stadium where they wrap up the year with two home games, starting with a Nov. 5 matchup with Simon Fraser at 1 p.m.