Sports

LIONS FIND EVEN MORE WAYS TO WIN

By Mike Marzelli
Saturday, November 4, 2006 11:11 PM CST

OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — The University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff just keeps finding ways to win important football games.

Saturday’s crucial win over Prairie View A&M was by no means a thing of beauty, and coach Mo Forte said as much to his football team following the contest. Yet the only thing that matters to the Golden Lions is the final score, and once the dust had cleared from a sparkling 13-play, 83-yard game-winning drive the final score read in UAPB's favor — again.

For yet another weekend, UAPB showed the resiliency and determination of a team on a mission. Like they have been in each of their four prior wins, the Golden Lions were in many positions to fold and lose a football game to the 2-6 Panthers. But also like they did in wins over Grambling State, Alabama A&M and Jackson State, the Lions circled the wagons and simply refused to lose.

“We keep coming through these squeakers, but every time we’ve come back and found ways to win,” Forte said. “That goes a long way towards showing the attitude this football team has about doing what it takes to be successful and never giving up.”

There was plenty of adversity once again for UAPB — the wind, the homecoming crowd and an inspired Panther team — but like they have all season, the Lions took each play one at a time and came up the biggest when they needed to most.

“I thought we were ready to go but we had some turnovers and penalties and that made for a tough day,” Forte said. “We knew coming in that we had to play well to win and we turned in plays when we needed to and stopped them at the right time.

“We made plenty of mistakes and I’m sure we’ll see some things on film we didn’t do so well, but the kids played hard and they made enough plays to deserve to win.”

Quarterback Chris Wallace had difficulty getting untracked in the face of strong winds and subsequently the offense sputtered at key times. When he needed to most, however, Wallace clicked on all cylinders and delivered just what his team needed.

“This win was huge for me personally because throughout the game I kept making mistakes,” Wallace said. “If I’m going to be a leader for this team I need to stay relaxed in key situations like that and I was able to do that.”

As an offense, UAPB appeared to have difficulty developing any sort of rhythm in the game, but were still able to count on its playmakers at crucial times. Dedrick Poole caught four big passes and scored a 34-yard touchdown while both Jason Jones and Martell Mallett picked up crucial first down catches on the game-winning drive.

“The whole skill position set are guys we always want to have the ball when we need to make plays,” offensive coordinator Jonathan Cannon said. “Those guys stepped up when we really needed them to.”

Now with two contests remaining UAPB is on the verge of doing what it has never done before. Five weeks after Forte challenged his team to start a winning streak that would take it to the top of the SWAC, the Golden Lions are five wins richer without a loss.

That will not change Forte’s or his team’s focus, though. It’s still one play at a time, 100 percent of the time until it’s all said and done.

“We can only take it one football game at a time,” Forte said. “If we had just one game left then we could talk about winning and going to the championship, but we have two games left so that will have to wait until we have a chance to take care of business.”

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