Sports

Golden Lions take it on the chin

By Mike Marzelli/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, September 22, 2007 10:14 PM CDT

CARBONDALE, Ill. — It was the same old song and dance to a far more disturbing degree for Arkansas-Pine Bluff Saturday afternoon against No. 7 Southern Illinois.

For the fourth straight game, the Golden Lions struggled mightily on offense and eventually wore down on defense as Southern Illinois built a 30-point halftime lead and cruised to a 58-3 victory before 11,316 at steamy McAndrew Stadium. The loss was the worst of Forte's four-plus year tenure at UAPB.

UAPB managed just one trip into the red zone and continued to be severely hampered by its struggling offensive line. Quarterback Johnathan Moore was sacked three times for a loss of 28 yards and the running game produced just 57 yards, nearly all of which came from third-string running back Kenneth Esaw in the later stages of the fourth quarter with the Salukis' second-team defense on the field.

The bad news for the Lions (1-3, 1-2 Southwestern Athletic Conference) is the fact that its quest for improvement will not get any easier next week when they will travel to New Mexico State to play the program's first-ever game against a Football Bowl Subdivision squad. NMSU lost at Auburn 55-20 Saturday night.

"We're only going to bounce back from a game like this by doing it mentally," Forte said. "We played a great team, these guys are going to go a long way in the playoffs, but I've never seen that side of our team before and it really bothered me."

Moore, who was making his second start of the season and the fourth of his career, spent much of the afternoon dodging defenders in his backfield for the second straight week and managed to complete 16 of his 30 passes for 173 yards.

Former starter and SWAC Offensive Player of the Year Chris Wallace entered on the final play of the third quarter and completed 4-of-7 for 69 yards.

The story was identical for UAPB's running backs, who were forced to do yeoman's work just to cross the line of scrimmage on most plays. Martell Mallett managed -1 yard on four carries and Mickey Dean hardly fared better with 15 yards on five carries, as four different Salukis out-rushed UAPB's team.

On the flip side, Southern Illinois' attack was a portrait of balance and efficiency. The Salukis (4-0) combined 252 rushing yards with 244 yards through the air and had little difficulty moving up and down the field on a tired Golden Lion defense that spent significant minutes on the field due to its offense's inability to muster a charge.

"Defensively we finally faced a top ten team with a great offense and with the way our offense has played, that is just too much for us to overcome," Forte said. "They didn't do anything on defense that we didn't expect or hadn't practiced for, they just executed and took it to us."

The Salukis padded and early 10-0 lead with three second-quarter touchdowns, all three of which came on the ground but were set up by the work of quarterback Nick Hill. The senior southpaw, a former Western Kentucky basketball player, completed 73 percent of his passes in the first half and led methodical scoring drives of 73 yards, 81 yards and 88 yards in the decisive second quarter.

Hill finished the game 18-of-24 for 244 yards and two touchdowns and was aided by a rushing game that featured three players with more than 63 yards apiece, including 113 yards and a touchdown from former Kansas transfer John Randle. SIU's reserves got in on the act in the second half, scoring four second-half touchdowns to put the game completely out of reach.

UAPB managed its points on a 38-yard Brodie Heflin field goal early in the third quarter and had a chance to add six more points, but Heflin had a pair of field goals blocked.

"We just didn't play at all, it was almost like we were asleep out there," Forte said. "We can't give up those kind of points and play the way we did and expect to win any game."

Print this story   |   Email this story