Sports

LIONS FIND BALANCE AGAINST TIGERS

By Josh Tinker/COMMERCIAL SPORTS EDITOR
Sunday, October 25, 2009 12:04 AM CDT

In his 11/2 seasons as head coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Monte Coleman has been adamant that he wants his team to have a pro-style offense built around a physical running attack and an opportunistic passing game.

And while his teams have statistically ranked as some of the worst offensive teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in his less than two years at the helm, Coleman finally got what he’s been looking for in the Golden Lions 38-12 victory against Edward Waters College in a homecoming game on Saturday.

The Golden Lions 352 yards against the Tigers was a season high, and it came from a balanced attack the produced 214 yards on the ground and another 138 through the air.

“We want to be balanced,” Coleman said. “We want to run the ball, we want to pass the ball, and we want to keep defenses guessing when we’re going to (do) which. I think (Saturday) was as close to being where we want to be from a run/pass (standpoint). That’s what we want to do.”

Breaking in a new starting quarterback and a lightly seasoned redshirt freshman at running back, the Golden Lions (4-2, 2-1) were able to establish drives and eat time off the clock with their running game, which led to big gains through the air.

Struggling to a 14-6 lead at halftime, UAPB opened the third period with one of its most impressive drives of the season. The Golden Lions marched 64-yards, eating more than eight minutes off the clock in the process, and scored when quarterback Josh Boudreaux scampered 1 yard around the right end to give UAPB a 21-6 lead.

During the 15-play drive, UAPB called 14 running plays for three different players. Boudreaux ran twice for nine yards, Stephen Jones rushed six times for 34 yards and Dhabion Woodfin, who earned his first start of the season for senior Mickey Dean who hasn’t played an official game since injuring his hamstring against Mississippi Valley State on Sept. 19, rushed four times for 19 yards.

Woodfin has received the bulk of the Golden Lions’ carries during Dean’s absence, and his 88 yards on 12 carries moved the redshirt freshman into second on the team in rushing this season.

Jones added 38 yards on 10 carries.

“Our running backs did a great job,” Boudreaux said. “Woodfin did a great job. When Mick gets back, everything is going to be so much better in that case. If we run the ball successfully, we’re going to win games.

“When our running game is there it is definitely going to open everything up.”

And it did Saturday afternoon. After that first drive of the second half forced the Tigers (0-8) to pay more attention to the Golden Lions rushing attack, Boudreaux was able to pick them apart through the air.

Starting his first game after replacing an ineffective Rontrell Bailey against Jackson State on Oct. 10 — a game in which Boudreaux threw a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to tie the game and another touchdown pass in overtime to win 23-20 — Boudreaux said the effectiveness of the UAPB running backs helped him settle down. What started as 3-of-9 for 62 yards in the first half, turned into a respectable 6-of-15 for 138 yards and two touchdowns, the latter coming to Raymond Webber on a 38-yard catch and run on a screen pass.

“When you can come out after halftime and successfully run the ball it takes a lot of pressure off the throwing game and the play calling. So when we are ready to throw it’s going to be open,” said tight end Remo Gay, who caught Boudreaux’s first TD pass, a 28-yarder in the second quarter that he punctuated with a dunk over the goal post. “(The running game) brings those (defensive backs) down (near the line of scrimmage) and they have to respect that, they have to come down. We have playmakers on our team that when they (defensive backs) come down it’s one-on-one. It’s you against him. We have playmakers that can make those plays and they do that.”

Gay led UAPB with 81 yards on three catches.

“That’s the thing we’ve been missing early this season, to run the football to throw the pass or pass (to set up) the run,” said Coleman, whose team entered the game No. 8 in the 10-team SWAC in total offense. “I thought Woodfin came out in the second half and ran the ball extremely strong, along with Stephen Jones. Both of those guys gave us a spark.

“The third quarter we held the ball for nine minutes. That’s outstanding when you can hold the ball and make a drive while doing that.”

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