Sports

MISSED CHANCES KILL WEEVILS’ UPSET BID

By Sean Saunders/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Sunday, November 1, 2009 12:20 AM CDT

MONTICELLO — Arkansas-Monticello put itself in position to spring an upset of the No. 1 North Alabama Lions with 13 third-quarter points and a pair of red-zone trips in the fourth quarter. But the Boll Weevils were unable to put up any points in the final period, and the Lions escaped with a 27-13 victory Saturday at Convoy Leslie-Cotton Boll Stadium.

“I thought we fought,” UAM coach Gwaine Mathews said. “When you’re playing a team like that, you have to capitalize on every opportunity you get, and we just didn’t do that tonight. I don't want to take anything away from the way we played. When you play a team like that and you get into the red zone you have to score.

“That”s the difference between beating them and leaving here losing 27-13.”

North Alabama (10-0, 7-0 Gulf South Conference) was generating very little on the ground before the fourth quarter when it got fullback Marcus Sims involved in the running game. Sims responded almost immediately with a 37-yard touchdown run, the longest of his career, and 10 carries for a game-high 77 yards. North Alabama’s rushing total for the game jumped from 25 to 108 yards in the fourth quarter.

“We throw the ball a lot, but we want to be good at short-yardage and goal-line running,” North Alabama coach Terry Bowden said. “We may throw the ball a lot, but if we can run in short-yardage situations, we’re going to work on that and that was what won the game for us. We stayed with it, and it helped us run out the clock.”

Sims’ touchdown gave the Lions back a two-touchdown lead after they led by as much as 21 points in the game. But UAM (4-6, 3-4) drove all the way to the North Alabama 9-yard line before facing fourth-and-goal from the 10. Scott Buisson found Steven Porter 3 yards short of the goal line, but Darron Dampier made the stop at the 1 to force a turnover on downs.

After North Alabama picked up a pair of first downs, the Weevils again drove all the way to the 6-yard line. But Buisson threw a pair of incompletions on third and fourth down to turn the ball over on downs with 1:22 remaining in the game, enabling the Lions to take a couple of kneel-downs.

North Alabama started the second half just like it did the first, with Tim Hicks recording his second touchdown run. But that’s when UAM began to rally.

Buisson had only his third touchdown run of more than 30 yards on the season after he led the GSC in rushing last year, and that TD came after North Alabama turned the ball over on an interception. Then UAM was helped out by a pair of penalties to set the ball up on the 1, and Casey Cathcart punched it in from a yard out in his final game at Cotton Boll Stadium.

“I’ve got to give them all the credit in the world,” Bowden said. “I counted maybe 50 players on their sideline, and here I am subbing fresh guys after just about every play. But they fought their hearts out. They did not deserve to lose this ballgame tonight.”

UAM was able to stay in it with a defensive effort that held North Alabama below its season average. The Lions came into the game averaging 433.3 yards per game, ninth in the GSC, and UAM held them to 397 while generating 373.

“We’ve doing a good job of bringing pressure,” Mathews said. “Our stats may not reflect that, but I think our defense has been playing really good here lately. If you go back to Ouachita (Baptist), we hit their quarterback enough to times to get him out of the game, and I thought we were in that mode to try to do that again today.”

The Weevils also managed to beat North Alabama in the turnover battle. The Lions entered the game sixth in the nation in turnover margin at plus-12, but UAM forced four takeaways while only giving up the ball twice. One play, North Alabama scooped up a fumble only to give it right back to the Weevils while trying to return it.

If not for UAM forcing two turnovers to halt drives in the first half, the halftime deficit might have been more than 14-0. UAM couldn’t get anything going offensively, putting up only 114 yards.

The Weevils had their longest drive on their second possession of the game, eating up 52 yards in 13 plays, but that ended just as they crossed into the red zone on their 14th play, as Courtney Harris forced a fumble on Glendon Glaspie, and Albert Russell made the recovery.

That came after North Alabama scored on its opening possession. The Lions drove 55 yards on 12 plays, with Tim Hicks reaching the left corner of the south end zone on a 6-yard run to crack the scoreboard.

UAM’s fumble recoveries kept the score 7-0 for most of the rest of the first half. North Alabama receiver Charles McClain had a 17-yard catch-and-run on the first play of the second quarter, but he fumbled and Michael Servantes recovered. Then Cantrelle Monk had the defensive play of the half when he sacked North Alabama quarterback Harrison Beck, forced the fumble and recovered it.

“All of our kids fought tonight,” Mathews said. “They know what the deal is and as much as we messed up with ineligibility and as short-handed as we are now, I think we’re a pretty good football team right now.”

But Beck would have the last laugh in the second quarter when he hooked up with Antyon Gray for an 18-yard touchdown pass with 1:45 left until halftime.

Beck completed 22 of 36 passes for 289 yards and hooked up with McClain 10 times for 120 yards. Buisson only completed 17 of 39 passes for 219 yards, but he found Jywin Ceaser eight times for 124 yards.

With the win, North Alabama locked up an outright conference championship. With the loss, UAM is assured of a losing season heading into the inaugural Boomtown Classic against Southern Arkansas next week in El Dorado.

“I don’t know how they’re going to respond from this,” Mathews said. “This was emotion tonight. It was senior night for us, it was emotional, so I don’t know exactly how these kids are going to handle this right here.”

NORTH ALABAMA 27, ARKANSAS-MONTICELLO 13

North Alabama 7 7 7 6—0

UAM 0 0 13 0—0

SCORING SUMMARY

FIRST QUARTER

UNA — Hicks 6 run (Spencer kick), 6:55.

SECOND QUARTER

UNA — Gray 18 pass from Beck (Spencer kick), 1:45.

THIRD QUARTER

UNA — Hicks 7 run (Spencer kick), 12:22.

UAM — Buisson 43 run (Lamoureux kick), 9:47.

UAM — Cathcart 1 run (kick blocked), 4:18.

FOURTH QUARTER

UNA — Sims 37 run (kick failed), 13:26.

STATISTICAL LEADERS

RUSHING: North Alabama, Sims 10-77, Hicks 12-44, Holland 1-(-1); UAM, Buisson 14-47, Polite 16-40, Glaspie 5-34.

PASSING: North Alabama, Beck 22-36-1-289; UAM, Buisson 17-39-0-219, Jambon 1-1-0-20, Cathcart 1-1-0-12.

RECEIVING: North Alabama, McClain 10-120, Porter 5-49, Gray 2-48; UAM, Ceaser 8-124, Porter 4-52, Lockwood 4-41.

Print this story   |   Email this story