Sports

LOSS HURTS GOLDEN LIONS’ WEST HOPES

By Troy Schulte/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 9:13 AM CST

Moments after its loss to Southern was complete on Saturday, there was certainly a sense of an opportunity missed within the Arkansas-Pine Bluff football team.

After a loss to Southern on Saturday, quarterback Josh Boudreaux (8), center Chris Wilson (53) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff’s path to the SWAC Championship Game became a bit more difficult. PINE BLUFF COMMERCIAL/RALPH FITZGERALD.

Up until that 24-10 loss to the Jaguars, the Golden Lions were one of just two teams in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Western Division that had to worry only about its own actions when considering its path to the Dec. 12 SWAC Championship Game.

Thanks in part to a pair of inopportune fumbles on Saturday, the Golden Lions can now count themselves among four teams in the West now chasing seemingly unbeatable Prairie View A&M. With less than a month left in the regular season the Panthers hold a one-game lead over second-place Grambling State, over which it also holds a tiebreaker thanks to its 35-32 win over the Tigers last month.

Prairie View (5-1, 4-0) is also two full games ahead of Southern (5-3, 2-2) and UAPB (4-3, 2-2). But, though it may seem bleak now, the Golden Lions’ path to Birmingham, Ala., is still navigable.

“This season is not over for us,” UAPB coach Monte Coleman said. “It may not be in our court, some other teams may have to lose. ...We still have a lot of hope, and we’ll continue to do the things that we’ve done over the last eight weeks.”

UAPB’s path to its second ever SWAC Championship Game, and first since 2006, still includes winning its remaining three games. That starts at 1:30 p.m. Saturday with the Delta Classic 4 Literacy against Grambling State at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. That stretch also includes a game at Prairie View Nov. 21.

But what Saturday’s loss made necessary is an additional loss from the Panthers. They host East co-leader Alabama A&M (5-3, 2-2) this Saturday and play at Alcorn State (2-5, 2-3) Nov. 14 before finishing their schedule against UAPB.

So, if UAPB wins out, Prairie View loses at least one of its next two games and Southern loses at least one of its three remaining conference games, the Golden Lions will find themselves in the Championship Game.

It’s a situation so muddled that the Golden Lions could finish their regular season Nov. 28 against Texas Southern in Dallas and still not know its fate, considering Southern plays one more game after UAPB concludes its season. It’s also one that, even if it beats Grambling Saturday, two Prairie View wins could have the division clinched for the Panthers before the two teams meet.

And, of course, if UAPB loses on Saturday there will be no chance it can find itself in the final game.

“We’ve got to get a little bit of luck now,” said quarterback Josh Boudreaux, who completed 17 of 25 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown. “We just have to go back to the drawing board and play football — don’t worry about anything else. Just go out game-to-game and play hard every play.”

To pull off such a run UAPB will have to find a way to solve its season-long trouble with finishing drives.

Five times Boudreaux moved UAPB inside the Southern 30-yard line and only twice did it come away with points. Those came on the first two drives of the game, when Carlos Reyes hit a 21-yard field goal after Mickey Dean was stuffed for a three-yard loss from the Southern 1-yard line, and when Boudreaux found fullback Hezekiah Smith in the flat on an improvised route that he took 33 yards to get within 14-10.

After that, though, Dean fumbled at the Southern 10, Reyes missed a 47-yard field goal and Dhabion Woodfin fumbled at the Southern 9.

For the season UAPB has scored points on just 16 of its 24 trips inside its opponent’s 25-yard line, a percentage of 66.7 that puts them ahead of only Mississippi Valley State in the SWAC . Of those 16 scores, only eight of them have been touchdowns.

“You have to score,” said Dean, who gained 97 yards on 18 carries. “You can’t have bonehead turnovers. You can’t beat good teams with turnovers and bonehead penalties like that.”

Even with the stalled drives that led to a loss, though, the Golden Lions’ hopes remain alive in a Western Division from which Prairie View is trying to run away.

“We’re going to bounce back and get ready for Grambling,” said linebacker Alex Marley. “It’s still wide open. We’re going to keep a positive attitude. We’re going to put it behind us and move on.”

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