Wonder Boys give Lions wake-up call

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. - After putting together near flawless performances the last two weeks, No. 3 North Alabama was far from perfect Saturday night.

The Lions were sluggish through the third quarter and penalized 15 times. Those mistakes allowed Arkansas Tech to pull within a touchdown twice in the second half after UNA had opened up a 21-point halftime lead.

Despite the penalties, UNA regrouped and found the end zone three times in the fourth quarter to claim a 45-24 victory against the Wonder Boys.

Quarterback A.J. Milwee ran for two touchdowns and threw a pair of touchdowns to Joemal Campbell to spark UNA (6-0, 4-0 GSC).

"This game was a great wake-up call for us," Campbell said. "This should bring us back down to earth. Arkansas Tech is a good team, but we made it tough on ourselves tonight with all the penalties."

UNA's offense again put up big numbers, finishing with 503 total yards. Milwee completed 18-of-24 passes for 219 yards. Mike McLendon rushed for 117 yards on 20 carries.

The penalties, however, nullified one touchdown, and constantly put the offense in long-yardage situations.

"We started fast again tonight, but after that, we kept hurting ourselves with penalties," UNA head coach Mark Hudspeth said. "We've got to get better there, but our guys were able to overcome the penalties. This is always a tough place to play, so I'm pleased to get out with a win."

UNA led 24-3 at halftime, but Tech responded with touchdown drives on its first two possessions of the second half. Cole Barthel threw touchdown passes of 9 yards to Rolaundo Wright and 16 yards to Tracey Stiger to cut the Lions' lead to 24-17 with 7:01 to go in the third quarter.

The Lions moved to their running game in the third quarter, but penalties kept them from sustaining any drives.

"We were never in panic mode," Hudspeth said. "We had a big lead at halftime and wanted to run the ball in the second half. I should have opened the offense up sooner, because when we finally opened it up, A.J. took us right down the field."

Milwee gave the Lions some breathing room with a touchdown scramble, running through a tackler at the 5 and diving into the end zone to extend the lead to 31-17.

The Wonder Boys again pulled within a touchdown on a 1-yard sneak by Barthel with 8:18 remaining, but Milwee again led UNA for a score, teaming up with Campbell for an 18-yard touchdown play to make it 38-24.

An interception by David Raymond and a 10-yard scoring run by McLendon with 1:40 left sealed the win.

"We were sluggish at times, but we always knew we were going to win it," McLendon said. "I told A.J. that we had to put the dagger in after the interception, and that's what we did."

UNA took the opening kickoff and drove 65 yards for a score. The touchdown came when Milwee then scrambled out of the pocket and dove over the top of two defenders at the goal line to give the Lions a quick 7-0 lead.

The Lions' defense was attempting to post its third straight shutout. Those thoughts ended when Tech (3-2, 2-1) kicked a field goal on its first possession to make it 7-3.

"We would have loved to get another shutout, but we knew it would be tough," safety Bobby Brooks said. "It's football, and team's are normally going to score some points. You can't win 52-0 every week."

Milwee added a 24-yard scoring pass to Campbell on the next drive to push the lead to 14-3. A fumble recovery by Terence Stanton led to a 38-yard touchdown run by McCants, and Tom Schneider kicked a 44-yard field goal on the final play of the half to put the Lions up 24-3.

Jeff McIntyre can be reached at 740-5737 or jeff.mcintyre@timesdaily.com.