No. 1 Lions fall to West Alabama

FLORENCE - Bobby Wallace and Will Hall gave each other a big hug as they walked off the field Saturday night.

The two former North Alabama icons each won plenty of big games in their careers at Braly Stadium as members of the Lions. But on this night the duo helped ruin UNA's bid for a perfect season as their West Alabama team shocked the No. 1 Lions with a 31-28 victory in four overtimes.

Wallace, who coached at UNA for 10 years and led the Lions to three Division II championships, was coaching at Braly Stadium for the second time as a member of the Tigers, while Hall, the Tigers' offensive coordinator, and was making his first appearance at UNA's home stadium since he won the Harlon Hill Trophy as a quarterback in 2003.

Brock Sharp's 44-yard field goal in the fourth overtime give the Tigers (7-4, 5-3 GSC) the victory as a stunned crowd of UNA fans watched.

"Nothing compares to winning a national championship, but this is my best win since then," Wallace said. "I've never seen kids fight so hard. We don't have near the depth, the size or the speed of UNA, but our guys just kept fighting. It's a great win for West Alabama."

UNA (10-1, 7-1) seemed out of sync all night and had to rally late to force the overtime. The Lions had chances to win in overtime, but turnovers in the final two extra periods paved the way for the upset.

"I'm hurting for our players because they've worked so hard all year," coach Terry Bowden said. "I wanted them to experience a perfect regular season because I've been a part of two and I know how special they are.

"But give all the credit to West Alabama because they played a whale of a football game. We just seemed flat all night, especially on offense. We didn't make any plays until right at the end. West Alabama just played a better game than we did."

Despite the loss, UNA will likely remain the No. 1 team in Super Regional 2 and earn a first-round bye in the playoffs. The playoff brackets will be revealed today.

"This is a good wake-up call for us," safety Quinton Andrews said. "You always hate to lose, but it's better that it happened tonight than in a couple of weeks. Now we have to regroup and get back in sync for the playoffs. West Alabama was the better team tonight."

Trailing 14-6, the Lions finally found the end zone when Harrison Beck hit Mico McSwain for an 11-yard touchdown pass with 4:43 remaining. Beck then passed to T.J. Porter for the 2-point conversion to tie it at 14-all.

Neither team would threaten again and the two teams headed for overtime. Both scored touchdowns in each of the first two overtimes to make it 28-all headed to the third extra period.

West Alabama got the ball first in the third overtime and failed to score after two penalties and a sack by Albert Russell.

UNA took over with a chance to win, but on a second-down play Tim Hicks fumbled and the Tigers recovered, sending it to a fourth overtime.

"That was the worst feeling of my life," Hicks said. "I feel like I let my teammates down. I was just trying to hit the hole hard and I didn't focus like I needed to."

The Lions got the ball first in the fourth overtime and on second down Beck's pass was intercepted by DeAntuan Matthews.

West Alabama took over and lost two yards in three plays. But Sharp's 44-yard field goal barely cleared the crossbar, giving the Tigers the victory.

UNA hurt itself all night with penalties and turnovers. The Lions were flagged 16 times for 167 yards, lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions.

"It's disappointing, but I told our guys the key is how we respond to this," Bowden said. "There are very few teams that win a national championship without a loss. The team that usually wins is the one that responds the best after that loss. We've got to regroup and get ready for the playoffs."

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