Monkey Still on the Back: UAPB Lions struggle in clutch again, drop to 0-5

JACKSON, Mississippi  — Until Arkansas-Pine Bluff finds a way to finish a game, it could be a long season in the SWAC. No matter how many opportunities it finds.

UAPB missed out on another game-winning drive when Ben Anderson was sacked on fourth down with 2:05 left. The drive was set up by a lost Jackson State fumble.

Hoping to make a stop and get the ball back, the Golden Lions could not find a way to contain Tommy Gooden.

With 1 minute left, the senior took a third-and-8 carry up the middle and turned it into a 30-yard touchdown run that put away the Lions in a 42-33 Tiger victory Saturday night, extending UAPB’s losing skid to five games to start the season. The attendance was 9,087, relatively low for a rematch of last December’s conference championship won by UAPB.

Gooden finished with a career-high 214 yards and four touchdowns on 20 carries. He gained 153 yards in the second half.

“I take my hat off to the young man,” UAPB coach Monte Coleman said. “He took advantage of what they were calling. If you go back and look at the film, 140-something yards of that were missed tackles. That’s part of the game. You miss a tackle, they run for 40 yards. Not taking anything away from him, but we’ve got to get better as a defense tackling. We’ve said that from the very beginning.”

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