PINE BLUFF -- There was plenty of drama at Simmons Bank Field on Saturday, but there will be none next week for the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
The Golden Lions are headed back to the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Game.
UAPB linebacker Isaac Peppers sacked Prairie View A&M quarterback Trazon Connley on the game's final play as the Golden Lions beat the Panthers 36-31 to win the West Division championship for the first time since 2012.
"It's always good to win," said UAPB Coach Doc Gamble, whose team will face the winner of the SWAC East Division on May 1. "It's fun to win, and it's definitely exciting to win when you win a championship. Overall it was a great effort, and defensively we played well down the stretch."
The victory alleviated any stress UAPB may have faced next Saturday. A loss to the Panthers would have forced the Golden Lions into a must-win situation at home against Texas Southern to clinch the division. But UAPB (4-0, 4-0 SWAC) took care of business by holding off a Prairie View A&M team that had won 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two programs.
Quarterback Skyler Perry threw for 201 yards and 4 touchdowns while rushing 12 times for 45 yards and another score for the Golden Lions, who had dropped the previous seven matchups against the Panthers by an average of 30 points. Wide receiver Tyrin Ralph caught 7 passes for 100 yards and 1 touchdown. Fellow wide receiver Josh Wilkes added a pair of touchdown catches.
Defensive back Jalon Thigpen had two interceptions for a UAPB defense that gave up 410 yards but stiffened in crucial moments, particularly in the first half.
Prairie View A&M (2-1, 2-1), which was playing its first game since March 13, generated 299 yards of offense and scored three touchdowns over the first two quarters. But the Panthers trailed 27-21 at halftime after giving the ball away twice deep inside Golden Lions' territory, including a fumble inside the 2 late in the first quarter.
"We were bending, bending and bending," Gamble said of his defense, which nabbed four of its five turnovers in the second half. "We just had to figure some things out because there's only so much you can do when you get down in the red zone. But there was never any panic."
Connley did his part to keep Prairie View A&M close. The sophomore went 24-of-49 passing for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns. He moved his team 73 yards in just five plays on the opening possession, with his 28-yard touchdown toss to Khristopher Simmons giving Prairie View A&M a 7-0 lead three minutes into the game.
The Golden Lions tied it at 7-7 when Perry found Harry Ballard open on a crossing route for a 34-yard touchdown with 8:40 left in the first quarter.
Prairie View A&M regained the lead at the 2:23 mark when running back Tony Mullins, who finished with 114 yards receiving on 10 catches, ran in for a 3-yard touchdown run. UAPB countered a little more than four minutes later on Perry's 1-yard score with 13:21 to go in the second quarter.
Special teams helped give UAPB its first advantage. Daryl Carter blocked and recovered a punt by Prairie View's Caleb Darbone at the Panthers' 1, leading to a 3-yard touchdown pass from Perry to Wilkes. UAPB missed the extra-point attempt, which enabled the Panthers to pull ahead 21-20 on Connley's 18-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Travis O'Connor with 8:52 showing in the first half.
The Golden Lions took a six-point lead into halftime when Perry hit Ralph in stride for 31-yard score on fourth down with 6:36 left in the quarter.
Both offenses slowed down in the second half, with each team trading field goals in the third quarter. Perry's final touchdown pass, a 3-yarder to Wilkes, with 12:14 to go in the game gave UAPB a 36-24.
Kalen Riles hauled in a 7-yard score from Connley midway through the fourth quarter to pull the Panthers within five. UAPB forced a turnover on downs with 1:04 remaining in the game, but gave the ball back to the Panthers with eight seconds left before Peppers sealed it with his sack.
The Golden Lions now will have a chance to capture another SWAC title, with the possibility of hosting the game in two weeks.
"It's a process, and we just trusted it," Ralph said. "We trusted everything that was coming towards us, and all we had to do as a team was embrace it. We trusted the new coaches, we trusted the new schemes that we had all year.
"The times that we were away because of covid, we had to prepare on our own so when we prepared as a team, we'd put it together."