Arkansas-Pine Bluff Edges Florida A&M 31-28, Ends Rattlers' Homecoming Win Streak

Homecoming at Bragg Memorial Stadium is supposed to end one way. For seven straight years, it had. Florida A&M had not lost a homecoming game since North Carolina A&T beat the Rattlers 31-20 in 2017, and a crowd of 20,549 showed up in Tallahassee on Saturday expecting the streak to reach eight.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff had other plans. The Golden Lions ran for 211 yards, scored on all five trips into the red zone and held on to beat Florida A&M 31-28 in a Southwestern Athletic Conference game that came down to the final minutes.

The win moved UAPB to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in SWAC play. Florida A&M fell to 2-6 and 1-3. And in a three-point game, the Rattlers will spend the week thinking about two extra points that never went through the uprights.

Trading punches in the first half

UAPB struck first. Jaylen Jennings ran it in from 2 yards out with 9:19 left in the first quarter, and the visitors led 7-0.

Florida A&M answered with 13 straight points. Gabriel Caison kicked field goals of 23 and 36 yards, and then freshman quarterback Armond Parker broke loose for a 37-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter. The Rattlers led 13-7, and the homecoming crowd was right where it wanted to be.

The Golden Lions did not panic. Just before halftime, they put together an 11-play, 77-yard drive, and Jalen Williams finished it with a 5-yard touchdown run. UAPB took a 14-13 lead into the locker room.

The turning point: the third quarter

The second half started with a gift for the home team. Florida A&M recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff at the UAPB 17, and Parker found Corey Petty for a 17-yard touchdown on the short field. The extra point failed, but the Rattlers led 19-14.

That was the last time Florida A&M led. UAPB answered with exactly the kind of drive that wins road games, going 84 yards in 11 plays and taking more than five minutes off the clock. Za'Marion Webber powered in from 2 yards out with 9:22 left in the third quarter, and the Golden Lions were back in front 21-19.

Then they did it again. Quarterback Jack Schierholz capped a seven-play, 50-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Demetric Whitlock Jr. with 4:25 left in the period, and UAPB led 28-19. The Golden Lions scored 14 points in the third quarter, and the first of those touchdowns came right after Florida A&M had taken back the lead. That was the swing of the game. The Rattlers had the crowd, the momentum and a short-field touchdown in hand, and UAPB took all three away with one long, patient drive.

A frantic finish

Florida A&M kept coming. Caison hit a 43-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to make it 28-22. UAPB answered with a drive that ended in a 39-yard Trey Glymph field goal with 3:36 left, pushing the lead back to nine at 31-22.

The Rattlers needed one play to respond. On the first snap of the next possession, Parker hit Kieren Jackson for a 61-yard touchdown with 3:19 to go. But Caison's extra point missed, his second miss of the day, and the deficit stayed at three instead of two. UAPB held on from there and silenced the homecoming crowd.

Two missed extra points in a three-point loss is the kind of math that sticks with a team. Florida A&M scored three touchdowns and converted only one of the kicks after them, while Caison was perfect on three field goals. It was not the only reason the Rattlers lost, but on a day decided by one possession, every point mattered.

The stars

Parker was outstanding in a losing effort. He completed 23 of 37 passes for 319 yards and two touchdowns without an interception, and he led Florida A&M in rushing with 57 yards and a score on 12 carries. That is 376 yards of offense and three touchdowns for a freshman quarterback against a conference opponent. Jackson caught only two passes, but they went for 101 yards, and Petty caught seven for 85 yards and a touchdown. Linebacker Jaiden Roper led the Rattlers with 13 tackles.

For UAPB, the running game did the heavy lifting. Williams led the way with 66 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, an average of 7.3 yards per carry, and he also completed 5 of 7 passes for 60 yards. Webber added 60 yards and a score on 16 carries, and Jennings chipped in 42 yards and the opening touchdown. Schierholz was efficient, completing 8 of 12 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown and running for 44 yards. Whitlock was the top receiver with four catches for 74 yards and a touchdown.

The UAPB defense lived in the backfield. Tylan Cole had five tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks. Robert Lewis added a sack and a tackle for loss as the Golden Lions finished with 10 tackles for loss and three sacks. On the other side of the ball, UAPB's offensive line did not allow a sack all afternoon. Against a home crowd that wanted to be loud on every third down, that protection let the Golden Lions stay patient. They converted 8 of 14 third downs and kept Parker on the sideline for long stretches.

The stats that matter

Total yards: Florida A&M 394, UAPB 351. Rushing yards: UAPB 211, Florida A&M 75. Third downs: UAPB 8 of 14, Florida A&M 3 of 12. Time of possession: UAPB 33:44, Florida A&M 26:16. Red zone: UAPB 5 for 5, with four touchdowns.

Those numbers tell you how a team can be outgained and still win. Florida A&M moved the ball in big chunks through the air, but it could not run the ball, could not stay on the field on third down and went just 1 for 3 on fourth down. UAPB ground out long drives and finished them. The Golden Lions outrushed the Rattlers by 136 yards and averaged 4.6 yards per carry, which was enough to keep the chains moving and the clock running. The full numbers are in the official box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For UAPB, this is a statement win on the road and a second SWAC victory that keeps the Golden Lions at .500 in league play. Next on the schedule was a Halloween home game against Bethune-Cookman. The program had plenty to say about the streak it broke in its game recap (opens in a new tab).

For Florida A&M, a season of transition under first-year coach Quinn Gray Sr. got harder. At 2-6, the Rattlers had another home game next on the schedule, against Southern on Halloween at Bragg Memorial Stadium. Southern was 3-5 and 1-3 in the SWAC, so both teams were trying to climb out of the same hole. If Parker keeps throwing the ball like this, the Rattlers can send a home crowd out happy.

The last word

Gray did not put the loss on his players.

"I think those kids went out and played their hearts out, gave all they got for four quarters," Gray told WCTV. He said the coaching staff "failed them today as a staff."

That is a coach taking the hit for a team that competed for 60 minutes and lost on the margins. Two missed extra points, a 3-of-12 day on third down and a rushing attack that never got going were the difference. UAPB, meanwhile, did the hard things right, and it left Tallahassee with a win nobody there will forget for a while.

Sources: UAPB Athletics recap, HBCU Gameday and WCTV. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: UAPB Athletics.