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Demetrius Battle
Jordan Allison
34
Winner North Greenville NGU 3-5 , 2-3
33
West Ala. UWA 4-4 , 2-3
Winner
North Greenville NGU
3-5 , 2-3
34
Final
33
West Ala. UWA
4-4 , 2-3
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
NGU North Greenville 3 9 3 19 34
UWA West Ala. 0 14 7 12 33

Game Recap: #22 Football |

North Greenville Spoils Tiger Homecoming

LIVINGSTON, Ala. – Corey Watkins' 1-yard touchdown run with seven seconds left lifted North Greenville to a 34-33 Gulf South Conference football victory over West Alabama, spoiling the Tigers' homecoming Saturday on Terry Bunn Field at Tiger Stadium.
 
North Greenville erased a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to improve its record to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in GSC play. West Alabama dropped to 4-4 and 2-3.
 
"That's as tough as it gets," UWA head coach Brett Gilliland said. "We put a lot of hard work and effort in all week, but when you are up two scores in the fourth quarter to have to win the game.
 
"We were able to keep them out of the endzone and settling for field goals for the most part, especially early on, but we still gave up big plays and we have to take ownership for that. I have to take ownership for that."
 
West Alabama rang up 474 yards of total offense and North Greenville countered with 414. The two teams combined to run 166 plays and collect 55 first downs. UWA converted 13-of-20 third down tries and NGU 8-of-19.
 
AJ Tolbert hauled in an 18-yard scoring pass from Dylan Ramirez and then Ramirez scrambled in from five yards with 5:53 to play to erase West Alabama's two-score lead, but Dearrius Nelson's 92-yard punt return with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter put West Alabama back on top at 33-28.
 
Watkins game-winning TD capped an 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive that took 1:44 of the final 1:51 left in the game. Watkins finished with 51 yards on 22 carries to lead the Crusaders rushing attack.
 
Tucker Melton and Darius Nalls combined for three touchdown passes to pace West Alabama's scoring effort. Melton and Nalls connected on TD passes of 10, 38 and 27 yards. Bry Webb raced to a 19-yard touchdown run with 10:26 to play to round out UWA offensive scoring.
 
West Alabama took a 14-12 lead into the intermission thanks to a pair of touchdown passes from Melton to Nalls. Colin Karhi connected on five field goals to add to a pair of NGU touchdowns. Karhi's field first-half field goals came from 21, 22, 32, 42 and 19 yards.
 
"We had a great homecoming crowd and I hate how this happened for them," Gilliland said. "We have to get better and we will."
 
Demetrius Battle ran for 111 yards on 16 carries to lead all rushers. Battle now has 1,763 career rushing yards and has climbed into the UWA career top 10 in that category.
 
Melton completed 21-of-37 passing attempts for 271 yards. Ramirez was 21-of-42 for 271 yards for the Crusaders.
 
Nalls finished with a game-high seven receptions for 97 yards. John Hilbert chipped in six catches for 48 yards. Webb had 64 yards rushing for West Alabama. Nelson finished with 179 all-purpose yards.
 
Tolbert and Tyler Hamilton had four receptions each for NGU, Tolbert for 70 yards and Hamilton for 48.
 
Michael Anderson racked up 12 tackles, 10 solo, for West Alabama. He also forced a fumble and had a quarterback hurry. Shamar Lewis chipped in 10 total tackles, eight solo, including none of seven UWA tackles for loss.
 
West Alabama returns to the road for the third time in four weeks by traveling to Pensacola, Florida to meet West Florida Saturday at 4 p.m. North Greenville is host to Valdosta State Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
 
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