Austin Peay Wins Third-Quarter Shootout at North Alabama
Sixteen seconds. That is how much was left in the third quarter when Chris Parson hit Denver Harper for a 41-yard touchdown, and it gave Austin Peay a 24-21 lead it never gave back. Austin Peay closed it out 27-21 on a 30-yard Hamilton DiBoyan field goal with 2:46 to play and moved to 7-1. North Alabama fell to 4-3.
Almost everything happened in one quarter. Austin Peay led 7-0 on a 10-yard Parson pass to Marvin Sims, North Alabama tied it at 7 on a 20-yard Destin Wade touchdown to Xavier Johnson, and Roderick Taylor Jr.'s 11-yard run early in the third put the home team up 14-7. Then the swings started. DiBoyan hit a 43-yard field goal, Parson ran in from 22 yards for a 17-14 lead, Wade found Johnson again from 74 yards for 21-17, and Harper's catch flipped it right back at 24-21. The lead changed hands four times after the tie, and the last three came inside 2:13 of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter held a single score, DiBoyan's kick. North Alabama actually had more yards, 381 to 323, and ran 39 times for 134 to Austin Peay's 28 for 108. The difference was the giveaways. North Alabama threw an interception and lost a fumble (Johnson's), and Austin Peay turned it over zero times. Austin Peay also had three sacks to the home side's two.
For fantasy, this was a good one on both sides. Johnson scored 33 points on two long touchdowns, Parson scored 32.7 as both passer and runner, and Wade added 28.7 in a loss. If you needed points from the air and the ground, this game had them.