Luke Wingo powered up the middle, dragging tacklers to the end zone on UNA’s first possession of overtime to give the Lions a 30-27 victory over conference rival the University of West Alabama.

“We took a big step tonight,” said head coach Bobby Wallace.  “But we gotta finish it off next week.”

West Alabama took a 24 -10 lead into the half behind the stellar play of running back Javae Swindle who finished the game with 232 yards on 30 carries.

“Number 22 was hard to contain,” Defensive Coordinator Chris Willis said.  “We didn’t want to give him the edge, but he got it anyway.”

The Lions defense didn’t give up a score of any kind in the second half.  Tavarius Wilson picked off two passes inside the 10-yard line in the second half.

“We’ve been a second half defense all year long,” Willis said. 

The Lions finished with 480 yards of total offense.  Quarterback Luke Wingo, who finished the game with 356 yards of total offense, led the Lions offensive attack.

Wingo threw a interception deep in West Alabama territory with under a minute remaining, before bouncing back with game winning touchdown run in overtime.

“That was a dumb play on my part,” Quarterback Luke Wingo said.  “Coach (Wallace) just told me to keep my head up and keep competing.”

The game was played in front of nearly a packed Municipal Braly Stadium, with a crowd of 12, 526 on hand.

Wallace hasn’t seen a crowd like this since UNA won the national championship in 1995, he said.

UNA will travel to play Florida Tech in their final GSC game of the year on Nov. 9.