SEARCY -- DaVondrick Lison was walking with a limp, but Southern Arkansas' All-America defensive end still managed a faint smile late Sunday afternoon at Harding's First Security Field.
Lison, the reigning Great American Conference Defensive Player of the Year, was in and out of the lineup for most of the Muleriders' game against Harding, but he was on the field when it mattered most, with his team leading by four points and Harding driving across midfield in the final minute.
Teammate Malik Preston, a 16-tackle terror all day, instigated the play, putting a crunching hit on Harding quarterback Preston Paden just past midfield, and Lison was there to turn the fumble into a 57-yard scoop and score with 53 seconds to play.
That gave the Muleriders all the points they needed to post a 28-23 victory over Harding, the No. 7 ranked team in NCAA Division II.
"It caught me off guard," said Lison, 6-2, 213 pounds, who zigzagged ahead of Bisons charging behind him after picking up the ball. "We needed it. I had to do what I had to do."
But Lison admitted: "My hamstring's hurting me a little bit right now."
Sunday's game, originally scheduled for Saturday night and coverage on ESPN3, was put off until Sunday after rounds of lightning peppered the area.
SAU (2-0, 2-0 GAC) stayed overnight in the area, and utilized Harding's cafeteria for their pregame meal.
Whether the unplanned stay over had anything to do with Harding jumping out to a 14-0 with 4:52 to play in the first quarter didn't matter to the Muleriders, who trailed 17-7 at halftime and ran 17 offensive plays in the first half.
"It is what it is," Lison said. "We're players, we have to overcome adversity."
The first half was rife with adversity for the Muleriders, who yielded a 6-play, 71-yard touchdown drive to Harding on its second offensive possession and fell behind 14-0 after quarterback Barrett Renner was intercepted at the SAU 26 with 7:21 to play in the first quarter.
Harding (1-1, 1-1) scored five plays later and led 14-0 with 4:52 to play in the first quarter.
It would be the Bisons' final touchdown until the waning seconds, as the Muleriders slowly turned the game and the momentum around.
"The difference in the game is their defensive front put it to us," Harding Coach Paul Simmons said. "It wasn't the number of hats they had in the box, but how good those hats were."
SAU, known more for its offense with Renner as its catalyst, scored two touchdowns on defense, the scoop and score by Lison and Brock Floyd's 21-yard fumble return in the second quarter that cut Harding's lead to 14-7.
The Bisons took advantage of an SAU fumble late in the first half to convert a 30-yard field goal by Cameron Scott and gain a 17-7 halftime lead, but the Muleriders said everything changed at halftime.
And it wasn't a Knute Rockne-style speech from Coach Bill Keopple that got them going.
"Every time we come here we get beat," Lison said. "We knew we had to do something about it. We came in, got our treatment, ice, and then we talked."
Wide receiver Karonce Higgs, a senior from Searcy, finished with 4 catches for 66 yards and plenty of joy.
"It's very overwhelming," Higgins said of the victory in his hometown. "We came together as a unit and I loved that."
Renner, the left-handed senior quarterback, got the Muleriders moving in the second half, completing 15 of 20 passes for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns after going 6 of 13 for 63 yards and 2 interceptions in the first half.
"We came out in the second half and put on a show," Renner said. "It was definitely a tale of two halves."
Keopple said the Muleriders made corrections both physically and mentally at halftime.
"When you play a team like that, you've got to have the right mindset," Keopple said. "You got to know it's going to be a slugfest. You've got to be mentally tough, and in the first half I don't think we were mentally tough."
Sports on 09/10/2018