After a wild finish in Marshall, Mo., Philip Staback had his signature drive as the new Lions quarterback and the No. 3 Lindenwood football team had one of their biggest regular season road victories in school history with a 45-37 win over No. 13 Missouri Valley.

The Lions trailed 31-30 when they took over on their 32-yard line with 1:51 remaining in the game. After the first three plays netted just two yards, Lindenwood converted a fourth-and-eight as Staback completed a pass to Matt Angell for 13 yards. The Lions moved the ball down to the Missouri Valley 18 over the next four plays which included two pass completions and two Staback rushes. On the ninth play of the drive, Staback found Matt Bramow in the endzone for the game-winning touchdown with just 19.2 seconds remaining.

The game was essentially over after that but the scoring wasn't. Staback hit Bramow again for a two-point conversion to make the score 38-31. After the kickoff, Missouri Valley had a bad snap which Lindenwood's #T.J. Prell# recovered in the endzone with just seconds on the clock. The Vikings used those seconds to return the kickoff for the third touchdown in the final 20 seconds of the game.

Missouri Valley won many of the small battles but the Lions came away with the biggest plays in the game. The first occurred on the kickoff as Lindenwood returned it for a touchdown for the second straight week, this time with Roren Thomas going 85 yards for the score. The Vikings took their first lead at 8-7 with a score and two-point conversion, but that lead lasted less than a minute as Denodus O'Bryant went 68 yards for a touchdown on Lindenwood's first play from scrimmage.

The Vikings added a field goal in the first quarter and were marching to take the lead early in the second, with the ball on the Lions one-yard line. Lindenwood's Alex Meraz forced a fumble and the Lions then went on a 96-yard drive to go ahead 21-11, getting the final 45 yards on a pass to Angell. After both teams punted, Missouri Valley scored a touchdown to get within three at 21-18. In the final minute of the half, the Vikings were in Lindenwood territory again when the Lions defense forced another turnover, this one caused by Alvin Davie, and Hakim Thomas returned it to the five-yard line. This allowed Halley Ferrell to kick a 28 field goal before the end of the half to give Lindenwood a 24-18 advantage.

The second half was back-and-forth with four lead changes, the first coming when Missouri Valley scored on the first drive of the half to go up 25-24. Lindenwood answered late in the third with a 69-yard Marcel Thompson touchdown reception and the Lions led 30-25 after missing a two-point attempt.

The Vikings went ahead 31-30 with 10:09 remaining in the contest, but the Lindenwood defense didn't allow another point. On Lindenwood's third possession after the Vikings went ahead, it was finally able to retake the lead for good on Staback's heroics.

Missouri Valley finished the game with 465 yards of total offense, but Lindenwood did allow less than 100 yards rushing for the third straight time in 2009. The Lions had 466 yards of offense, including 139 rushing yards against a Viking defense that had allowed negative yards on the season coming into the game.

Staback finished with327 yards passing and three touchdown passes. O'Bryant had 114 rushing yards and Thompson had 125 receiving yards. Defensively, Damian James had a team-high 10 tackles, one more than Logen Wright. Ryan Zimmerman and Prell each recorded a sack.

Game Notes: Lindenwood won for just the second time in eight games in Marshall … the 45 points put up by the Lions were the most in the series history against Missouri Valley and the 82 combined points were also a series record … the Lions face No. 7 MidAmerica Nazarene next Saturday at 6 p.m. at Hunter Stadium in St. Charles.