Before Saturday, Missouri Western perched itself near the top of the MIAA. Missouri Southern flailed around at the bottom.

The Griffons proceeded to heap up more than 500 yards and collected four turnovers against the Lions. But Western also amassed enough mistakes — missed tackles, dropped passes, errant field goal attempts, a blocked punt, fumbled snap, game-deciding sack and turnover, and more — to reward a persistent Southern team with a 35-34 triumph, marking the Lions’ first road victory in more than a year.

“We thought we were going to roll on them,” said Western defensive end Bradley Davidson, who led the Griffons with six tackles and a sack. “I think when it comes down to it, we overlooked them.

“You can’t count anybody out in this league. As soon as you do, it’s going to come around and bite you in the butt, and I think that’s what happened today.”

Western led 17-14 at the half and then appeared to take control in the third period.

On their second possession of the half, the Griffons drove 76 yards to the Southern 3-yard line. Brad Beckwith kicked a field goal for a 20-14 lead.

Davidson then created some good fortune for Western when the Lions took over. He hammered Southern running back Roland Thompson in the backfield on first down, forcing a fumble. The Griffons recovered at the Southern 39-yard line.

Griffon running back Michael Hill broke a 15-yard sweep on the next play and followed that with a 24-yard touchdown run around left end. Western led 27-14.

Western quarterback Drew Newhart lifted the Griffons to their biggest lead 3 minutes later when he hit Adam Clausen for a 20-yard touchdown.

That padded the Griffons advantage to 34-14.

“We came out, took care of business and put the game away, I thought,” Western coach Jerry Partridge said. “But then we didn’t finish.

“That’s the frustrating thing to me: we didn’t finish. We left plays out there. We missed tackles. We dropped balls at pivotal moments. We fumbled the ball away.”

Griffon mistakes then opened the door for the Lions. Missed assignments on defense opened up big plays for Southern.

Roland Thompson completed two long passes to Southern receiver Daniel Thompson — 21 yards then 39 yards — to put up a touchdown less than a minute into the fourth quarter.

Two dropped passes ended Western’s next drive. To compound the trouble, Beckwith mishandled the snap when attempting the punt and was tackled for a 17-yard loss.

The Lions and Thompson took advantage of the short field. Thompson needed six plays for another score, cutting Western’s advantage to 34-28.

“There’s no excuse for dropping that snap. That was a killer,” Partridge said of Beckwith, who missed a field goal, dropped the snap and had a punt blocked. “He had a tough game.”

The Griffons had another chance to ice the game on their drive that started at their own 9-yard line with 10 minutes, 31 seconds left in the game. Newhart completed 5 of 7 pass attempts, and Hill had a 34-yard run to advance Western to Southern’s 6-yard line.

But on a third-and-2 play from the 6, the Lions defense got to Newhart. He scrambled, trying to buy time, but Rudy Mascaro caught Newhart at the knees. Newhart went down and lost the ball, and the Lions’ David Benham recovered.

After the two teams traded unproductive possessions, Southern started the decisive drive at their own 29-yard line. Roland Thompson completed six passes, including four to Daniel Thompson.

The two Thompsons then hooked up from 10 yards out for the winning touchdown.

“I think the problem was that we ended up taking our foot off the gas just a little bit,” said Western cornerback Ben Jackson, who had two interceptions, “and they made us pay for it.”

Western fell to 7-2 overall and 6-2 MIAA, while Southern is 3-5, 3-4.

But the Griffons still have a cushion in the playoff race. If they win out, they should get a berth.

And a lesson from Saturday seemed to be quickly settling in after the game.

“They had a little more fire under them than we did,” Davidson said. “We’re in the do-or-die season now. One more loss knocks us out of bubble of whether we’re in the playoffs. But we know what we need to do now, and we’ll get it done.”

Sports Editor Scott Pummell can be reached

at scottp@npgco.com