MONROE, La. — The Troy Trojans blew a nine-point advantage they held at halftime, fell behind in the second half and placekicker Sam Glusman had a 56-yard game-winning field goal attempt bounce off the cross bar as time expired in a 31-30 loss to ULM Saturday night. The loss was the Trojans’ first Sun Belt road loss in three seasons.

The loss was the first on the road in Sun Belt play since Troy dropped a 9-3 game at Arkansas State on Nov. 12, 2005.

With starting quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster on the bench with a leg injury, backup quarterback Trey Revell drove the Warhawks down the field and into the endzone to cap a nine play, 72-yard drive to put ULM on top 31-30 after a failed two-point conversion.

After a squib kick was picked up by Jorrick Calvin and returned to midfield, Troy took over with 26 seconds remaining still trailing by one point.

Troy’s Levi Brown was forced to throw away on both first and second down, then on third down completed a pass across the middle to Patrick Cherry. That play set up a fourth-and-three with five seconds on the clock, and also set Glusman’s attempt.

“I thought that putting Glusman in there gave us the best chance to win the game,” Troy head coach Larry Blakeney said. “When he first hit it, I thought it could make, but it hit the crossbar and didn’t go in. I thought it was going to be a dog fight. They are a good team and it’s tough to play here.”

The game featured seven lead changes along the way before the final field goal attempt.

“We gave up a lot of third downs tonight and against a good football team especially offensively, even their back-up was a good player,” Blakeney said. “They did what they needed to do. We made some mistakes and didn’t play perfectly but that’s why you play the game.”

Glusman was one-for-four on the game with his lone make coming from 47-yards with 9:02 remaining in the first half to give Troy their first lead of the night at 10-8.

Wide receiver Darrell McNeal took a direct snap at quarterback and rushed around left end for a seven-yard touchdown, but Calvin broke through to block the point after attempt holding ULM to just a 6-0 lead early in the first quarter.

On the second play of Troy’s ensuing drive center Steven Adams snapped the ball over Brown’s head into the end zone resulting in a safety and increasing the Warhawk lead to 8-0. The safety was Troy’s second given up in three games.

Troy rebounded quickly with a 10-play, 77-yard drive that concluded with Brown hitting Andrew Davis for an 11-yard scoring strike to cut the lead to 8-7.

The touchdown was Davis’ first since Oct. 6, 2007 against FIU and he became the eighth Trojan to catch a touchdown in 2008. He finished the game with five receptions for 45 yards.

Later in the second quarter, Justin Bray fumbled the ball after a catch to mark Troy’s first turnover since Jamie Hampton threw an interception against Florida Atlantic on Oct. 7, but Troy got the ball right back with Donnell Golden’s second interception in two games.

Two plays later, Brown found Cornelius Williams on a slant from five yards out for a touchdown to give Troy a halftime lead of 17-8.

ULM started the second half strong with a 63-yard kickoff return by Robert Williams. The offense followed suit as Lancaster directed a touchdown scoring drive culminating with a five-yard toss to Mitch Doyle to cut Troy’s lead to 17-15 with 11:07 remaining in the third.

The Warhawks regained the lead with 3:40 left in the third on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Lancaster to Frank Goodin. After the PAT, the lead was 22-17.

Later in the third quarter, the Trojans faced a fourth-and-one from the ULM 45-yard line when DuJuan Harris took a handoff the distance to put the Trojans back on top 24-22 with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter. The carry put Harris over 100 yards for the second time this season.

Radi Jabour connected on a 48-yard field goal to push ULM back on top 25-24 with 12:47 remaining in the game.

The Trojans’ next drive was halted by their second turnover of the game. It came on Brown’s first career interception and his first in 104 attempts this year.

After Troy got the ball back, Harris again made his presence known, as he scampered to the endzone for a touchdown on a 29-yard shovel pass from Brown. Troy attempted a two point conversion, but Brown was picked off in the end zone leaving the Troy lead at 30-25 with 4:58 remaining.

Harris finished the day with 173 total yards, including 143 yards rushing on 20 carries and two total touchdowns. Brown completed 23-of-36 passes for 221 yards and three touchdowns and one interception.

The Trojans host Western Kentucky University at 2:30 p.m. at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium for Homecoming.