BEAUMONT, Texas — Central Arkansas started slow on the road again.
Similar to their last road victory at Nicholls State on Oct. 8, the Bears left Provost Humphrey Stadium on Saturday on top, beating Lamar 38-24 for their fourth consecutive victory.
UCA (5-3, 4-1 Southland Conference) trailed 14-0 in the first half. But after tying the game at 17-17 just before halftime, the Bears outscored the Cardinals (3-4, 1-2) 21-7 in the second half.
“We knew this wouldn’t be an easy task,” UCA Coach Clint Conque said. “They have an extremely athletic team, very big on both the offensive and defensive lines.But I thought our kids just scrapped and played hard, and I thought we played very physical, too. We continue to find ways to win, and we had some play makers step up and make plays tonight.”
The Cardinals scored two first-quarter touchdowns with ball-control drives. Quarterback Andre Bevil found tight end Payden McVey with a 13-yard touchdown pass with 9:43 left in the first quarter.He followed that with a 9-yarder to Marcus Jackson to make it 14-0 with 2:43 left in the quarter.
UCA, which only had two offensive possessions in the first quarter, scored on a 1-yard run by junior running back Jackie Hinton in the opening minute of the second quarter to pull the Bears within 14-7. After Lamar added an 19-yard field goal by Justin Stout, the Bears got a 28-yarder from Eddie Camara, capping a 12-play, 69-yard drive to cut the lead to 17-10.
The Bears tied it at 17-17 with 1:37 left in the first half when junior running back Terence Bobo took a short pass on the left side and went 51 yards down the sideline for the touchdown.
Bevel missed most of the second half with an injury,completing 23 of 29 for 234 yards for the game.
UCA finished with 355 yards of total offense, including 168 rushing. Bobo had 67 yards and Anthony Blackmon added 49. Senior quarterback Nathan Dick completed 13 of 22 passes for 187 yards and 3 touchdowns and threw 1 interception.
On Lamar’s first possession of the second half, the Bears stuffed a fake punt attempt by the Cardinals from their 32 when Jerrel McKnight broke up a pass. After three consecutive running plays by Bobo that netted 20 yards, Dick hit receiver Jesse Grandy with a 12-yard fade pass to the right side of the end zone to give the Bears their first lead of the game at 24-17 with 10:40 left in the third quarter.
Josh Jones blocked a Lamar field goal attempt and McKnight returned it 20 yards to the UCA 34. But the Bears were forced to punt and the Cardinals answered in just one play as backup quarterback Jeremy Johnson ran down the left sideline for 51 yards and a touchdown to tie it at 24-24 with 6:00 left in the third.
The Bears pounded the middle with the running game to set up their next touchdown, a 35-yard play action pass from Dick to Al Lasker with 21 seconds left in the third quarter for a 31-24 lead.
For the second consecutive week, sophomore safety Jestin Love sealed it with a late interception. Love, last year’s Southland co-Freshman of the Year, went 31 yards for a touchdown that set the final margin with 2:07 remaining. Love has 10 career interceptions in less than two seasons.
Love also finished with nine tackles and a forced fumble. Junior linebacker Seth Allison had 13 tackles, including two for loss as UCA’s defense recorded nine lost-yardage plays.
UCA returns home next Saturday to face Southeastern Louisiana at 6 p.m. at Estes Stadium in Conway.
Southland standings CONF. ALL Sam Houston State ...........4-0 7-0 Central Arkansas ......... 4-1 5-3 Northwestern State ...........3-1 4-3 McNeese State ..................2-2 3-4 Lamar ................................1-2 3-4 S.F. Austin .........................1-2 2-5 SE Louisiana .....................0-3 2-5 Nicholls State ....................0-4 1-7 SATURDAY’S GAMES Central Arkansas 38, Lamar 24 Stephen F. Austin 57, Nicholls State 21 SE Louisiana 38, Texas State 28 Sam Houston State 38,
McNeese State 14
Sports, Pages 31 on 10/23/2011