CONWAY — Central Arkansas’ 55-29 victory over Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday night at Estes Stadium may have come with a price.
Sophomore strong safety Jestin Love was ejected in the second quarter after apparently making contact with an official.
Southeastern Louisiana receiver Simmie Yarborough caught a 40-yard pass from quarterback Brian Young, but fumbled at the UCA 30. Linebacker Frank Newsome caused the fumble and recovered it with 1:33 left in the second quarter.
Both Love and Lions receiver Kory Theodore received personal foul penalties after the play. Southland Conference Commissioner Tom Burnett told UCA Athletic Director Brad Teague on Saturday night that while Love missed the remainder of the game, further action will be decided once his staff sees the tape.
Love, who leads UCA with four interceptions, has started all nine games for the Bears this season.
“Jestin plays on the edge,” UCA Coach Clint Conque said. “I’m not exactly sure what all happened. There might have been physical contact with Jestin and an official. The situation got out of control there.
“I will not apologize for having our football team emotionally ready to play and playing with an edge about themselves. Expectations are so damn high around here to begin with. We’re generally not the most talented team on the field, so we have to play with a little bit of an edge.
“We have to learn how to funnel that in the right direction, between the echoes of the whistle. That’s a valuable lesson we have to learn tonight.”
Meanwhile, the Bears (6-3, 5-1 Southland Conference) won their fifth consecutive and rolled up a season-high 586 yards. Also, the UCA defense forced nine turnovers, including four interceptions and five fumbles. Southeastern Louisiana (2-6, 0-4) has committed 19 turnovers in their past four games.
“Our No. 1’s on defense did an excellent job,” Conque said.
UCA senior quarterback Nathan Dick completed 20 of 28 passes for 299 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception. He threw touchdown passes to five receivers.
“Nathan was very precise, except for the one interception he had before the half,” Conque said.
It was the first five-touchdown game from a UCA quarterback since Nathan Brown achieved the feat in 2007 against Texas State when he had seven.
“It was hard for them to stop us,” Dick said. “There were a couple of times where we stopped ourselves. As an offensive unit, we did really great today and moved the ball when we wanted to.”
Junior running back Jackie Hinton ran for 106 yards on 13 carries and 1 touchdown. Junior receiver Jesse Grandy caught 4 passes for 93 yards and 1 touchdown.
Seth Sebastian made a 42-yard field goal to give the Lions an early 3-0 lead.
The Lions attempted an onside kick, but sophomore cornerback Josh Jones recovered at the Southeastern Louisiana 44, giving the Bears good field position. UCA responded quickly, as Dick found Grandy near the left sideline for a 44-yard touchdown pass as the Bears took a 7-3 lead.
Southeastern Louisiana answered as Antoine Duplessis caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Brian Young to give the Lions a 10-7 lead.
The Lions didn’t hold on to the lead long. Terence Bobo’s 5-yard touchdown run and Eddie Camara’s 41-yard field goal later in the quarter helped start a 41-0 scoring run for UCA that lasted through thethird quarter.
In the second quarter, Dick threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Jackson, his first of the season, to extend the Bears’ lead to 24-10 with 2:41 left in the first half, capping an 11-play, 77-yard drive that took 6:44 off the clock.
UCA stretched its lead to 48-10 in the third quarter on a 3-yard rushing touchdown from Hinton, a 22-yard catch by Thomas Hart, a 17-yard reception by Derrick Steele and a 27-yard field goal from Camara.
However, Southeastern Louisiana pulled within 48-29 with 6:29 left in the fourth quarter. Robert Alford intercepted sophomore quarterback Wynrick Smothers 64 yards for a touchdown. Theodore and Yarborough had touchdown catches of 14 and 36 yards, respectively, in the quarter.
Conque put his first-team offense back in the game and Dick threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Dominique Croom to make it 55-29 with 4:59 left.
Sports, Pages 38 on 10/30/2011