CONWAY -- The Central Arkansas Bears never punted the ball, produced 18 tackles for a lost yardage and managed two touchdown drives with their third-string quarterback en route to a 52-18 victory over the winless Nicholls State Colonels in front of an announced crowd of 9,748 at Estes Stadium on Saturday.
The Bears (2-3, 1-0 Southland Conference) gave up 142 rushing yards to Nicholls State running back Michael Henry, but produced 14 tackles for 88 yards in losses and another 38 yards in losses on 4 sacks against the Colonels (0-5, 0-1).
Junior defensive end Jonathan Woodard led all players with three tackles for 12 yards in losses and a sack for another 6. Woodard said that the Bears' plan going into their conference opener was to be more aggressive on the front line.
"The last couple of games we haven't really played up to our abilities," Woodard said. "This game, we came out and changed the line of scrimmage and had a lot of negative plays."
The game turned on the Bears' ability to keep the pedal down on offense, but it didn't come without a hiccup to start the second half.
Central Arkansas led 24-6 at the half and got the ball at the start of the third quarter, but starting quarterback Ryan Howard's pass from the Central Arkansas 20 was intercepted at the Bears' 22 and returned for a touchdown by Nicholls State defensive back Joel Dullary.
But sophomore wide receiver Jatavious Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards to the Nicholls State 16 before Howard connected with Courtney Whitehead two plays later to put the Bears ahead 31-12 after the successful point after kick by Jance Denker.
"There were a couple of situations there where we seemed to get the momentum back and a play or two happens that take us right back out of it," Nicholls State interim Coach Steve Axman said. "I told our guys that there were times that we looked like a highlight reel out there and then there were times where we didn't look so good. We've got to eliminate those times where we don't."
The Colonels showed some fight early on, responding to UCA's opening score, a 7-yard touchdown run by Blake Veasey, with a score of their own.
But the extra point was missed and it went downhill from there for Nicholls State, which came into the game having been outscored by a combined 185 points in its four previous losses.
UCA made it 14-6 on Willie Matthews' 1-yard run with 13:27 to play in the half and Jance Denker's 44-yard field goal made it 17-6 midway in the second quarter.
Three plays into the ensuing possession for Nicholls State, Henry was stopped for a loss before defensive end Derrick Floyd forced a fumble by Henry that was recovered by linebacker Blake Childress at the Nicholls State 16.
Two plays later, Howard hit senior receiver Smith with a 10-yard touchdown pass to put the Bears up 24-6 going into halftime.
"I thought the last five minutes of the first half were key for us," Central Arkansas Coach Steve Campbell said. "That kind of created a little separation for us."
The last touchdown scored by the Bears' starters came midway through the third quarter when Matthews scored his second touchdown on a 1-yard run to put Central Arkansas ahead 38-12. Matthews led the Bears with 18 carries and 2 touchdowns, and finished with 56 yards rushing. The Bears had 10 players finish with at least one carry, including Smith, who ran four sweeps for 20 yards.
"We've got a lot of talented players on offense and I think we did a really good job of using them tonight," said Smith, who moved into fourth place all-time on the UCA career receptions list with his six catches on Saturday.
The Bears added two more touchdowns, a 1-yard completion from redshirt freshman quarterback Hayden Hildebrand to Walker in the third and a 7-yard run by freshman running back Dominiqe Thomas in the fourth quarter.
Nicholls State backup quarterback Beaux Hebert capped the game's scoring with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Kyron King with 0:02 left in the game. Condado's third extra-point kick of the night failed, his second to be blocked after the first kick was wide right.
Sports on 09/28/2014