Central Arkansas had to wait until the fourth week of the season to collect its first victory of the season, but it came on the road in its Southland Conference opener Saturday night.
UCA scored 18 points in the first quarter, then played most of the game without its starting quarterback in a 49-21 victory over Northwestern (La.) State at Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches, La.
Taylor Reed connected with Desmond Smith for a 16-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter, but the quarterback left the game later in the quarter with a shoulder injury. The Bears did just fine with backup Hayden Hildebrand, who completed 12 of 16 passes for 201 yards and 3 touchdowns, all in the second half. Reed completed 7 of 8 passes for 53 yards and 1 touchdown before leaving.
Hildebrand, a sophomore from Bossier City, La., threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Jacquez McMillan to make it 35-7 early in the third quarter, then threw a 42-yard touchdown to Jatavious Wilson and a 22-yard touchdown to Blake Gardner.
UCA's struggling running game got going, too. Dominique Thomas had 98 yards on 22 carries and Blake Veasley added 65 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Bears rushed for 267 yards, 54 coming on one run by Reed in the first quarter, the play on which he injured his shoulder.
UCA (1-2, 1-0) had 521 yards of total offense.
"We played the way I knew we were capable of playing," UCA Coach Steve Campbell said. "Now there's still a lot of meat left on the bone. We have to clean up our penalties. We left a couple of plays out there. There's a lot of things we need to work on, but we have improved."
Matt Cummins kicked a 47-yard field goal to give UCA a 3-0 lead, then Smith's touchdown and a Scott Matiaha two-point run made it 11-0. Veasley scored the next two touchdowns, on runs of 1 and 3 yards, and Jace Denker's 22-yard field goal made it 28-0 late in the second quarter.
The Bears led 28-7 and had 265 yards of offense by halftime, before Hildebrand hooked up with McMillan to make it 35-7.
Northwestern State (0-4, 0-2) was held to 71 yards rushing and had 346 yards of total offense.
"This is a big win for us," Campbell said. "Today was a good confidence builder. We did a lot of things well."
Sports on 09/27/2015