The University of Central Arkansas continued its impressive run Saturday with a 27-7 victory over Houston Baptist in front of 2,543 at Husky Stadium in Houston.
A week after defeating then-No. 3 Sam Houston State 41-30 at Estes Stadium in Conway, the eighth-ranked Bears (4-1, 3-0 Southland) got three touchdowns from senior quarterback Hayden Hildebrand against the Huskies (1-4, 0-3) for their fourth victory in a row.
It was only the second time this season that the Bears scored fewer than 38 points in a game. The other time was in a season-opening 55-19 loss at Kansas State.
"You're not going to score 40 every week," UCA Coach Steve Campbell said. "Now, you'd like to. But there are going to be some games you got to win ugly. And you take it and you move on. There were a lot of things ... long bus ride, they had an open week, another week to prepare, and we're coming off the biggest win at least since I've been there. So there were a lot of opportunities to not win this game.
"If you came up short, you could have pointed at about three, four or five things. But the guys went out and made plays."
Hildebrand threw for 293 yards and a pair of first-quarter touchdowns after Houston Baptist scored first on a B.J. Kelly 7-yard touchdown run. Hildebrand found senior Roman Gordon for a 26-yard touchdown, then followed it up with a 39-yard score to freshman Brandon Myers to give the Bears a 14-7 advantage.
Hildebrand added a 1-yard touchdown run to cap a 6-play, 72-yard drive with 4:12 left in the third quarter that gave the Bears a 21-7 lead.
Junior kicker Matt Cummins added a pair of fourth-quarter field goals for UCA.
Hildebrand was 19-of-30 passing and added 26 more yards on the ground. Gordon, playing in his home state, had 5 catches for 140 yards and the touchdown to lead all receivers.
"They were every bit as good as I thought they would be defensively," Campbell said. "They weren't any better than I thought they were coming in. This is a good football [team]. Any time you win a game in the Southland Conference, you take it and you move on. Especially one that's nine hours away.
"This had all the settings of a trap game, and the guys got out of the trap. We had some guys step up and make some plays."
The Huskies scored first when Kelly capped an 11-play, 85-yard drive with his touchdown run. It was the first time the Bears trailed to an FCS opponent this season.
UCA senior defensive back Tremon Smith intercepted his fourth pass of the season, and his third in two weeks, to end a Houston Baptist threat in the end zone before Cummins had a 25-yard field goal attempt blocked by La'Travien Gee near the end of a scoreless second quarter.
Freshman Robert Rochell and sophomore Juan Jackson also had interceptions for the Bears to end Huskies' threats.
"They [interceptions] were huge," Campbell said. "When you watch these guys, you wonder where the points are going to come from, because they don't give up much now, they really don't. So when you look at it, the turnovers are huge. That gave us some field position, got us the ball back and let the defense get off the field."
The Bears had 407 yards of total offense, including 293 through the air, to the Huskies' 281. UCA's defense limited Houston Baptist to 41 yards on the ground. The Bears were held to 114 rushing yards, led by sophomore Carlos Blackman's 45 yards.
Houston Baptist's Garrett Dolan entered the game leading the Southland Conference in tackles. Against UCA, the senior linebacker had 11 tackles (3 for loss).
"He made a bunch of tackles," Campbell said. "He's hard to block. They do a good job coaching defense, and they've got some good players. They didn't do anything we didn't prepare for, they've just got a good football team, one that's very, very good defensively."
Junior linebacker Raphael Garner led UCA's defensive charge with a career-high 13 tackles, including a sack. Senior rover George Odum added 12 tackles, while Jackson tied a career high with 10, including 2 for loss.
Sports on 10/08/2017