Bears declaw Bobcats in plowing to 49-17 victory
The University of Central Arkansas marched into the Hill Country of Texas on Saturday, kicked the steamroller into high gear and flattened Texas State.
A Bear team that had struggled offensively all season took Texas State behind the woodshed, pulled a rushing attack that had been absent and crammed plain vanilla down the Bobcats’ throats in the first half.
The resulting 49-17 victory at San Marcos, Texas, and before a regional television audience, pushed the Bears to 6-3, assured a winning season and kept them in the Southland Conference race at 3-2. The Bobcats, who stunned league-leader Stephen F. Austin last week, fell to 4-5, 1-4.
UCA, which was averaging 84 yards rushing per game, plowed for 178 in the first half and scored rushing touchdowns on all six possessions in causing a exodus in Bobcat Stadium after building a 42-3 halftime lead. It was the most points scored in a half since the Bears got 42 in a 63-21 victory over Texas State in Conway in 2007.
“This is a team (Texas State) that is probably headed to the WAC (Western Athletic Conference) and this might be our last trip to San Marcos, so we wanted to make in a memorable one,” UCA coach Clint Conque said.
After Conway’s Isaiah Jackson got the Bears rolling with a 52-yard return of the opening kickoff to the TSU 29 that led to a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown by quarterback Nathan Dick, UCA did little wrong in the first half in both stunning and silencing the crowd on a sunny afternoon.
The Bobcats drove to first and goal at the UCA 9 on their first possession, but the Bears held them to a 27-yard field goal by Kendall Brewer.
Then, the UCA offense and defense began a crushing attack — nothing fancy, just hard-nosed football between the tackles with occasional passing dinks to the flanks.
The Bears’ offensive line, inconsistent all season, bowed their backs, squared their shoulders and knocked the Bobcat defense all over the field. Terence Bobo, who scored three first-half touchdowns, capped a 69-yard, nine-play drive with a 2-yard run that put UCA up 14-3 with 5:01 left in the first quarter.
An interception on a tipped ball by Radarius Winston led to Jackie Hinton’s 1-yard run at 14:09 of the second quarter. A 16-yard run by Hinton, who had 122 yards on 12 carries, got the Bears going on a 50-yard, nine-play drive to Bobo’s 2-yard run that put UCA up 28-3 with 8:52 left in the half.
An interception by Jestin Love, his fifth in the last three games, and rushes of 21, 10 and 9 yards by Hinton led to Bobo’s 2-yard run in which he knocked a TSU defensive back into the end zone with a straight-up run. The Bears then drove 76 yards in eight plays with Dick keeping on a 6-yard touchdown run to give them a 42-3 lead with 18 seconds left in the first half. It was the third straight game in which the Bears have scored in the final two minutes of the first half.
“We played extremely efficient the first half, not so much in the second half,” Conque said. “We challenged our players all week about being physical, protecting the football and trying to be a little more efficient and clean as far as penalties. I had three of our upperclassmen linemen in my office late in the week and talked about the things that I thought were going to be important. One thing was that we had to play better up front, and I think they responded.”
Hawkins passed 15 yards to Darren Dillard and 12 yards to Da’Marco Griggs to bring the Bobcats within 42-17 with 3:33 left in the third quarter.
The Bears picked up their intensity and got physical again during a 64-yard, 12-play scoring drive in the fourth quarter, capped by a 20-yard pass from Dick to T.J. Adams with 9:34 left in the game.
“We played fast, we played physical, we tackled better, we played pretty good in the red zone and our quarterback played pretty good,” Conque said. “But we are a young team and we’ve got to learn to finish better, have a killer instinct.”
UCA had its most balanced offense of the season, 252 yards passing and 246 rushing. Hinton and Bobo combined for 191 yards.
“The offensive line blocked excellent,” said Hinton, whose 122 yards represented a career high. “We had to run the ball to win this game and our line opened big holes and I just went through them and got what I could. The holes were there like we’ve been practicing all week. That’s how to beat people.”
The Bears finished with 498 yards of total offense, including a season-high 246 on the ground.
Dick completed 27 of 41 passes for 252 yards.
The victory kept the Bears on track for a possible seven NCAA Division I wins, which would make them eligible for an at-large NCAA FCS playoff berth if they don’t get the automatic berth with a conference title.
They close the season with home games the next two Saturday afternoon — Sam Houston State and McNeese State.
“Today, we got the effort today we are accustomed to seeing around here and the type we need to have the next two weeks,” Conque said.
