The UCA football team (8-1, 7-0 SLC) defeated the Lamar University Cardinals (1-8, 0-7 SLC) 42-10 on Nov. 4 in Beaumont, Texas, continuing its dominant season and staying undefeated in the Southland Conference.
The Bears opened up the scoring in the first quarter with a 9-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Carlos Blackman.
This topped off a 10-play, 82 yard drive that lasted three and a half minutes.
The Cardinals responded four minutes later with a 2-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Cole
Starnes.
The tie didn’t last long, however, as UCA put up seven more points just over a minute later, this time with a 40-yard touchdown run by redshirt freshman running back Kierre Crossley.
Senior quarterback Hayden Hildebrand got his first touchdown pass of the game in the second quarter,
hitting freshman wide receiver Brandon Myers for 22 yards, putting the Bears up 21-7.
Hildebrand got another touchdown pass in the third quarter, this time a 5-yard pass to Blackman.
Junior running back Cedric Battle ran in two 19-yard touchdowns in the third quarter, just a little over three
minutes apart.
The Cardinals scored one more time in the fourth quarter with a 16-yard pass from senior
quarterback Blake McKenzie to sophomore tight end Case Robinson, but did little to put a
dent in UCA’s 42-14 lead.
Hildebrand said the team knows what they need to do to win the last two games of the season.
“We just need to stay focused and keep that one game at a time mentality. Not look too far ahead,” he said.
Saturday’s game was the 1000th football game in UCA history.
“That’s a big deal,” Hildebrand said. “To be a part of a group of men and a team that has achieved something
like that, and it’s a testament to every other person that has played football here.”
The Bears racked up huge numbers with their rushing game, totaling 332 yards for the game, compared to only 26 rushing yards for the Cardinals.
Despite the loss, Lamar University had 20 more passing yards than Central Arkansas with 253 total. .
Myers said that he knew they were going to play man coverage and that they would have to be physical to get open.
“Sometimes they’ll go to cover three, but 90 percent of the time its cover one, so we knew we
were going to have to beat man coverage,” he said
UCA has two conference games left to close out the season.
The Bears first face University of the Incarnate Word on Nov. 11, and then wrap up the regular season against
Abilene Christian University on Nov. 18.
