Bears hold off late rally, still in the hunt for title
CONWAY – Southeastern Louisiana brought in a backup quarterback and almost pulled off a victory at Estes Stadium on Saturday night.
Fortunately for Central Arkansas (5-3, 5-1 Southland), its defense adjusted and held on for a 21-16 victory in front of an announced crowd of 7,427.
Down 21-9, the Lions (4-4, 3-3) made things interesting with their first big pass play of the night. Backup quarterback Isom Donovan hit Chris Briggs for 47 yards before Julius Maracalin rushed in to make it 21-16 with 9:12 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The Lions’ chances to leave Conway with an upset victory fell into the hands of Central Arkansas defensive back Bobby Watkins’ hands when he intercepted another deep pass from Donovan to William French at the Southeastern Louisiana 45 with 2:13 left to play.
The Bears ran some time off the clock before punting the ball back to the Lions with 36 seconds remaining. Donovan missed his targets on his first two throws. Jonathan Woodard sacked Donovan for a 3-yard loss on third down before Donovan overshot his intended receiver on fourth down to end the threat with one second remaining.
The Bears remained in the hunt for a Southland Conference title with the victory.
Central Arkansas running backs Blake Veasley and Dominique Thomas rushed for a combined 272 yards and two touchdowns.
Veasley earned the L.B. Jackman award — given to the homecoming game’s most outstanding player — after rushing 27 times for 192 yards and a touchdown. The award came a week after Veasley set school records for yards (292) and carries (49) in a road victory over Lamar.
The Bears marched down the field on the game’s opening drive and Veasley scored his eighth touchdown of the season on a 1-yard run with 11:28 left in the opening quarter. The eight-play drive was
highlighted by a 45-yard run by Beasley and took 3:32 off the clock.
“You can’t keep us down all night,” Veasley said. “We’re going to keep pounding it for 2, 3 yards and then we’ll hit for a big one. Our offensive line is too good for us to stay bottled up.”
Both teams struggled to sustain drives for much of the rest of the first half, but the Lions managed to get a 25yard field goal from Jonathan Tatum with 8:08 left in the second quarter.
Southeastern Louisiana had gotten in position for the field goal thanks to a 74-yard run by Maracalin.
The Bears tacked on another touchdown before the
end of the half.
Freshman quarterback Kirk Baugh, who saw his first action of the season last week against Lamar when Hayden Hildebrand reinjured his shoulder, came in and rushed 10 yards to put the Bears ahead 14-3 with 2:37 remaining in the second quarter.
The Lions cut into the Bears lead with two Tatum field goals (38 and 40 yards),
both of which hit an upright. Tatum’s second field goal actually hit the left upright, hit the support and then bounced off the back of the crossbar.
After being bottled up for much of the night, Thomas ripped off a 45-yard touchdown run to cap an 8-play, 78-yard drive with 14:18 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Jace Denker’s kick made it 21-9.