CONWAY — Quarterback Wynrick Smothers stepped up when Central Arkansas needed it most, helping the Bears rally past defending Southland champion Sam Houston State.
Central Arkansas trailed 20-10 with 5:24 remaining and one timeout left, but avoided the 0-1 Southland start when Smothers scored on a 17-yard run with 3:18 left and threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Dominique Croom with 57 seconds left.
Sam Houston State, ranked third in the Football Championship Subdivision, quickly drove down the field, but a last-second pass was intercepted in the end zone as UCA held on for a 24-20 victory in front of 10,157 at Estes Stadium.
“I said, ‘Come on defense.’ I said that about 60 times in the last 30 seconds of the game,” Smothers said. “After they threw that Hail Mary and I saw the ref, my heart just dropped. Oh, it’s over.”
Strong safety Karl Brady made the interception against Sam Houston State quarterback Brian Bell and the Bears (3-1, 1-0), ranked No. 25 in The Sports Network FCS Top 25 poll, beat the Bearkats (1-2, 0-1) for the first time since 2008.
“You saw two heavyweights in the third week of September duking it out,” UCA Coach Clint Conque said. “We were able to get one more in.”
Smothers completed 24 of 41 passes for 318 yards and 2 touchdowns and threw 1 interception for UCA, which was outgained 470 yards to 413.
In last year’s 31-10 loss at Sam Houston State, Smothers had to relieve Nathan Dick, who was knocked out of the game with a concussion. This time,Smothers was more confident.
“He did a great job of keeping us off balance,” Bearkats Coach Willie Fritz said. “At the end of the game, most people wouldn’t stay patient. The kid’s a pretty good quarterback.”
After UCA held Sam Houston State to a 26-yard field goal by Miguel Antonio with 5:24 left, the Bears’ offense went to work.
Senior running back Jackie Hinton’s 28-yard catch set up Smothers’ 17-Sam Houston State, Smothers had to relieve Nathan Dick, who was knocked out of the game with a concussion. This time, Smothers was more confident.
“He did a great job of keeping us off balance,” Bearkats Coach Willie Fritz said. “At the end of the game, most people wouldn’t stay patient. The kid’s a pretty good quarterback.”
Croom had seven catches for 113 yards to lead the Bears’ receivers.
After UCA held Sam Houston State to a 26-yard field goal by Miguel Antonio with 5:24 left, the Bears’ offense went to work.
Senior running back Jackie Hinton’s 28-yard catch set up Smothers’ 17-yard run four plays later to get the Bears within 20-17 with 3:18 left, capping an eight-play, 75-yard drive.
Sam Houston State had to punt on its next drive, giving the ball back to UCA with 2:11 left and no timeouts.
On third-and-5, Smothers found Croom for a 5-yard completion and a first down at the Bears’ 38. Smothers connected with Croom again, this time on a 41-yard pass down the right sideline for another first down at the Sam Houston State 21.
UCA committed a falsestart penalty to put the ball back at the 26, but that wasnot a problem for the Bears. Smothers scrambled and found Croom in the end zone to give UCA its first lead of the game.
Sam Houston State outgained UCA 172-41 in the first quarter en route to a 10-0 lead.
Antonio made a 35-yard field goal to cap a 12-play, 48-yard drive for a 3-0 lead.
Later in the first quarter, Bell completed a 33-yard pass to wide receiver Brian Wilkerson, which set up running back Tim Flanders’ 39-yard scoring run two plays later to extend Sam Houston State’s lead to 10-0 at with 1:41 left.
Smothers was intercepted by defensive tackle J.T. Cleveland on the first play of the second quarter. On the nextplay, Bell found wide receiver Trey Diller for a 41-yard completion. But Sam Houston State couldn’t capitalize, as Antonio missed a 24-yard field goal to end the Bearkats’ drive.
UCA took advantage of the Bearkats’ missed field goal. Smothers connected with Dezmin Lewis for 21 yards and Smothers’ 14-yard run helped set up Bobo’s 30-yard touchdown reception to pull the Bears within 10-7 with 10:05 left in the first half.
Bears place-kicker Eddie Camara tied the game at 10-10 with a 22-yard field goal with 2:03 left in the third quarter.
Sam Houston State responded, as Flanders ran 11 yards for his second touchdown to give the Bearkats a17-10 lead with 12:41 remaining.
Flanders ran for 125 yards and 2 touchdowns on 22 carries to lead Sam Houston State. Bell completed 16 of 24 passes for 199 yards and threw 1 interception while Diller had 9 catches for 141 yards.
UCA travels to Nacogdoches, Texas, on Saturday to face Stephen F. Austin before returning home Oct. 6 to take on Nicholls State.
SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA 25, MCNEESE STATE 24
HAMMOND, La. - Nathan Stanley’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Jenkins with 2:39 left pulled Southeastern Louisiana (1-3, 1-0) within one point of McNeese State (3-1, 0-1) and the Lions opted to go for the two-point play, converting on a Michael Chaney run to steal a victory.
Chaney rushed 2 yards for a touchdown to pull the Lions within a touchdown with 3:26 remaining in the third quarter, in the first victory of the season for Southeastern Louisiana.
SATURDAY’S GAMES Cent. Arkansas 24, Sam Houston St. 20 Northwestern St. 45, Miss. Valley St. 14 Nicholls State 73, Evangel 17 Texas State 41, Stephen F. Austin 37 SE Louisiana 25, McNeese State 24 Lamar 31, Langston 0
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/23/2012