CONWAY - The youth went wild for Central Arkansas on Thursday night at Estes Stadium.
Sophomore Blake Veasley made the most of his first start at running back, finishing with 85 yards on 17 carries as the Bears beat Incarnate Word 58-7 in front of an announced crowd of 10,455.
Veasley started in place of senior Willie Matthews, who along with four other Bears were suspended for Thursday’s season-opening game. Matthews will be back for the Bears’ game next Saturday at Colorado, but offensive linemen C.J. Simon and Jordan Kersh, and wide receivers Jacoby Walker and Wyatt Hikins won’t return until Sept. 14 at Tennessee-Martin.
Veasley scored on runs of 11 and 18 yards as he set the tone early for the Bears, who are No. 7 in the FCS Sports Network rankings. His 11-yard run was set up by his 32-yard catch on third-and-8 from the UCA 32. He and sophomore Danzel Williams, an Oklahoma transfer, combined for 135 rushing yards, with Williams gaining 50 yards on 9 carries with 2 touchdowns.
Veasley, who played at Cross County and at the University of Memphis before transferring to UCA, watched the Bears’ rotation of running backs Jackie Hinton, Terrence Bobo and Anthony Blackmon last year while he redshirted and hopes he is a part of a similar rotation this year with Williams and Matthews.
“That’s going to be really big,” Veasley said. “I feel like at any point in time, no matter which one of us is on the field, we could all step in and contribute really well. We might have different running styles, but we are definitely going to have a pretty good running game this year.”
UCA Coach Clint Conque wanted to treat Thursday’s game as a Southland Conference game with Incarnate Word, which is in its first season as a NCAA Division I member, moving to the league next season.
The Bears were efficient and took care of the Cardinals early, jumping out to a 30-0 lead going into halftime lead and racking up 523 yards for the game.
“We felt like we were a superior opponent,” Conque said, “but you have to to go play the game.”
Freshman Jatavious Wilson caught 4 passes for 105 yards and 2 touchdowns. He scored on a 29-yard pass from senior Wynrick Smothers in the second quarter and on a 36-yard pass from sophomore Taylor Reed in the fourth quarter, and returned a kick 93 yards for another touchdown with 3:44 left to set the final score.
“You can see a skill set where he’s playing at a different speed,” Conque said of Wilson, who is 5-9 and 171 pounds.
Smothers completed 27 of 31 passes for 267 yards and 1 touchdown. He played into the third quarter before being replaced by Ryan Howard.The Southland Conference’s reigning offensive player of the year credited Veasley for setting the tone as the Bears finished with their largest margin of victory (51 points) as a Division I member.
“It was really big for us to establish the run game because they were focused on the pass,” Smothers said.
Veasley’s two rushing touchdowns gave UCA a 13-0 lead, and Eddie Camara made a 42-yard field goal to extend UCA’s lead to 16-0 in the first quarter. Williams added a 1-yard scoring run with 2:36 left in the first half to make it 30-0.
Desmond Smith recovered a blocked punt early in the third quarter to increase the Bears’ lead to 37-0. Williams added his second touchdown run, from 3 yards out, late in the third quarter for a 44-0 lead.
Incarnate Word quarterback Trent Brittain scored the Cardinals’ only touchdown on a 38-yard run with 4:00 left. Brittain completed 21 of 38 passes for 144 yards and was sacked twice.
UCA had 10 receivers catch at least one pass. Conque was concerned about a lack of experience at the receiver position after Jesse Grandy and Dominique Croom exhausted their eligibility last season. Those worries were eased a bit with sophomore Blake Gardner catching 10 passes for 61 yards and Smith, a redshirt freshman from Bentonville, adding 77 yards on 4receptions.
“Those guys caught balls, ran balls, scored touchdowns,” Conque said. “It will give them a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Smothers and the Bears can now look ahead to their game at Pacific-12 member Colorado next Saturday. The Buffaloes went 1-11 in 2012 but have a new coach in Mike MacIntyre, formerly of San Jose State. Colorado faces Colorado State on Sunday at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver before taking on the Bears.
“I enjoyed the win, but it’s time to move on to the next opponent,” Smothers said. “We’ll enjoy this one for the rest of the night, then it’s time to move on.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 08/30/2013