Hayden Hildebrand Archives - ArkansasSports.Net

Bears make short work of Lions in Southland opener

ASN — Sun, 17 Sep 2017 20:04:05 +0000

UCA Sports
Steve East, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations

CONWAY – The No. 14/16 University of Central Arkansas Bears nearly doubled up offensively on Saturday night and cruised to a 38-6 victory over the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in their Southland Conference opener on “The Stripes” at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

The Bears (2-1, 1-0) rolled up 473 yards of total offense while holding the Lions (0-3, 0-1) to just 279 yards, with UCA running six fewer offensive plays. The Bears, who have won their two games this season by an average of 30 points, netted 214 rushing yards and threw for another 259 yards.

UCA used a 21-point third quarter to break away from a 14-3 halftime lead and was never threatened after that. The 21-point outburst came courtesy of an 18-yard touchdown run by redshirt freshman Kierre Crossley, 15-yard pass from senior quarterback Hayden Hildebrand to senior wide receiver Roman Gordon and a 38-yard fumble return by junior linebacker Raphael Garner that made it a 35-3 UCA lead.

Crossley, from Everman, Texas, had a 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter for his first career touchdown as a Bear. Sophomore running back Carlos Blackman started the scoring, capping a 7-play, 63-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown run on UCA’s first possession of the game. Juwan Petit-Frere returned UCA’s ensuing kickoff 79 yards to the UCA 79 yards to the Bears’ 13 but the defense held on fourth-and-two.

The Lions would also miss two field goals, from 45 and 49 yards, and suffer the only turnover of the game, the fumble that UCA defensive end Chris Terrell forced at the 45 and Garner picked up and ran it in for the touchdown with 5:44 left in the third quarter to seal the victory. UCA also led SLU on downs twice, once in the Lions’ own end of the field.

UCA had five running backs with at least four carries, led by Crossley with 10 rushes for 81 yards. D’erek Fernandez had six carries for 33 yards, while starter Carlos Blackman had 11 for 29 yards. Hildebrand finished 13 of 20 for 259 yards and one touchdown, while Dillard caught three passes for 71 yards. Hildebrand, from Bossier City, La., jumped from seventh to fifth in career passing yards at UCA and now has 5,639 for his career.

Defensively, the Bears held the Lions to just 84 yards passing. Senior rover George Odum finished with 12 tackles, while Garner had a career-high 11 tackles, one tackle for loss and the 38-yard fumble return for his first career touchdown. UCA recorded 14 tackles for loss for -63 yards.

The Bears, picked second in the preseason SLC poll, beat the fourth-pick Lions for the third straight year, and second consecutive time by 30-plus points. UCA leads the overall series 8-3. The Bears improved to 30-6 on “The Stripes,”, which were installed for the 2011 season.

UCA has an open date next weekend before hosting nationally third-ranked Sam Houston State on Saturday, Sept. 30 in a battle of the Nos. 1-2 SLC from last season. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

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Bears down Lumberjacks, improve to 8-1

ASN — Sun, 06 Nov 2016 12:40:56 +0000

From UCA Sports
Steve East, Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations

NACOGDOCHES, Texas _ The 17th-ranked University of Central Arkansas Bears survived six turnovers and 12 penalties to beat the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks 34-14 in Southland Conference action on Saturday at Homer Bryce Stadium.

The Bears, who improved to 8-1 overall and 7-0 in the SLC, had five turnovers in the second half but had staked themselves to a 24-14 lead at that point. UCA turned the ball over on its first offensive play of the game, a fumble at its own 9. UCA also threw a pair of interceptions in the end zone and lost another fumble at the SFA 2.

“It wasn’t pretty, and we’ve said that before,’ said UCA head coach Steve Campbell, who has his Bears in a first-place tie with No. 1 Sam Houston State with two games to play. “But we’ll take it. I don’t know how many turnovers and penalties we had. But then you go on the road and beat a good football team by 20 at their homecoming…

“That’s what I told the guys, we have a chance to be very, very good. But we can’t play like this and be as good as we want to. We didn’t protect the football. We had way too many penalties. We’ve done this twice now this year, once against Samfordand then today.’

Samford handed the Bears their only loss of the season on Sept. 10 in Conway in a game where UCA had three costly turnovers.

The Bears managed to take a 24-14 halftime lead after a sluggish first 30 minutes. Junior quarterback Hayden Hildebrand completed 13 of 17 passes for 168 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the half. After SFA took a 7-0 lead following a UCA fumble on its first possession. Quarterback Zach Conque went in from eight yards out for the score after the Lumberjacks took over on the UCA 9.

UCA answered when Hildebrand connected from 30 yards out with senior tight end Cody Dauksch. Matt Cummins’ PAT tied it at 7-7 with 5:42 left in the first quarter. Hildebrand then found a wide open Desmond Smith behind the SFA secondary for a 57-yard scoring pass and a 14-7 lead at the 2:11 mark of the quarter.

Conque found the end zone again for SFA to tie it at 14-14 on the opening play of the second quarter but UCA scored the final 10 points of the half, despite some key penalties and a brief injury to Hildebrand. Freshman running back Carlos Blackman had a 1-yard touchdown run and Cummins added a 31-yard field goal with just 21 seconds left for the 24-14 advantage at the break.

The Bears could not get out of their own way in the second half with five more turnovers and six more penalties. Hildebrand, who was 13 of 17 for 168 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, finished 21 of 33 for 312 yards with two touchdowns and a career-high three interceptions.

UCA took advantage of one of SFA’s three turnovers when senior safety Brandon Porter intercepted Conque’s pass at the 26 and returned it to the 18 early in the fourth quarter. A personal foul penalty on the ‘Jacks moved it to the 9 and on the second play, senior running back Antwon Wells went in from the 1 for the touchdown and a 31-14 lead with 10:20 to play.

Cummins addded a 22-yard field goal with 3:53 left to set the final.

The Bears rolled up 502 yards of total offense and held the Lumberjacks to 321. UCA’s run defense, leading the FCS, allowed just 59 yards on 31 attempts. Junior defensive end Cardell Best recorded 3.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Senior linebacker Garrett Sharp had a team-high 8 tackles, including a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss, along with a forced fumble.

Blackman, a freshman from Gosnell, led the UCA ground game with 83 yards on 18 carries. Smith, a senior from Bentonville, had 9 catches for 116 yards to lead the UCA receiving corps. In the past two matchups against SFA, Smith has 23 catches for 298 yards.

“I’m very, very happy that we won the football game, and I’m proud for our guys,’ Campbell said. “It’s exciting to be 7-0 and all that. But we have to know that we have to finish some of those drives, we can’t turn the football over. Our very first play of the game, we turned it over, and then it was a comedy of errors.

“Again, I don’t want to be negative, we won by 20. But if you want to know what’s going through my mind… But we made some plays, too. Some guys ran extremely hard, we made some plays down the field. The one thing I can say about these guys is they give tremendous, tremendous effort. They play tremendously hard. We didn’t play the smartest, and I know there is going to come a time where we are going to have to play very, very smart and hard. So we got to get there.’

The next opportunity is Saturday at home on “The Stripes” when the Bears host the Nicholls Colonels in a 2:30 p.m. kickoff. UCA finishes the regular season on Nov. 19 against Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Texas.

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Bears move to 5-0 with win over Cardinals

ASN — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 03:27:51 +0000

From UCA Sports
Steve East, Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations

CONWAY – The University of Central Arkansas Bears used a workmanlike 22-12 victory over the Lamar Cardinals on Saturday to improve to 5-0 in the Southland Conference in front of a Homecoming crowd of 10,257 at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

The No. 18/20 Bears (6-1, 5-0) won their fifth consecutive game behind their usual stingy defense, one that limited the Cardinals (3-4, 3-2) to 220 yards of total offense, and just 15 rushing yards on 34 attempts (0.4 yards per rush). UCA recorded 12 tackles for loss and three sacks to break the Cardinals’ three-game winning streak. UCA also improved to 6-0 all-time in the series against Lamar, and 3-0 on “The Stripes.’

Lamar took an early 3-0 lead on Juan Carranco’s 30-yard field goal at the 10:50 mark of the first quarter. UCA took a lead it would not reliquish on a 7-yard touchdown run by freshman running back Keshawn Ledet with 13:46 remaining in the second quarter. Matt Cummins added a 19-yard field goal with eight minutes left for a 10-3 UCA lead. Carranco hit from 26 yards to pull the Cardinals within 10-6 at the half.

Lamar had just four rushing yards at the break, despite having the ball for 17:17 compared to 12:43 for UCA.

The Bears grabbed the momentum for good early in the third quarter when they faked a fourth-down play at the Lamar 42 and quarterback Hayden Hildebrand instead punted. Senior wide receiver Desmond Smith downed the ball at the Lamar 1. Two plays later, UCA senior linebacker Garrett Sharp tackled freshman running back Austin Krautz in the end zone for a safety and a 12-6 lead.

Sharp, from McAllen, Texas and Blinn College, finished with eight tackles, a tackle for loss, a pass breakup and the safety to earn the L.B. Jackman Award that goes annually to the outstanding UCA player in the Homecoming game as voted on by the media.

From there, UCA got a 20-yard touchdown pass from Hildebrand to senior Kelton Warren, with Matt Cummins’ PAT giving the Bears a 19-6 advantage. Cummins then added a 38-yard field goal for a 22-6 advantage with 9:51 left in the game. Lamar finally found the end zone when backup quarterback Andrew Allen scored on a two-yard run with 5:28 to play.

Lamar’s starting quarterback, Carson Earp, went out on the second series of the game with an injured right shoulder. He was coming off a 412-yard passing effort in the Cardinals’ last-second victory over Northwestern State a week ago. Allen finished 17 of 37 for 151 yards, with no touchdowns or interceptions. Zae Giles caught a team-high 7 passes for 63 yards.

For the Bears, Ledet led a multiple-player running attack with 43 yards on 11 carries. Hildebrand, a junior from Bossier City, La., completed 14 of 23 passes for 208 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. Smith caught 6 passes for 100 yards, moving him into third place in all-time receptions at UCA with 190, surpassing Aaron Fairooz (2003-06).

UCA junior punter Patrick Ponder punted four times for a 45.8-yard average. Sophomore linebacker Raphael Garner led the tackle chart for the Bears with 10 stops, while junior linebacker James Graves finished with three tackles for loss and sophomore Chris Terrell added 2.5 tackles for loss.

The Bears finished with 330 yards of offense, averaging 5.3 yards per play. The Cardinals averaged just 2.9 yards. UCA won despite converting just 3 of 13 third-down conversions and finishing with a season-low 15 first downs.

UCA plays its next two games on the road, at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond, La., next Saturday, and at Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, Texas, on Nov. 5.

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Bears finish off 28-23 win over Red Wolves

ASN — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 04:27:28 +0000

From UCA Sports
Steve East, Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations

JONESBORO – The University of Central Arkansas Bears finished the job this time, knocking off the Arkansas State Red Wolves 28-23 on Saturday night in front of a crowd of 28,012 at Centennial Bank Stadium.

The Bears, who had come close to beating several Football Bowl Subdivision teams in recent years, outscored the Red Wolves 15-7 in the decisive second half, getting the game-winning touchdown on an 18-yard pass from Hayden Hildebrand to ASU transfer Brandon Cox with 6:26 remaining. UCA (3-1, 2-0) then turned to its defense to stop ASU twice in the final five minutes to seal just the program’s second victory over an FBS school since moving to the Football Championship Subdivision in 2006.

“I told them it was going to be tough,’ said a happy UCA head coach Steve Campbell on the field after the game. “Games like this are going to be tough, and you just have to keep battling and perservering. You know, bad things happen but you just keep battling and battling. And they did, and I’m so proud of them.

“And I’ve been very proud of them before when we’ve come up short. But this time we didn’t come up short. We played our butts off against Oklahoma State (last year). We played our butts off against Texas Tech (two years ago). And we played out butts off tonight. And it’s great to be proud of a team for fighting their butts off and then getting rewarded for it by winning the football game.’

UCA’s defense, ranked No. 4 in FCS against the run, allowed the Red Wolves (0-4) just 45 rushing yards on 34 attempts, intercepted two passes and recovered a pair of fumbles. One of the interceptions was by senior Tyler Williams on the UCA 9 with 4:40 remaining. The Red Wolves finished with 424 total yards of offense but managed just one score over the final three quarters. Three of ASU’s final four possessions ended in turnovers.

“Defense has played great all year,’ Campbell said. “They got us on a couple of plays, and that’s been our case. But I like our defense. When they don’t get you on a play, on a great scheme, something really, really schemed up, our guys are in good position and pretty good shape. And they did a great job of scheming and they got us on a couple of things. But I’m very, very proud of the way our defense played.’

After UCA punted back to ASU leading 28-23 with :38 remaining, the Red Wolves completed two passes down to the UCA 35. After an incomplete pass from Justice Hansen to Cameron Echols-Luper, he went to the end zone on second and 10 to Christian Booker but junior cornerback Tremon Smith positioned himself perfectly in front of him and knocked it down to end the game.

ASU took a 3-0 lead with a 33-yard field goal with 12:15 left in the first quarter. UCA answered less than four minutes later with a 47-yard punt return by Smith that gave UCA a 7-3 lead at the 8:42 mark of the period. Hansen then took the Red Wolves 48 yards in three plays, hitting Kendall Sanders with a 5-yard touchdown pass to retake the lead at 9-7 at the 8:02 mark. Hansen then connected with Warren Wand for 48 yards and another touchdown with 3:21 left in the quarter, giving ASU a 16-7 lead.

UCA got a pair of field goals from sophomore Matt Cummins in the final 1:44 of the second quarter to close the gap to 16-13 at the half. Cummins would add his third field goal, from 25 yards out, with 6:06 left in the third quarter to tie it at 16-16. ASU got a 58-yard scoring pass from Hansen to Echols-Luper less than a minute later to make it 23-16.

The Bears scored on a 3-yard run from senior Antwon Wells with 13:12 left in the game but Cummins’ PAT missed, leaving UCA with a one-point deficit. Hildebrand tossed the go-ahead touchdown to Cox, who transferred from ASU to UCA two years ago. The Bears finished with 382 yards of total offense, with Hildebrand overcoming a slow first half to complete 18 of 36 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown. Wells led the Bears’ ground attack with 47 yards and his fourth touchdown of the season.

Senior wide receiver Jatavious Wilson caught 7 passes for 130 yards. Hildebrand also had a pair of quick kick punts for an average of 47 yards for the Bears, who lost 53-24 to the Red Wolves in the last meeting in 2011.

“They did it when they had to,’ Campbell said, “against a team that has won, what, four or five Sun Belt titles in a row and been to bowl games four or five years in a row. They found a way to get it done and I’m very, very proud of those guys.’

Junior linebacker James Graves led the Bears with 12 tackles, while junior rover George Odum had 11, including three tackles for loss, and forced a pair of fumbles. Redshirt freshman Chris Terrell forced and recovered a fumble and Smith grabbed UCA’s other interception.

First-place UCA returns to Southland Conference play next Saturday on the road at Abilene Christian in Abilene, Texas.

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Bears roll to easy win in season opener

ASN — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 05:55:31 +0000

From UCA Sports
Jerry East, Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations

CONWAY – The University of Central Arkansas Bears spread the wealth Thursday night in opening the 2016 season with a convincing 56-13 victory over the Houston Baptist Huskies in Southland Conference action at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

Eight different players scored touchdowns for the Bears, including a pair of defensive scores, as UCA rolled up 554 yards of total offense and averaged 6.8 yards per offensive play. The Bears scored 21 points in both the first and second quarters to end the suspense early in the SLC opener for both teams.

UCA’s defense held the Huskies to just 242 total yards on 80 plays (3.0 per carry), and just 90 yards in the second half. The Bears recorded 15 tackles for loss for minus 69 yards, following 13 for loss in last year’s 43-7 victory in Houston.

The Bears, who scored on six of their first seven possessions, opened the night with a five-play, 54-yard drive ending in a 3-yard pass from junior quarterback Hayden Hildebrand to senior receiver Desmond Smith. Matt Cummins added his first of eight PATs for a 7-0 lead at the 11:52 mark of the first quarter. UCA then got a 14-yard touchdown run by senior Kelton Warren and a 1-yarder from Hildebrand to close out the first quarter at 21-0.

Junior rover George Odum blocked a 54-yard field goal attempt by HBU’s Alex Chadwick and senior Tyler Williams returned it 46 yards for a touchdown at the 12:17 mark of the second period. Hildebrand found junior Brandon Cox for a 37-yard touchdown and junior Cardell Best forced a fumble that senior Devin Spurlock returned 2 yards for another score before halftime. The Huskies finally got on the board with Chadwick’s 26-yard field goal with 3:34 left before the half.

Senior running back Antwon Wells posted UCA’s third rushing touchdown, from 2 yards out, for a 49-3 advantage with 9:09 left in the third quarter. Chadwick connected again for the Huskies from 32 yards before redshirt UCA freshman running back Keshawn Ledet got a 13-yard touchdown run with 1:45 remaining in the third. After a UCA fumble, HBU quarterback Max Staver connected with David Racine from 31 yards out midway through the fourth quarter to set the final.

Hildebrand, a junior from Bossier City, La., completed 17 of 21 passes for 238 yards and a pair of touchdowns and rushed for 52 more yards before being spelled by sophomore Kirk Baugh. Freshman running back Carlos Blackman of Gosnell gained 98 yards on 15 carries, all in the second half, to lead all rushers. Senior Jatavious Wilson caught six passes for an even 100 yards for the Beras, while Smith added six catches for 78 yards. Smith moved to fifth in school history with 162 career receptions and seventh in career receiving yards with 2,013.

Defensively, redshirt freshman linebacker Roy Sutton led the tackle chart with seven stops. Spurlock had five tackles, forced a fumble and recovered one. Chris Terrell, Dawson Hadnot and Tyler Williams all had two tackles for loss, while Jordan Toliver and Terrence Partee had 1.5 each.

HBU’s All-Southland Conference linebacker Garrett Dolan finished with 18 tackles, including 2.5 for loss, while fellow linebacker Dorrin Turner added 13 tackles. Tony Dawson completed 10 of 27 passes for 127 yards, while Terrance Peters gained 65 yards on 14 carries. Isaiah Hall caught eight passes for 90 yards.

UCA continues a three-game homestand next Saturday, hosting the Samford Bulldogs at 7 p.m. at Estes Stadium.

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