SOUTHALND CONFERENCE : Central Arkansas makes crucial stop in final minute
Posted on Sunday, October 12, 2008
CONWAY — In a game where the teams posted nearly 1, 000 yards of total offense, it came down to a defensive stop.
Central Arkansas defensive back Derrick Boyd deflected Sam Houston State quarterback Rhett Bomar’s two-point conversion pass with less than a minute remaining as Central Arkansas pulled out a 48-46 victory over the Bearkats in front of 12, 312 at Estes Stadium.
“I was real pleased that Derrick was there to make the play on the football,” Central Arkansas Coach Clint Conque said. “He was there to make the play and that was the football game, right there.” Boyd said he knew what was coming.
“I figured that they were going to do something inside because of what they did previous,” Boyd said. “I did my best to break up the pass because I knew we needed it.” Earlier on the series, Boyd watched a pass go through the hands of Henry Minor and into the hands of a Sam Houston State receiver.
“You had to make that hit the ground, because if that had popped up it would have been a complete pass and a score,” Boyd said.
There was a stark contrast between the first and second halves. Central Arkansas led 34-27 at the half, and it seemed the only thing capable of stopping the offensive output was the game clock.
The teams combined for 673 yards of total offense on 76 offensive snaps in the first half. Neither team punted until the 5: 23 mark of the second quarter, when Central Arkansas’ Jonathan Beard punted for the first time.
It was evident in the third quarter that changes had been made.
“The offense certainly slowed down, that’s for sure,” Sam Houston State Coach Todd Whitten said.
Conque said he thought a lot of that was the comfort level of the defenses increasing.
It was homecoming and the opening of Southland Conference play for the Bears (5-1, 1-0 Southland Conference ), and the biggest surprise may have been that the player of the game, as voted on by the media, was a defensive player.
Defensive end Larry Hart had 1 1 / 2 sacks and three tackles for a loss.
“He spent quite a bit of time in our backfield,” Whitten said. “That was one of the best defensive fronts we’ve seen this season.” Part of the reason Hart’s success was that the Bears’ coaching staff allowed him to float along the defensive line.
“I had a specific assignment I had to go to, but not a specific place,” Hart said.
Conque said that allowed the Bears to keep Hart from being hurt by a defensive shift or alignment.
“We were able to do some things that we weren’t able to do against Tulsa, when they isolated on him,” Conque said.
Central Arkansas also caught the Bearkats off guard with a quick kick by quarterback Nathan Brown in the third quarter. On third-and-24, Brown took the snap and kicked the ball 47 yards. A personal foul took 10 yards off the kick, but Brown said he was just happy to get off the kick.
“In 2006 we tried to quick kick in the first game of the season against Henderson State, and I’ll just blame that on my broken thumb,” Brown said. “That time I didn’t get it past my blockers.” The play of the night, however, belonged to Central Arkansas tight end Marquez Branson. Branson caught a short pass from Brown in traffic, broke a couple of tackles to the outside and began sprinting toward the end zone.
Two Sam Houston State defensive backs appeared to have Branson wrapped up around the 10 when Branson slipped another tackler who kept ahold of Branson’s leg for a moment, turning the tight end around. Branson fought another Sam Houston State back while stumbling backward, falling into the end zone to score the Bears’ fifth touchdown of the first half.
Brown finished the night 20 of 28 passing for 269 yards and 3 touchdowns, but was intercepted for the first time in 178 consecutive passes. Receiver Willie Landers had 5 catches for 108 yards and caught 2 of Brown’s touchdown passes. One of Landers’ touchdown receptions went 60 yards.
Bomar had a game-high 361 yards passing and three touchdown passes, and added a rushing touchdown for the Bearkats (2-2, 0-1 ).
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