CONWAY — Both the offense and defense had their moments on Saturday as Central Arkansas concluded its spring football practices with its annual Purple-Gray game on the final event on the natural grass surface at First Security Field.

The defense had its way early but the offense came on late – leaving both units plenty to be happy with as the defense built a big halftime lead and held on 64-55 under a modified scoring system.

"As a head coach it's good to see the defense have their part of the day and the offense have theirs," said UCA head coach Clint Conque. "It was pretty one-sided early, but it turned into a pretty competitive game. I was pleased at times with both sides and we saw a lot of speed and big-play potential, but we've still got an awful lot of work to do."

The defense dominated early on, keeping the offense from putting drives together and clamping down on third downs. For the day, the UCA offense was just 6-for-24 on third down.

"I was really excited with how the defense came out to play," Conque said. "I thought they came with a lot of energy and asserted themselves. They had a high energy level and really flashed a lot of speed and athleticism and played physical."

Jesse Sims led the UCA defense with 12 tackles and Justin Heard had 10. Seth Allison had a diving interception on a Wynrick Smothers pass.

"Sims and Heard have been in a very spirited battle at the will linebacker position," Conque said. "I thought both of those guys played really, really fast today. Seth Allison continues to make big plays and is very physical and very smart. That was a nice interception he had against the second offense."

After sputtering early, the offense came on strong in the second half. Quarterback Nathan Dick finished 27-for-34 with 280 yards and no interceptions, wide receiver Dominque Croom had six catches for 116 yards and Derrick Steele had seven for 78 and a touchdown. Tight end Brennan Rushing had the Bears' other touchdown reception.

"Right before the half the offense broke through and was able to settle into a rhythm," Conque said. "The defense gave up too many big plays in the second half. It's good to see the offense make those big plays, but it's also disappointing that we couldn't sustain other drives. Being 6-of-24 on third down isn't going to get it done and we can't live on big plays alone so that's somewhat concerning."

Jackie Hinton had 89 yards rushing and Anthony Blackmon added 69 with each getting a touchdown on the ground. Dick had 60 on six carries but lost 21 on three sacks to finish with 39.

"They both averaged over five yards per carry, which is encouraging," Conque said. "You take those two and throw in a second-team all-conference player in Terence Bobo, along with Marcel Threat – who has been out with an injury since the fourth practice – and that's a pretty competitive situation in the backfield. We look for it to be highly competitive all the way through fall camp."

The offense was hindered by two turnovers, throwing an interception and fumbling three times, losing one.

"We've got to value the ball better," Conque said. "We put it on the ground too many times. We've got to play cleaner. All in all, though, I think it was a competitive environment and it was very spirited. We tried to create as much of a game environment as possible and I think that helped us.

"We had a great crowd," Conque said. "We had a little tailgating going on, we were keeping score, had the PA announcer, and did as much as we could to re-create the gameday experience. We had the play clocks operational and that's the first time we've really used those this spring. It may have made the offense a little uncomfortable at the beginning, but they settled into the tempo."

Regardless of the score and the missteps, Conque exits the spring with a positive outlook heading into the next phase of preparation for the 2011 season.

"UCA football won today," he said. "It was a good day and we had a good spring, but it's just one phase. We had 15 practices, three major scrimmages, and now we go into the last few weeks of the semester. We need to focus on academics and rehabilitation – we've got some healing and work to do there. We've got to finish the right way and then get into our summer program with strength and conditioning. We anticipate having most of our players here for the summer. We've got a lot of work to do, and we're looking forward to moving on to that next phase."

The scrimmage was the final event on the natural grass surface at First Security Field at Estes Stadium, as installation is set to begin on UCA's new purple and gray turf on Monday.