Football | 9/26/2014 10:13:00 AM

CONWAY, Ark. _ A new season begins Saturday for the University of Central Arkansas as the Bears open Southland Conference play against the Nicholls Colonels at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

    The Bears (1-3) are coming off a last-second 33-31 loss to Missouri State last Saturday. MSU's Marcelo Bonani kicked a career-long 53-yard field goal as time expired to erase another late scoring drive by the Bears. UCA had taken a 31-30 lead with a 13-play, 76-yard drive with no timeouts that senior running back Willie Matthews had capped with a 1-yard touchdown run with just 59 seconds to play.

    "It was definitely a heart-breaking defeat this past week,' said UCA head coach Steve Campbell, "but there were some good things to build off of. But there were just too many mistakes to be able to beat a quality football team like Missouri State.'

    The Bears, who had gone three games without a turnover, had two interceptions and lost a fumble against Missouri State. UCA also allowed more than 500 yards of total offense for the third time in four games. 

    Bright spots for the Bears included a 90-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Ryan Howard to senior wide receiver Dezmin Lewis on UCA's first offensive play of the game. UCA's defense also recorded 10 tackles for loss, led by sophomore outside linebacker Bailey McIver of Sheridan.

    "That's the thing I love about our guys, we have great young men on our football team,' said Campbell. "They are very resilient. They fight tremendously hard. And they do what we ask them to do. We told them to start fast and they came out and scored on the first play of the game with the 90-yard touchdown. We told them to finish strong, and the last two drives they take it down  and punch it in for touchdowns.'

    Campbell said the Bears are excited to get to the second part of their season, the league race.

    "The thing about this group of guys, they're excited, they're ready to roll,' said Campbell. "We're looking forward to that new season starting this week. There is a lot of energy, lots of enthusiasm. We're looking forward to getting going with the conference portion of our schedule.

    "We're all 0-0, everybody in the conference is starting over with a clean slate. If we take care of business, one week at a time, all the goals that we had set for ourselves in the preseason are still out there for us. So we've very excited about getting ready to play Nicholls.'

    In the Colonels, the Bears will face a team reeling from three blowout road losses to FBS teams and the loss of head coach Charlie Stubbs to health issues after the third game of the season. Interim Coach Steve Axman took over last week and led the Colonels against North Texas on Saturday.

    "Nicholls has traditionally been a very, very tough opponent,' said Campbell. "They are going through some things right now. But they've played a tremendously tough schedule. The preseason magazines had us and Nicholls from the Southland rated as the toughest preseason schedules. They've played three FBS opponents (North Texas, Air Force, Arkansas). 

    "I know they're telling their guys the exact same thing, hey, we're starting over, 0-0. They're going to come in here trying to get their ship righted. It will be a big challenge for us this week, but one we're definitely looking forward to. We're excited about the chance to get going in the Southland Conference.'