NATCHITOCHES, La. _  The University of Central Arkansas offense got untracked in a big way Saturday night, carrying the Bears to an easy 49-21 victory over the Northwestern State Demons in their Southland Conference opener at Turpin Stadium.

    UCA (1-2, 1-0) rolled up a season-high 521 yards of offense and scored more points (28) in the first half than it had in its previous two games against Samford and Oklahoma State. The Bears played the final three quarters with sophomore quarterback Hayden Hildebrand at the controls after senior Taylor Reed exited with a shoulder injury. The Bears didn't miss a beat as Hildebrand completed 12 of 16 passes for 201 and three touchdowns in his first significant action. 

    Sophomore Dominique Thomas had 98 rushing yards on 22 carries, while senior Blake Veasley scored two touchdowns and averaged 5.9 yards per carry as UCA ran for a season-high 267 yards. Senior receiver Blake Gardner had his first career touchdown reception and junior transfer Jacquez McMillian added his first career touchdown reception as well.
    
    "We played the way I knew we were capable of playing,' said UCA head coach Steve Campbell, whose Bears were coming off an open date. "Now there's still a lot of meat left on that bone. We have to clean up our penalties. We left a couple of plays out there. There's a lot of things we need to work on, but we have improved from Week 1 to Week 2 to Week 3. 

    "Offensively, we're definitely better. I was pleased with the progress we made from the Oklahoma State game. We had some explosives today, and that's what we need to have on offense. That's what we've been waiting to see.'

    The explosive plays came early and often for the Bears, who had 265 yards of total offense in the first half, good for a 28-7 lead. UCA scored two rushing touchdowns, a passing touchdown and a pair of field goals and scored on four consecutive possessions in the opening 30 minutes to put the game out of reach.

    UCA opened the scoring with a 47-yard field goal from freshman Matt Cummins at the 10:17 mark of the first quarter, capping a 12-play, 44-yard drive. UCA stretched the lead to 11-0 when Reed hit junior Desmond Lewis with a 16-yard touchdown pass. Junior super back Scott Matiaha ran in the two-point conversion with 6:32 left in the period.

    Veasley did the honors on the next two drives, going in fromm 1 and 3 yards, with Jace Denker adding both PATs. UCA then recovered a muffed punt at the NSU 11 but had to settle for a 22-yard Denker field goal.

    UCA, which lost Reed to a shoulder injury in the first quarter following his 54-yard run to the 1, was 6 of 10 on third-down conversions in the opening half and converted on four of four trips into the red zone.

     Northwestern State (0-4, 0-2) scored with 1:28 left in the half on a 6-yard pass frmo J.D. Almond to Ed Eagan. Chris Moore added the point after to make it 28-7 at the break. UCA's defense held the Demons to 346 total yards, including 105 on the ground. The Demons added two second-half touchdowns on a four-yard run by De'Mard Llorens and a 28-yard pass from Almond to Eagan.

    UCA got a 45-yard touchdown pass from Hildebrand to McMIllian, a 42-yarder to Jatavious Wilson and a 22-yarder to Gardner in the second half. NSU finished with just 71 net yards on the ground. 
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    "This is a big win for us,' said Campbell. "This gets us to 1-0 in the conference. No matter what's happened up to this point, we're 1-0 in the conference. Today was a good confidence builder. We did a lot of things well. There's still a lot of improvement to be made. But you like the fact you can go on the road and win the way that we did, and still know there's things you have to get a lot better at. 

    "I was very pleased with the effort. There was a lot of execution on both sides.'

    Sophomore safety George Odum led the UCA defense with 10 tackles and a forced fumble. Sophomore defensive end Cardell Best had three of UCA's eight tackles for loss, while senior defensive end Jonathan Woodard added 1.5 tackles for loss. Senior safety Bobby Watkins intercepted a pass in the end zone to end a Northwestern State drive.

    The Bears will play their first home game of the season next Saturday when they host Abilene Christian, a 35-32 winner over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.