Conway – After a two-week break from Missouri Valley Conference play, the Central Arkansas Bears welcomed the Bradley Braves to the Bills Stephens Complex on Saturday afternoon. The Bears pushed their conference winning streak to four-straight matches, getting a pair of set piece goals to take down the Braves 2-0.

Central Arkansas (6-7-0, 4-1-0 MVC) controlled possession for the entirety of the first half, outshooting Bradley ten to two and keeping the Braves from putting a shot on goal. UCA put the pressure on early, as Jake Bates fired just over the crossbar in the seventh minute, before Daltyn Knutson pushed a shot high in the 14^th minute. Central Arkansas would get it's best look of the half in the 26^th minute, when Kyosuke Kubota received a ball on a breakaway, but Bradley keeper Brandon Barnes was able to make the save. Corner kicks would lead to solid looks from Knutson and Donald Benamna, before Barnes was able to push an attempt from Knutson wide in the 42^nd minute.
Bradley would get a corner in the 44^th minute, but the Bears were able to clear the ball, sending the match to half with no score.

Central Arkansas would finally break through in the 47^th minute, as Bates launched a long throw in to the Bradley box, where Knutson was able to flick a header past Barnes from seven yards out to give the Bears a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the season. After Benamna and Niklas Brodacki each fired high in the next two minutes, it looked like Knutson had another goal, as he headed a corner from Chris Holmes to the back post and past Barnes, but Bradley would get a team save to keep the deficit at 1-0.

"If there is a team that's the most difficult to score off of set pieces on, it's Bradley," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "They're incredibly competitive, they're committed, they're well-organized, so I was really proud of our group to win the set piece battle today; that's not something that happens to Bradley a lot."

That would remain the case until the 67^th minute, when Christian Ilia launched a corner to the front post, where Nate Lancaster headed it across the box and in, pushing the UCA lead to 2-0 with his second goal of the season. Bradley would turn up the pressure over the final 15 minutes of the match, firing off three of its eight shots during the period, but the UCA keeper would make a pair of saves and the UCA backline would turn away multiple crosses to keep the clean sheet.

"We knew that that was coming," said Duncan of the Braves' late pressure. "We made substitutions to make sure we had the right guys in the defensive third to help us protect the goal. Bradley is going to come up with opportunities, that's what they're good at, so credit to our guys for getting to second balls and limiting their chances. And the chances that they had, I thought we did a good job of altering their shots."

On the day, Central Arkansas put seven of its 21 shots on goal, with Knutston putting three of his five attempts on target and Brodacki adding two shots on goal on three attempts. Kubota and Lancaster each put one shot on goal. In net, Olsen made three saves, earning his sixth win and second shutout of the season.

The Bears return to action on Wednesday evening, heading to Memphis, Tennessee to take on the Memphis Tigers at 7:00 PM, before returning home to take on MVC foe Valparaiso at the Stephens at 7:00 PM on Saturday night. Prior to the match, the Bears will celebrate Senior Day, honoring the careers of eight players who will be suiting up for their final MVC match at the Stephens.

"Memphis is an opponent that we know very well; we play them every year and we play them in the Spring," said Duncan. "We started scouting them pretty early, because they play some of our conference opponents. We can't look past them. If we start thinking only about conference play and take our foot off the gas, we're going to lose to a good team. We've got to be really prepared, and we're going to be."