Conway – The Central Arkansas Bears hosted the Central Baptist Mustangs at the Bill Stephens Complex for the third Conway Derby on Tuesday evening. The Bears overcame the Mustangs and 85 minutes of rain, taking down CBC 3-0 to push their winning streak to four-straight matches.

The Bears (5-6-0) dominated possession in the first half, leading to 13 first half shots, including shots on goal from Niklas Brodacki, Donald Benamna, and Pepe San Roman.
The Bears also got near misses from San Roman, who continued his season-long assault on the woodwork in the 18^th minute, Nate Lancaster, Benamna, and Lucas Genty, before finally breaking through in the 42^nd minute, when Chris Holmes delivered a corner kick into the box for Jake Bates. Bates headed the ball to Brodacki, who flicked a header past the keeper from three yards out to give the Bears a 1-0 lead with his eighth goal of the season.

Central Arkansas would continue to control the pace in the second half, needing just 10 minutes to add to the lead. Benamna would make a run deep into the CBC (1-9) box before dumping a pass back to the middle, where Christian Ilia would gather and fire, extending the UCA lead to 2-0 in the 54^th minute. That lead would hold until the 90^th minute, when the Bears would get another goal off of a corner from Holmes, who delivered the ball to Dalton Handlin, who capped the night's scoring with his first career goal.

"I think whenever we put the jersey on, we immediately have a set of expectations that we need to meet," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "While we got the result and we got the shutout, and there are things we can point to that were positives, for me it's not good enough to show up and just expect to get a result. It's not realistic and I'm disappointed the we didn't hold ourselves to a higher standard."

On the night, the Bears outshot the Mustangs 21 to three and held a seven to one advantage in shots on goal. Brodacki led Central Arkansas, putting two of his four attempts on frame, while Kyosuke Kubota, Benamna, San Roman, Ilia, and Handlin each added a shot on target. In goal, Marc Olsen made one save to earn his fifth win of the season.

"We got two goals off of corners, so I think that makes it six games in a row that we've scored off of a set piece," said Duncan. "That's one of the positives. Our service was good, and we have a lot of chances; so I think rising up and being brave in those moments got us the result. But for me, beyond that there are a lot of things we have to fix."

The Bears travel to Birmingham, Alabama to take on the UAB Blazers on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM.

"UAB is a very competitive team, their RPI is good," said Duncan of the Blazers. "Their record isn't fantastic, but they're a very strong team and they play a strong schedule, so we're expecting one of our more difficult opponents that we've had yet. I think that we've been battle-tested in our conference games, so we'll be ready and we'll be prepared. We're walking in to a place that's difficult to come away with a win, but that's the goal. We've got four in a row and we want to continue that going into the second half of conference play."