Conway – The Central Arkansas Bears opened Missouri Valley Conference play on Wednesday night, hosting the Missouri State Bears at the Bill Stephens Complex. UCA took an early lead before eventually falling to MSU in double overtime.

Missouri State (2-2-1, 1-0-0 MVC) came roaring out of the gate, firing off three shots and taking three corner kicks in the first four minutes of the game, but Central Arkansas (1-6-0, 0-1-0 MVC) responded with a streak of possession of its own, getting shots on goal from Pepe San Roman and Lucas Genty and a corner from Chris Holmes over the next 10 minutes. Ultimately, it would be the purple and grey that would break through first, as Ferdinand MatebuMatebu fired a corner kick into the box, where Daltyn Knutson headed it home to give UCA a 1-0 lead in the 27^th minute.

That lead would hold until the 58^th minute, when a shot by Harry Lewis was blocked by a UCA defender and fell to the feet of Conor Ingram, who put the deflection away for the equalizer. It would appear that Central Arkansas would retake the lead in the 64^th minute, as Holmes fired a rocket from 35 yards out, but MSU keeper Liam Priestly was able to lay out and just know the shot wide.

The purple Bears and the maroon Bears would find themselves unable to break the tie until the 107^th minute, when a hard foul in the MSU box sent Ingram to the penalty spot. UCA keeper Marc Olsen proved up to the task, diving to he left and deflecting the ball, but Lewis beat UCA off the line, heading in the rebound for the golden goal.

On the day, Central Arkansas took nine shots, placing five on goal, and got shots on target from Genty, San Roman, Holmes, Knutson, and Donald Benamna. In goal, Olsen made three saves.

The Bears take the weekend off, before returning to MVC play on Saturday, September 23^rd. UCA will make the trip to Valparaiso, Indiana to take on new MVC member Valparaiso at 1:00 PM.