NATCHITOCHES, La. _ The No. 13 University of Central Arkansas Bears will try to extend their winning streak to two games on Saturday night when they take on the Northwestern State Demons in Natchitoches, La.

    The Bears and Demons will kick off at 6 p.m. at Turpin Stadium. While the Bears (4-2, 2-1) will be trying to extend their winning streak, the Demons (0-6, 0-3) will be trying to start their first one of the season.

    "I mentioned it to our team once, on Sunday, and I'm not going to mention it again,' said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "Yeah, they're winless, they're 0-6. They've played a fairly difficult schedule. They had to go play at LSU, nobody would really wants to go do that. They played UT Martin out of the Ohio Valley (Conference) who is playing really good right now. So they've had a decently difficult schedule to this point. The ball just hasn't bounced their way.

    "Look, I know the history of this matchup between UCA and Northwestern. It's not an easy one, especially in Natchitoches. That's a tough trip, a tough place to play. They always play us tough. It doesn't matter if they're winless or we're undefeated, or if they have six wins and we have seven wins. It really doesn't matter, it's always going to be a hard-fought game and we're going to have to bring our best effort.'

    The Demons played the ninth-ranked Nicholls Colonels close last Saturday on the road in Thibodaux, La., losing 45-35 after falling behind 24-7 at halftime and 31-7 early in the third quarter. NSU quarterback Shelton Eppler completed touchdown passes of 23 yards to Quan Shorts and six yards to Gavin Landry to get the Demons within 31-21 with 3:12 left in the third period.

    NSU finished the game with 428 yards of total offense (387 passing, 41 rushing) but allowed the Colonels 537 yards, including 349 on the ground.

    "They have a great quarterback that they try to run their offense through,' said Brown. "Quan Shorts, their top receiver, is a transfer from Texas Tech, is one of the top guys in the league. So they try to run the offense through their quarterback and get the ball out fast and throw the ball around the yard.

    "Defensively, they're going to throw more blitzes and fronts at us than any team we'll see all year. Very, very distracting defense. They do a lot of movements and pre-snap stuff to try to get the quarterback's eyes going everywhere. Breylin and our running backs in protection, and our offense line, have to be disciplined as we prepare for these guys.'

    The Bears broke a two-game losing streak last Saturday with a hard-fought 40-31 win over the McNeese Cowboys on "The Stripes." UCA got three touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Breylin Smith _ to Tyler Hudson, Carlos Blackman and Joe Hampton _  and four field goals from sophomore placekicker Hayden Ray to down the Cowboys and improve to 2-1 in conference play.

    UCA's offense totaled 445 yards on the day and averaged 6.6 yards per play, helped by a 78-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Hudson, a 48-yarder from Smith to Jarrod Barnes and a 38-yard touchdown from Smith to Joe Hampton. Blackman, a senior running back, caught a 17-yard touchdown pass among his five receptions and also rushed for a team-high 64 yards. Backup quarterback Luke Hales completed a 19-yard scoring pass to Hudson late in the third quarter.

    Defensively, the Bears recorded nine tackles for loss, including two by junior defensive end Nathan Grant. Graduate cornerback Trai Mosley had three tackles, an interception, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.

    "We've been battle tested,' said Brown, referring to the first half of the Bears' schedule. "One thing I can say about this team is they're going to rise to any challenge that comes at them. And I said last week that maybe the best thing that could have happened to us was being humbled (two weeks ago) down in Thibodaux, La. Hopefully we grew from that and we moved forward and we'll continue to see this team get better and better each week.'

    The Bears and Demons will be meeting for the 13th time, with UCA holding a 9-3 series advantage, all since the Bears joined the SLC in 2006. UCA won 38-17 last year in Conway for its fifth straight victory in the series. The Bears are 4-2 in games played at Turpin Stadium and have won the past two meetings there.

    The Bears return home next Saturday for Homecoming against the Sam Houston State Bearkats at 6 p.m. at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.