CONWAY, Ark. _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears held the lead just once Saturday night but it was when it counted.

A 22-point fourth quarter led the 14th-ranked Bears to their third consecutive come-from-behind victory, a 31-30 win over the Abilene Christian Wildcats to open Southland Conference play at First Security Field at Estes Stadium.

The Bears (3-0, 1-0) found themselves behind late for the third straight week, trailing 27-17 with 11:07 remaining. But the Bears outscored the Wildcats 14-3 the rest of the way, getting a 20-yard pass touchdown from sophomore quarterback Breylin Smith to sophomore receiver Lujuan Winningham and a 3-yard run by senior running back Carlos Blackman for the go-ahead score. Winningham, leading the nation in receiving yards after two games, caught four passes for 91 yards in the final 11 minutes.

The Wildcats (1-2) had one final chance after UCA's kickoff went out of bounds, giving ACU the ball at its own 35 with 1:30 remaining. The Wildcats drove to the UCA 29 but faced a fourth and 6 with 35 seconds remaining. UCA called a pair of time outs before sophomore kicker Blair Zepeda came up short on a 46-yard field goal attempt. Zepeda had kicked a career-long 51 yarder earlier in the quarter, and connected from 42 yards in the first half.

"It's about our team, it's about our guys finding a way,' said UCA head coach Nathan Brown, who has the Bears 3-0 for the first time since 2010. "You could see big plays, you could see defense swarming to the ball. And we missed some interceptions there in the second half that could have changed the game. And we fumbled on a kickoff, we got a sack fumble. But the defense stood up.

"I don't what the word it, but these guys just find a way. It's all about that. I just presented the game ball to our deep snapper Reiv Wood. His dad passed away this week and that's what it's about. He came here today to be a part of this team and this victory. You know, when you come together as a family and a group like we preach, you can really see it coming to fruition in the fourth quarter over the last three weeks.'
 

After falling behind by 10 in the fourth quarter, the Bears turned to the combination of Smith and Winningham for the third consecutive week. Senior D'erek Fernandez returned ACU's kickoff into Wildcat territory and Smith connected with freshman Tyler Hudson for 12 yards on first down. Smith to Winningham netted 13 yards and a final 20-yarder from the same duo closed the gap to 27-24 with 10:09 remaining.

UCA's defense held and forced an ACU punt and the Bears took over at their own 25. A fumble by Smith was recovered by ACU linebacker Jeremiah Chambers at the 19. The Bear defense stiffened again and Zepeda made a 33-yard field goal, good for a 30-24 lead with 5:28 left to play. UCA then got a 13-yard pass from Smith to Hudson and a 23-yarder to Winningham, down to the ACU 42. A 35-yarder to Winningham set up Blackman's 3-yard touchdown run around left end with 1:30 on the clock, giving the Bears their first lead of the night at 31-30.

"I thought Breylin did a good job most of the night finding single coverage,' said Brown. "They double covered Lujuan and Tyler pretty good for a lot of the night, but I thought Breylin hit his backs a lot. And I thought we got some timely runs, Kierre Crossley got out a couple of times. I thought Breylin held his poise, especially after turning the ball over on the series before.

"I told our defense to hold them to a field goal. We knew we were going to have to score a touchdown either way to win the game, and they held them to a field goal and got us a chance just be down six. And we took it down real quick and scored. There were some big third-down conversions, getting to the sticks, guys playing smart football. Just an amazing effort on all ends.'
 

Blackman came out of the backfield to catch a career-high 12 passes for 82 yards, while Winningham finished with six for 119, Hudson had five for 69 and redshirt freshman Michael Fox had career highs of four for 46 yards. Smith had career highs all around, completing 36 of 53 passes for 367 yards.

"I thought our offensive line protected all night,' said Brown. "We threw the ball a lot tonight because we had to. We got behind and had to kind of get out of our game plan. But I thought out defense came up with some big stops. How many times has our defense come up in two minute situations? They have been huge. Coach (Chad) Williams sticks to his guns... we're patchworking in some spots on defense. You're probably seeing names and faces you haven't seen.

"And that's just called being a great team. And that's what's fun to watch, to see who's going to step up and make plays.'

The Bears and Wildcats traded field goals each in the first half, with UCA's Hayden Ray good from 37, 23 and 21 yards. ACU added a first-quarter touchdown run to lead 10-9 at the break. Smith was 19 of 31 for 164 yards in the opening 30 minutes, while Blackman caught eight passes for 64yards as UCA had 207 yards of total offense.

After ACU took a 17-9 lead in the third quarter, UCA tied it at 17-17 when Blackmon grabbed a 10-yard touchdown pass from Smith and redshirt freshman BeSean McCray ran in the two-point conversion in the opening minute of the fourth period.

UCA heads to the islands next week to take on the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at 11 p.m. (CT) at the Aloha Bowl.