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BEAUMONT, Texas _ The University of Central Arkansas Bears will head to familiar territory for their second true road trip of the season on Saturday when they take on the Lamar Cardinals in Beaumont.

The Bears and Cardinals will be meeting for the 10th time, and sixth time at Provost Umphrey Stadium. UCA leads 8-1 in the overall series that began in 2011.

UCA has good memories of the its last trip to Beaumont, in 2019, when the Bears beat the Cardinals 45-17 behind a 434-yard passing game by then sophomore quarterback Breylin Smith. The Conway native completed 30 of 37 passes (81 percent) for a career-high 434 yards and four touchdowns, with three of those going to true freshman Tyler Hudson, who caught six passes for 120 yards. Hudson's touchdowns covered 5, 64 and 16 yards. Smith also hooked up with tight end Sam Camargo for a 1-yard touchdown.

Hudson took on an extra load a week after then-sophomore receiver Lujuan Winningham broke his arm against Sam Houston. The Bears enjoyed a 21-0 lead after one quarter and were up 31-10 at halftime. UCA totaled 505 yards of offense on the day.

The Bears (2-4, 1-2) are coming off a frustrating 38-35 loss last week at home to Eastern Kentucky in a game they led 21-7 in the second period. 

"We're excited to get back on the field after a rough, tough loss last Saturday,' said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "I think our guys responded as positive as you can, with losing in the fashion that we did. They've come to work, they've put the time and effort in this week.'

The young Cardinals are also 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the ASUN/WAC. Their victories are a 17-10 overtime win over Northern Colorado on the road and a 47-3 victory over NAIA school North American in the season opener in Beaumont. The Cardinals lost to Abilene Christian 56-0 at home on Sept. 25 in a non-conference matchup, then dropped a much closer 24-17 decision to the Wildcats last weekend in Abilene.

"Defensively, it's going to be a little bit different a week for us,' said Brown. "Lamar has a lot of Air Force background in their offense, so they've got some triple option tendencies , so we've spent a lot of time working on that. We know if you don't spend a lot of time on it, you're not going to be prepared for it. So we've been doing a good job of that on defense.

"And offensively, Lamar poses a lot of the same fronts and defensive scheme that we just played in Eastern Kentucky. And we had some success against them. So a lot of stuff is going to carry over from last week, which is a positive thing.'

The Bears have five regular-season games remaining, with another road game next weekend at Top 25 Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Ala., before a pair of home games on Nov. 6 vs. Texas Wesleyan and Nov. 13 against Stephen F. Austin.

"It's an important week for us,' said Brown. "It's another opportunity to get an ASUN/AQ7 conference win. If we play well, it's another opportunity to compete well after a loss, which is always good in football, because you want to get the bad taste out of your mouth.

"It's going to be a challenge. Our guys have to play. We're a team this year who has no room for error. If we don't play well or we stub our toe in a quarter, we haven't proven that we're good enough to overcome that to this point. We have to play well. And I'm looking forward to watching our guys go on the road again and compete.'

The Bears' last road trip, a similar length trip to Abilene Christian earlier this month, saw the Bears score 35 unanswered points and win going away 42-21.