CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. _ The University of Central Arkansas' bid to win a co-United Athletic Conference championship and earn an automatic bid to the FCS Playoffs did not come to pass Saturday in a 14-12 loss to the Austin Peay Governors at Fortera Stadium.

The 20th-ranked Bears finished the regular season 7-4 overall and 4-2 in league play. The No. 12/15 Governors improved to 9-2 and won the outright league title with a 6-0 mark. APSU will be the automatic qualifier from the UAC when the 2023 bracket is released at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. UCA possibly has an outside shot at an at-large bid. 

In a much-hyped game to close the inaugural UAC season, the two defenses dominated, with a combined total of less than 500 yards of total offense in front of a crowd of 9,931, the second-largest crowd in stadium history. That crowd saw the Governors score a pair of touchdowns and the Bears get two field goals and a fourth-quarter touchdown to make it close.

"We got three scores but unfortunately two of them were field goals," said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "They got two scores and they were touchdowns. And that's the difference in the game. 

"I told our guys, I'm proud of them. At the end of the day, the amount of effort and time you put into a sport of football is pretty unreal. And our guys have done a great job, they've answered every call this year. We've been in every game we've played. We played 11 games and every game we played we've had a shot in the fourth quarter, and that's including North Dakota State and Oklahoma State.

"Unfortunately it just wasn't enough. We're playing for a conference championship and one team has to lose, and unfortunately that was us tonight."
 

The Bears, who entered the game with a 4-0 career mark against the Governors, trailed 7-3 at halftime, with only a 21-yard Jake Gaster field goal on the scoreboard. APSU, which has now won nine straight games on the year, pushed its lead to 14-3 midway through the third quarter. UCA added another Gaster field goal, from 28 yards out, with 4:36 left in the period.

The Bears, who finished with just 251 yards of total offense, finally put together a touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, going 67 yards in 10 plays, capped by a 3-yard pass from quarterback Will McElvain to senior wide receiver Jarrod Barnes. UCA's two-point pass was no good, leaving the visitors behind by two with 7:51 to play.

UCA would get two more possessions, the final one starting with 1:31 remaining in the game, but could not find the end zone again.  The Bears netted just nine yards in the two possessions, the first ending in a punt and the second on downs. McElvain completed 23 of 42 passes for 168 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. UCA had just 83 rushing yards, led by junior Kylin James with 34 on six carries. James, from Dumas, Ark., also caught a team-best eight passes for 90 yards.

"We gave ourselves a chance with the final possession and we felt good about it," said Brown. "We just didn't make the timely plays like we've done most times in the past. And they have a great defense, that's a championship level defense. They made it tough on us all day. But we had a shot when it was all said and done and we just didn't convert.

"It was a tough night for our guys because I wanted it bad for them. But look, that's life. Somebody has got to celebrate. It's how you react and respond from that. Our guys can be sad, and should be, and mad, a lot of emotion. But they can be proud of what we've accomplished this year. 

"And if we get an outside shot, maybe some things happen this weekend and maybe we get a shot. I don't know. But if we do, we'll be ready for it. And if we don't, we just didn't do enough, and that's unfortunate."
 

UCA held APSU quarterback Mike DiLiello without a touchdown pass for the second straight year after entering the game with 27 on the season. He completed 19 of 26 passes for 189 yards as APSU finished with 241 total yards of offense. Both teams had one turnover, with the Governors losing a fumble that defensive end Samuel Horton recovered for UCA.

Sophomore linebacker Jake Golday led UCA's defense with a career-high 14 tackles, while senior defensive end Logan Jessup had 1.5 tackles for loss and an eight-yard sack. 

"The defense played well," said Brown. "I thought the defense played good enough for us to win this game today, and put us in a position we wanted to be in. We just didn't do enough on offense. I thought our return game was good on special teams. We did some good things (but it was) too little, too late on offense, and that's frustrating."