CONWAY, Ark. _ The No. 8 University of Central Arkansas Bears scored on their first offensive player of the game Saturday night and never looked back, cruising past the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions 56-17 at Simmons Bank Field.

UCA (3-1) rolled up 374 yards of total offense in the opening half and led 35-10. Senior quarterback Will McElvain from Des Moines, Iowa, was a perfect 15 of 15 passing for 204 yards and a pair of touchdowns at the break. Senior running back ShunDerrick Powell of Hoxie, Ark., went 59 yards for the Bears' first touchdown on their first play. Powell, the leading FCS rusher in the country, finished with 148 yards on 11 carries and a pair of touchdowns playing basically a half.

Fellow senior running back Darius Hale from Pearland, Texas, did his part as well, rushing nine times for 54 yards and three touchdowns, and added an 11-yard touchdown reception. Hale now has 39 career rushing touchdowns. Redshirt freshman wide receiver Malachi Henry of Van Buren, Ark., caught his first career touchdown pass, making a nifty move in the right flat and finishing off a 62-yard touchdown early in the second quarter.

UCA piled up a season-high 566 yards of total offense and matched their season high of 309 rushing yards for the second week in a row.

"I just told our team, I think we came here and accomplished what we were trying to accomplish," said UCA head coach Nathan Brown. "Obviously proud of the efficiency we played with. Offensively for sure. We had two punts in the game, and one was late. We were able to run the ball at will, which is big. And I thought we got the pass game going. Will was on point early in the game, really putting the ball in the receivers' hands where he needed to go with it, making good reads.

"Really just a complete effort, offense, defense and special teams. To come into an environment like this, even though it's close to home, it's still a road game for us. We knew the challenge ahead of us and I thought our guys responded well. We've continued to improve each week. So now the focus is, hey, we've got a big one next week. We have to improve to beat a Top 25 team next week."

Redshirt freshman Landen Chambers played a lot down the stretch and finished with a career-high 102 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Bears cleared the bench in the second half.

"That's so great to see," said Brown. "I've been raving about Landen for two years. At a lot of places, he'd be a feature back. He's that good. Big, strong kid, about 215 pounds, has breakaway speed. I thought he ran really hard against their front-line defense, and with some of our backups in. Which was great. We're going to need him at some point, to be big for us in a big moment. It was good for him to get reps tonight." 

Defensively, the Bears held the Golden Lions (1-3) to 302 yards of offense and just 63 yards on the ground. UCA entered the game allowing just 105 rushing yards. UCA had six tackles for loss and three sacks (TaMuarion Wilson, Buck Cobbs and Kyion Williams/Duncan Parham). Wilson, a senior from Bryant, Ark., intercepted a pass that was tipped by defensive end David Walker and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown but it was called back for penalty.

Hale moved into fourth all-time at UCA with 39 rushing touchdowns and 43 overall touchdowns. Powell pushed his season rushing total to 623 yards, which leads all of FCS.
 

"ShunDerrick is special," said Brown. "If we had kept him in, he might have rushed for 300 yards. But we got him in, got his work in and got him out. And Darius is as good as there is inside the 20 with the football in his hands. He's climbing up the record boards. We know if we give the ball to Darius in a third-and-short, or in a tight red-zone type situation, he's going to, more times than not, get in the end zone.

"Man, they are special. And they're fun to coach."

UCA's offensive possessions consisted of five consecutive touchdowns to open the game, a punt, three more touchdowns in a row, a second punt and the end of the game. The Bears finished with 35:56 time of possession and a season-high 32 first downs, and averaged 8.6 yards per play.

Powell had touchdown runs of 59 and 13 yards. Hale scored four consecutive touchdowns, from the 3, 3 and 1, and also caught an 11-yard touchdown pass. Henry had the 62-yard touchdown reception and Chambers had a two-yard rushing touchdown to end the Bears' scoring. 

Hale caught a team-high 5 passes for 56 yards, while Henry had 4 for 87 yards. Trejan Bridges caught 3 for 53 yards and Kam Robinson had 3 for 31.

"I knew he (McElvain) was having a good night at the half, but I didn't realize he was 15 of 15," said Brown. "Will is one of the best quarterbacks at this level. He's just been overshadowed by two really good running backs and a great offensive line these first few weeks. Will's going to have to throw the ball, we're going to have to have success with the receivers. Malachi Henry had big catches. Trejan Bridges continues to impress. I though Kam Robinson had a big night.

"We have to continue to be able to do that because our run game's pretty good."

The Bears return home next week for another non-conference matchup with the Top 25 Lamar Cardinals at 6 p.m. at Estes Stadium.