Foul talk from the North Alabama Lions wasn’t enough to scare off the Bears Oct. 29, as UCA took home a rainy-day 64-29 ASUN Conference victory that made their Homecoming football game all the more sweet.
UCA Sophomore running back Darius Hale was one to watch throughout the night, breaking his 2021 record of rushing yards by one yard for 255 total with two touchdowns on 19 carries.
Alongside Hale, sophomore running back Kylin James clutched 113 yards on six carries, a career-high for the UCA player.
Wide receivers Jarrod Barnes, a junior, and Myles Butler, a redshirt freshman, both surpassed the 100 mark in receiving yards.
Coach Nathan Brown recognized the rarity of the feat and commended the team’s drive to continue setting personal bests.
“I’m a big fan of history. I think having the opportunity to break records is important to guys,” Brown said. “We were able to do it against a really good football team in a conference game and stay on top of the ASUN mountain. The ASUN mountain is a big deal.”
UCA made a quick lead against the Lions in the first with 12 points. North Alabama wasn’t able to put points on the board until less than ten minutes were left in the second quarter. By the end of the second, UCA was up to 33 while the Lions still clung to those first 7 points.
With 4:54 left in the second quarter, UCA freshman linebacker Jace Benesch was downed. Though Benesch was back on the field by the end of the game, Hale said the sight of his teammate being carted off on a stretcher paired with North Alabama’s trash-talking made the team rally together.
“[The Lions] were talking a lot of stuff and I just feel they were being really disrespectful. So when we got on the offense and got back on the field, we came at it like two times harder,” Hale said. “[We] were pushing a little harder because we had to avenge what they did to our player.”
Hale said that even when opposing teams tend to hammer down on bad-mouthing, he avoids firing back and instead keeps it positive.
“I don’t ever talk bad. I just smile and have a good time,” Hale said.
The Lions managed to get up to 14 points at the start of the third, though UCA would jump to 54 points by the end of it.
The Lions pulled off two more touchdowns in the fourth while UCA climbed to and remained at 64 for the rest of the matchup. The Lions first touchdown of the fourth was made by sophomore running back ShunDerrick Powell, upping their score to 21. The second and final touchdown was made by Junior wide receiver Dakota Warfield with 30 seconds left on the clock, leaving the Lions at 29 points.
While Brown said the team has aspects it can build on before its Nov. 5 game against Eastern Kentucky, he said “our guys, it didn’t matter who was running it, we were having success.”
Brown said Eastern Kentucky would make for a tough game, especially with the Bears being away from home.
The matchup will start at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, in Richmond, Kentucky. This game will be the Bears’ fourth ASUN conference game of the season before the final conference game Nov. 19 against Jacksonville State.