The UCA Bears started their season with a 27-14 loss after they failed to keep up with their Missouri State counterparts in the Sept. 1 Bears vs. Bears matchup at Estes Stadium.

The game kicked off both UCA’s and the Missouri State Bears’ conference seasons and saw a scoreless first quarter from both teams.

Until the end of the second quarter, the UCA Bears successfully kept Missouri State’s senior quarterback Jason Shelley from making any scoring plays with four sacks in the first half.

Despite sophomore defensive back T.D. Williams having broken up a short left pass from Shelley, the Missouri Bears began gaining momentum with six minutes left in the second quarter when their junior kicker Jose Pizano scored a 36-yard field goal, putting MSU on the board 3-0.

The second quarter is when MSU began taking control of the game, only allowing UCA to have possession of the ball for less than five minutes as Shelley made pass after pass down the field, leading to him scoring the game’s first touchdown through a five-yard run with a minute left on the clock.

The ball returned to UCA for only 22 seconds when MSU sophomore linebacker Tahj Chambers intercepted a pass from junior quarterback Will McElvain, allowing yet another opportunity for Shelley to shine before he made a 10-yard touchdown pass.

It didn’t help that following each of those touchdowns were successful kicks from Pizano, landing MSU 17 total points to end the first half.

UCA Coach Nathan Brown said, “In particular, the late first half killed us. You know, we played such a good first 20 minutes in the ballgame. We just let the momentum get away from us, and they capitalized, which is what good teams do.”

“Shelley was hard to get down at times, and I thought we contained him for probably three-quarters of the game. But he was able to score at least a couple of times and that’s why he is who he is. He’s had success doing that,” Brown said.

The next quarter, after Williams broke up another pass from Shelley, Pizano made a 37-yard field goal with a minute left on the clock, giving the Bears a final-quarter challenge to overcome MSU’s 20 points.

McElvain scored UCA’s first seven points after a 12-yard touchdown enabled a successful kick from senior kicker Hayden Ray.

MSU quickly squashed UCA’s newfound momentum less than 20 game seconds later when MSU’s junior cornerback Montrae Braswell caught and returned the kickoff with a 98-yard touchdown. Yet another successful Pizano kick gave MSU its last point of the night, leaving the game 27-7.

“I thought, I was a little disappointed in some of our breakdowns on special teams, with the kick returner, that was kind of a backbreaker,” Brown said.

The MSU Bears fought hard to maintain their lead as they sacked McElvain five times until he could finally get a 7-yard middle pass out to the end zone into redshirt freshman wide receiver Myles Butler’s hands, scoring UCA’s second and final touchdown of the night with a successful kick from Ray to top it off.

McElvain and Brown said the loss was an opportunity to learn for their upcoming games.

Early in the second quarter, after seeing McElvain fake a handoff, MSU’s senior safety Dillon Thomas sacked him and sent McElvain’s helmet flying to the next yard line. Despite being visibly dazed by his second time being sacked, McElvain rejoined the game, where MSU sacked him six more times.

“It was really my fault, I should have changed the protections. It’s really my fault and I’m thinking I’ll learn from it,” McElvain said. “I feel like I left a lot out there. We did a lot of good things on offense. The defense played great, and there’s a lot to be excited for. It’s a long season.”

UCA’s sophomore defensive end David Walker, who got six tackles and two sacks in his first game playing for UCA, said Shelley was a tough match for him to play defense against.

“Overall, we played pretty good. I missed a ton of sacks, tackles, that I should have made, that I usually make all the time. Like Coach said, keeping Shelley in the box was kind of hard because you never knew which way he was going to go,” Walker said.

Brown said, “This game, I’m very encouraged by. Obviously, at times we looked like a really good football team, and at times we didn’t. We looked unorganized, and that’s frustrating.”

“All in all, we want to build on it. We’ll get better from this. It’s my job as a head coach to get us prepared and we’ll be prepared. The fun part about that is you get to go play Ole Miss now. And that’s a little bit of a daunting task, but one we’ll be excited about,” Brown said. 

The UCA Bears will travel to Oxford, Mississippi, this weekend to play Ole Miss. Kickoff starts at 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 10.