The game began as boring as most UCA vs Red Wolves games begin. Arkansas State opened the proceedings by driving down the field with passes to Courtney Jackson and Corey Rucker, but three quick bupkis-plays compeled to get three from kicker the awesomely monikered Clune Van Andel.

In the first quarter, Red Wolves didn’t have problems moving down the field until the goal line was in sight, seeming to experiment with offensive concepts rather than going with proven methods. Red Wolves closed out the half with a 75 yard drive accented by a nice connection between Raynor and Jackson and capped by a one-yard run from Zac Wallace.

The Red Wolves concluded the half with 201 yards and 12 first downs and up 13-0. Apart from a big run from ShunDerrick Powell, the defense was unrelenting, surrendering only 87 total yards (47 passing yards from McElvain) and allowing zero points. The Bears only got as far at the A-State 49.

“They play a lot of cover over, and they ended up playing cover three, so we had to adjust,” said Corey Rucker on the offense’s early struggles.

The second half as an alarming flip flop, with the Bears finding chinks in the Red Wolves armor. After limiting the Bears to one trip to Red Wolves territory the first half, UCA ran the kickoff to the a-State 43 to open the second half. A pass interference call put the Bears in field goal range, and UCA had its first score of the game – a 42 yard boot from Jake Gaster.

The early second half woes continued with an offensive three-and-out followed by a costly personal foul on the punt that placed UCA well into A-State territory. The snafus resulted in 10 points for the Bears until the Red Wolves finally found some offense and delivered a 68 yard drive highlighted by a 19 grab by Regan Ealy.

The Bears didn’t want to hibernate; McElvain woke up on the next drive, making a series of solid connections to drive UCA into Red Wolves territory which stalled, but a pooch punt placed the Red Wolves on their own two. Raynor wasn’t perturbed. He connected to Rucker for a 57 yard gain, and concluded with a forward flip into the end zone for six more points to elevate the lead 27-11.

The score, however, failed to cook the Bears. Powell broke an 81 yard touchdown to darken in the mood in Centennial Bank Stadium, pulling the score to within 10. The Bears refused to back down, using their big offensive line to create big holes in the middle for Powell and his running mates to break off big runs. Eight minutes left in the game, the score was 27-24.

The defenses for both teams took over. Nobody wanted to win. Everybody was scared to lose! Red Wolves ran a punt into Bears territory only to give up possession after attempting to end zone bombs to Adam Jones. It seemed the game would end at the before mentioned score.

And then misery. David Walker rolled around the offensive line and knocked the ball from Raynor’s hand. putting the Bears on the A-State 35. Moments later, UCA performs a trick play that puts the Bears on the three, and the Bears rumbled in to take the lead.

With 24 seconds left, Raynor – who was under-throwing receivers all night – connected to Rucker for a 52-yard pass to put A-State on the UCA 22. A quick pass to Cross put A-State on the seven with seven seconds to play. An end zone play to Rucker, after the a lengthy replay decision, was confirmed caught with one foot in bounds, touchdown.

“Jay (Raynor) said he was going to put it place for me,” said Rucker on his game winning catch, a fade in the corner of the end zone. “He put up the ball and I was there.” Rucker said that if the play hadn’t worked, they were going to run the fade again. Rucker finished with 179 yards and a touchdown.

“Physically, we’re there. We just have to execute,” said STAR linebacker Justin Parks after the game. “With a guy like (Powell) if you don’t execute he’s going to beat you.”

“Every win is a great win,” said Coach Jones after the game, “I don’t think I’ve ever been in a game like that…I’d argue that it was one of the top two or three comebacks in A-State history.”

The Numbers

Despite Jaylen Raynor’s struggles, the sophomore finished with one rush TD, a pass TD, and 317 yards on 24/47 passing. Cross, Raynor and Wallace combined for 150 yards rushing a three TDs. The defense put on a show in the first half, then gave up 31 in the second, giving up huge chunk plays to Powell, who finished with 176 yards and two scores.

PHOTOS ARE MY OWN