 Bowling Green, Ky. - Central Arkansas racked up 407 yards of total offense and scored 14 unanswered points in the second half to defeat the Western Kentucky University football team 28-7 Saturday night at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.
 The loss dropped the Hilltoppers to 0-3 on the season, while Central Arkansas evened its record at 1-1.
 "First of all, we played a very, very good football team tonight. They are going to win a lot of football games," said Hilltopper head coach David Elson. "In the first half, I was pleased that we were five-of-nine on third down, but defensively, we found ourselves trying to stop them on third-and-short too many times. We just did not get it done. We've got to do a better job preparing."
 After falling behind 14-0 late in the second quarter, the Hilltoppers were able to close out the half with a 15-play scoring drive right before intermission. The drive - which covered 77 yards - appeared to be stalled when WKU was stopped on third down, but a holding call on Central Arkansas prior to the punt on fourth down gave the Toppers new life. The Hilltoppers converted three third downs on the drive, including the scoring play as Brandon Smith found the end zone from four yards out to make it a 14-7 game as the teams went into the locker room.
 The Bears outgained WKU 188-143 in the first half, picking up 117 of those yards on the ground. The first Central Arkansas score of the game came via the rush, as Leonard Ceaser broke free for a 51-yard touchdown run with 14:08 to go in the second quarter, capping off a five-play, 70-yard drive.
 After UCA recovered a Hilltopper fumble for the second time in the half, it set up its second scoring drive of the quarter with three pass completions in four attempts to move the ball down to the WKU 17. The Bears were able to keep the drive alive when Brent Grimes converted a 4th-and-2 play with an eight-yard rush, and Robbie Park found Preston Echols for a six-yard scoring pass as Central Arkansas opened up a 14-0 lead before WKU put a touchdown on the board right before the half.
 The Bears delivered a big blow late in the third quarter, as on a 3rd-and-6 play Park connected with Darrius McNeal on for a 73-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds left in the quarter, opening up a 21-7 UCA lead entering the final quarter of play.
 UCA provided a final dagger with 8:37 to play as Grimes capped off a 46-yard drive with an 18-yard scoring run to stretch the lead to the final margin of 28-7.
 For the second straight game, Smith led the Hilltoppers in rushing as he carried the ball 16 times for 59 yards. He was also 8-for-22 passing for 66 yards before leaving the game with an injury. Kawaun Jakes came in and completed 9-of-14 passes for 77 yards. Marcus Vasquez led the Topper receivers with four catches for 55 yards. Defensively, Thomas Majors paced WKU with nine tackles.
 Parks was 18-for-12 passing for 122 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Bears, while Ceaser and Grimes rushed for 91 and 81 yards, respectively, and a touchdown each.
 The Hilltoppers hit the road to face Navy next Saturday (Sept. 26) at 2:30 p.m. (CST). They will return home on Oct. 10 to open Sun Belt Conference play against Florida International.
- WKU -
Postgame Quotes:
Head Coach David Elson
On the game:
“The bottom line is that I have to do a better job getting our team ready to play. I’m not going to go into all the reasons why they might have been fresher, but we have to do a better job of getting our team ready to play.”
On what he told the team after the game:
“I told them that this is a test, and that tough times don’t last but tough people do. Adversity has got to drive you to be even more motivated and even more determined. It has also got to bring you closer together, more than anything else. This is the most adversity that I have experienced in my time here, and I told our guys that I am looking forward to working through this thing. When we come out on the other side we are going to be really proud of the fact that we hung in there and kept fighting, and that we ended up being a good football team in 2009 and a consistent football team in the years to come.”
On the mood after the game:
“It’s a combination of everything. There is frustration and just saying 'all right, how did this happen?' The only way I know how to look at it is to ask 'how do we fix it?' 'What do we do to find out how to get this thing on the right track?' All I know is that we have to go back and look at it and learn from it. We have to make corrections and make changes, if that’s the case. That’s why they call us coaches. I have to be the one to make good decisions, to help us get out of this funk that we’re in and ultimately win some games.”
On Central Arkansas getting the lead:
“I don’t like to go into who is hungrier. I think that is something that is hard to determine. We were a little light up front on defense and we just have a lot of work to do. We just have to get better up front. We’ve talked about it and we feel like we know what our weaknesses are. As coaches, we just have to figure out ways to find out what our guys do the best, and keep them away from the things that they are struggling with and the things that people are taking advantage of. That is coaching and that is what we have to do.”
WKU Player Quotes
Brandon Smith:
On helping the younger guys though the hard times:
“I don’t think anyone is going to put more pressure on us than we are. We go out there and try to work on our game every single day. We have a burning desire to win. From a leadership standpoint, you stop the negativity by showing the younger guys how to handle it. It’s best to lead by example than any other way.”
On the turnover issues:
“No matter what game it is, turnovers are a crucial stat. You just can’t have turnovers if you want to be a successful team. That’s something we have to correct.”
On struggling at the beginning of offensive drives:
“It doesn’t help us out at all. That’s one thing we focus on a lot – trying to get positive yards to start a drive on the right foot. First downs weren’t very good for us tonight.”
On the team’s post-game feeling as a whole:
“It wasn’t a good mood in the locker room. Guys are frustrated, but the team is not falling apart. We’ll stay together, and the leadership of the team will get things going. Guys want to win.”
Thomas Majors:
On Coach Elson’s post-game message:
“He said we have to correct everything we didn’t do today and get ready for next week. This isn’t the end of the season. We have to stick together.”
On the week of practice leading up to the game:
“Going through the week we had a good feeling leading up to this game. What we concentrated on was correcting our penalties and fixing a little of our technique. I believe the technique was what got us tonight.”
On the rise and fall of emotion during the game:
“Throughout the game, they (Central Arkansas) might have a few plays and then we might have a few plays. The momentum is up and down. We have to keep the emotion consistent.”
On the team’s mindset:
“We want to win, just like everybody else does. We know we have to learn from our mistakes, watch film and try to get better.”
On preparing for another powerful rushing attack in Navy’s offense:
“We just have to prepare as we always do. We’ll watch film, look to see what they’re doing and try to come out with the best way to stop them.”
On the overall outlook of the rest of the season:
“I don’t feel like we’re very far from putting it all together. We have to just keep on trusting in the program and keep on trusting the coaches. We have to go hard in practice every day and try to pull out a win.”
