Central Arkansas totaled 429 yards of offense as the Bears beat Henderson State 38-14, Thursday in front of a record crowd of 12,755 at Estes Stadium in Conway, Ark.

UCA ranked No. 22 in the Sporting News Top 25 Preseason Poll, used its depth to wear down the Reddie defense, especially in the second half.

“I thought we played well at times, especially on defense,” said HSU Coach Scott Maxfield. “They just have the numbers and their depth wore us down in the second half, but I was proud of the way this team played and kept fighting.”

The Bears stuck first converting three times on 3rd-and-long on their opening possession. Nathan Dick orchestrated a drive that covered 73 yards on 13 plays, capped off by a 21-yard strike to Derrick Steele. Dick was 7-for-8 on the drive for 62 yards.

After another three-and-out for the Reddie offense, UCA put together another lengthy drive that ended in a 4-yard run by Terance Bobo to increase the Bear lead to 14-0 with 14:13 left in the opening half. The Bear drive consisted of 12 plays for 63 yards taking 6:06 off the clock.

Henderson State put together a solid drive towards the end of the first half with help of some solid runs by Jarvis Smith and a 21-yard pass completion to Sean McGrath down to the UCA 7.

However, the Reddies could not punch it in and had to settle for a 31-yard field goal attempt by Charles Gonsalves which hit the upright.

Despite being on the field for 18:07 in the first half, the Reddie defense limited the potent UCA offense to just 14 first half points as the Bears went into the locker-room with a 14-0 advantage.

The Reddies fell victim to fatigue in the second half, as the Bears took advantage of short field situations and ran their lead to 31-0 with 13:57 to play in the game following Dick's third touchdown pass of the game, a 40-yard strike to Al Lasker.

However, the Reddies failed to quit, moving the ball down the field midway through the final quarter as Nathan Nall put Henderson on the board with a 7-yard scoring strike to Jazz Scott with 7:21 to play in the game.

The Reddie scoring drive was set up with a pass from Nall to Labroaderick Barnett for 25 yards, followed by a 24-yard reception by Scott.

Following UCA's final score of the game, the Reddie offense went to work again, starting from their own 27-yardline.

Henderson marched down the field with Israel Valentine capping off a 10-play, 73-yard drive with a 9-yard run for the final score of the game.

Smith ended the game rushing for 87 yards on 17 carries, while Nall completed 18 of 34 passes for 158 yards.

Scott led the Reddie receivers with three receptions for 35 yards, while McGrath also had three catches for 34 yards.

UCA's Dick completed 27 of 36 passes for 280 yards, while Bobo rushed for 43 yards on 12 carries.

Another bright spot for the Reddies was the punting of freshman Christian Latoof who averaged 39.3 yards on six kicks.

The Reddie defense was led by Benny Anderson who ended the night with 10 tackles, while Taylor Stone had seven stops. Robbie Aldridge had a big night defensively with six tackles, two for lost yardage, and a forced fumble.

“There were several positives to take away from tonight,” said Maxfield. “We popped some big runs and had some big plays. There are still plenty of things we have to working before next week.”

Henderson State will next travel to Searcy, Ark. Saturday, Sept. 10 to take on Harding in its first Great American Conference game of the year.