Football hosts UCA Bears Saturday at 2 p.m.
11/11/2009 8:00:00 AM | Football
Order SHSU-UCA football tickets on-line now
Sam Houston State closes out its 2009 home schedule at Bowers Stadium playing host to the Central Arkansas Bears.
Prior to Saturday's kickoff, 26 senior Bearkat football student-athletes who will be making their final home appearance will be honored.
Central Arkansas is in its final year before moving up to full NCAA Division I status. The Bears had the best record in the Southland last year, going 6-1. But UCA was not eligible for either the league title or the NCAA FCS playoffs (Texas State took that honor). This season, UCA stands 5-4 for the year and 2-3 in Southland action.
Quarterback Robbie Park leads the Bear offense with 213.6 yards per game passing. He has completed 156 of 244 passes and thrown 12 TD passes. His top two receivers are James Lovett (34 for 429) and Preston Echols (32 for 413). Brent Grimes leads Bear rushing with 128 carries for 836 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Sam Houston and Central Arkansas meet for the fourth time. The Bears have won the previous three contests.
UCA downed Sam Houston 38-30 in a non-conference game in 2006 38-30. In 2007, Central Arkansas' first season as a Southland member, the Bears won 35-14. Last year, UCA won a thriller in Conway in a Southland TV network game 48-46.
The 2008 contest featured a duel between two of the league's top quarterbacks that came down to a failed two-point conversion with 1:40 to play as Central Arkansas edged Sam Houston 48-46 in Conway last season.
Sam Houston's Rhett Bomar completed 29 of 47 passes for 361 yards and three TDs. Bomar also ran for a score.
Central Arkansas's Nathan Brown was 20 of 28 for 269 yards.
Turnovers set up two early Bear scores as Central Arkansas led 34-27 at halftime. The two teams combined for 969 yards total offense.
Sam Houston stands 4-5 for the 2009 season and 2-3 in Southland Conference play. All four of SHSU's victories have come at home in Bowers Stadium.
McNeese rushed for 418 yards in a 63-42 victory over the Bearkats in Lake Charles, LA, last Saturday.
The Bearkats defeated Northwestern State 34-30 a week earlier in a contest that saw eight lead changes. The victory snapped a two-game losing skid for the Kats who had lost to Southeastern Louisiana 37-21 and No. 15 ranked Stephen F. Austin 42-3 loss in a pair of road games.
Quarterback Blake Joseph hit Jason Madkins for a 39-yard scoring pass with 5:37 to play for the winning points against the Demons.
The Kats opened the season with a pair of thrillers with NCAA Division I FCS foes that both went to the final gun. Sam Houston lost its opener 35-28 to Western Illinois after failing to force overtime with an incomplete pass into the end zone from the WIU three-yard-line on the game's final play.
In the Bearkats' second game, Joseph and Madkins hooked up for a 51-yard pass to set up freshman Miquel Antonio's game-winning field goal as Sam Houston earned a 48-45 victory over North Dakota State.
Conference USA member Tulsa handed the Kats a 56-3 loss in Sam Houston's first road game.
Sam Houston defeated Saint Joseph's of Indiana 41-0 in its final non-conference contest before opening Southland Conference action with a 44-21 victory over Nicholls.
Sam Houston averages 379.3 yards per game total offense this year.
Quarterback Blake Joseph, a senior from Bryan who transferred to Sam Houston this August from the University of Houston has passed for 2,034 yards and 13 touchdowns in eight games. He missed SFA contest with an injury, but returned to throw for 332 yards and two scores and run 65 yards for a touchdown in the 34-30 victory over the Demons. Last week he was 20 of 28 for 300 yards and 4 TDs against the McNeese Cowboys.
Joseph's 2,034 yards passing in 2009 marks the 10th time a Bearkat quarterback has thrown for more than 2,000 yards in a season.
Senior 6-5 wide receiver Jason Madkins has made 43 catches for 890 yards and eight scores. Chris Lucas has 32 catches for 386 yards.
Running back James Aston, a senior from Katy, who was leading the Southland Conference in all-purpose yards, will miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury. Aston had rushed for 566 yards, caught 23 passes for 235 yards and returned 20 kickoffs for 502 yards (including an 89-yard TD at Southeastern LA). He had scored 10 touchdowns.
Chris Poullard, who along with Aston has rushed for more than 1,000-yards in his Bearkat career, has carried 106 times for 399 yards and four touchdowns this year. He was an All-Southland Conference selection at running back in 2007.
Aston and Poullard both have rushed for more than 1,000-yards during their Bearkat careers. Aston has carried 277 times for 1,457 yards and 19 touchdowns. Poullard's career total is 305 carries for 1,418 yards and 15 scores.
With only two starters from the 2008 season back on defense and seven freshmen and three sophomores listed in the two-deep, Sam Houston's defense has struggled at times this fall.
Sam Houston has surrendered 446.4 yards per game. But the unit has had bright moments. The Bearkats shut out Saint Joseph's, limiting the Pumas to only 126 yards total offense. After Nicholls took a 21-17 lead five minutes into the second half, the defense rallied and shut out the Colonels for the rest of the game while the offense produced 27 unanswered points.
In the 34-30 victory over Northwestern State, the Bearkats came up with two big fourth quarter turnovers to help preserve the win.
Defensive back Kenneth Jenkins leads the Kats with 64 tackles. Linebacker Will Henry was 61 tackles and 8 tackles for losses including three sacks. Linebacker Luke McCall has 54 tackles.
Defensive end Chris Brown also has three quarterback sacks. Brown ranks fifth in career sacks at Sam Houston with 15.
Tickets for Sam Houston's final home game are $25 for reserved chairback seats and $15 for general admission. Order tickets on-line now.
For more information on tickets to Bearkat sports events, go on-line to www.gobearkats.com or contact the Sam Houston Athletic Ticket office located in Ron Mafrige Field House at Bowers Stadium. Ticket office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The ticket office telephone number is (936) 294-1729.
