ESPN3 Primetime Game: UCA vs SFA

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FRISCO, Texas – Central Arkansas and Stephen F. Austin meet Saturday in Nacogdoches, Texas, in front of a national audience on ESPN3. The matchup is the first of five exclusive Southland Conference games on the broadband network. Coverage begins at 6 p.m., CT.
 
Central Arkansas is coming off a conference-opening win against Nicholls and is 2-3 overall and 1-0 in the Southland while Stephen F. Austin is 3-1 heading into its conference opener. This game will mark the first time SFA head coach Clint Conque will face his former team on the field.
 
The Bears rank third in the conference in passing offense with 277.2 yards per game in the air and fourth in the Southland with 35.4 points per contest. Senior quarterback Ryan Howard leads the offense with 886 yards and 10 touchdowns on 77 of 120 passing.  Senior running back Willie Matthews helps balance the Bears’ offensive attack, carrying the ball 79 times for 305 yards and six touchdowns on the year. Senior receiver Dezmin Lewis leads the receiving corps with 25 catches for 396 yards and one touchdown.
 
The Lumberjacks will be playing their fourth consecutive home game and hope to finish their home stand with an unblemished 4-0 mark. SFA is led offensively by senior running back Gus Johnson, who was recently named to the Walter Payton Award Watch List. Johnson has rushed for 492 yards on 58 carries with nine touchdowns. Johnson’s 492 yards is 16th-best in the nation while is 8.5 yards per carry ranks third and his nine scores is tied for tops in the country.  On the defensive side of the ball, senior linebacker Collin Garrett leads the conference and is 12th in the nation with 10.8 tackles per game.
 
This will be the ninth meeting between the two schools with Central Arkansas holding a slim 5-3 advantage, including a 66-31 win last season in Conway.
 
Lincoln Rose returns for his third season of calling Southland Conference games on ESPN3. He will handle play-by-play duties and be joined in the booth by color analyst and former Howard linebacker Lemont Williams.
 
ESPN3 is ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, a destination that delivers thousands of exclusive sports events annually.  It is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast (via the WatchESPN app), Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. 
 
The network is currently available to more than 92 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider.  The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.

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