CONWAY, Ark. – Two teams stinging from surprising defeats last week collide Saturday night in a Southland Conference football contest, when Northwestern State visits Central Arkansas.

Kickoff is 6 p.m. at UCA's Estes Stadium between the Demons (0-2 overall, 0-1 in the Southland) and Bears (1-1, 1-0).

Northwestern State was throwing the ball toward the end zone on the final play last Thursday in a bitter 21-18 homefield loss to Incarnate Word in the Southland debut for both teams. UCA fell 35-28 on its homefield in a non-conference contest to Samford, nearly pulling off a comeback from a 35-10 deficit.

It's the third straight home game for the Bears, who opened with a 56-16 thrashing of Southland Conference foe Houston Baptist, which has yet to win a league game in its two-year history.

The Demons made marked improvement from their opening loss at national power Baylor.

NSU put up 344 total yards, 179 rushing, as Natchitoches senior De'Mard Llorens led the way with 87 yards. Senior quarterback Brooks Haack threw for 165 yards on 16 of 33 aim with no interceptions, with senior Tuff McClain leading the receivers by making six catches for a career-best 111 yards.

Junior kicker Eric Piccione knocked through field goals of 38, 47 and 34 yards and punted for a 39.4 average.

Senior linebacker Shawn Stephens made six tackles and blocked a UIW punt for a safety. Junior safety Austin Balthazar led the Demon defense with 10 tackles and a pass breakup.

"We got better during that game, but we didn't finish drives and we didn't do a good job on third downs on either side of the ball," said fourth-year Demons' coach Jay Thomas. "I liked the progress our offensive line showed. Our backs ran hard. Our defense swarmed and chased the ball. We did very well in the kicking game.

"But we didn't finish drives well, had to settle for field goals too often, and we let one get away that was very disappointing," he said. "It's early, we have nine games to go, eight conference games left, and I'm very confident about the direction we're heading."

UCA was burned by two defensive touchdowns scored off Bears turnovers by Samford, and fell behind 35-10 entering the fourth quarter. UCA posted an astounding 36 first downs, ran 115 plays from scrimmage, piled up 577 total yards, and held Samford to minus 20 yards rushing.

"They have a really good defensive front, and are extremely explosive offensively," said Thomas. "We do have our work cut out. We will need to be much better than we were in the UIW game, and I believe we will be.

"We've had a great week of practice and the players have their heads on right," he said.

Game captains for the Demons will be running back Chris Jones, center Cameron Hussey, nose tackle Garron Featherston and deep snapper Ryan Woehlert.

The Demon Sports Network radio broadcast booms out of 100.7 KZBL FM in Natchitoches, with affiliate stations News Radio 710 in Shreveport, 105.5 FM KBUCK of Alexandria and 103.1 KWLA serving Many and Leesville. Veteran announcer Patrick Netherton heads the crew handling the play by play, with sideline reporter Tony Taglavore. Their broadcast starts at 5:30.

There is no live television coverage, but fans can visit UCASports.com/watch and pay $5.95 to watch a UCA production.

 NSU goes to Southeastern Louisiana next Saturday, then is open before a home non-conference game Oct. 8 against Kentucky Wesleyan.