Little Rock — It will be a long trip back to Portales for Eastern New Mexico and first year Head Coach Mark Ribaudo after taking a 51-0 beating at the hands of the University of Central Arkansas on Thursday night.

Not much went right for the Greyhounds starting with the first play from scrimmage, a UCA fumble recovered by the Hounds. The play was negated due to an offside penalty.

Coming into the game after narrowly escaping with a seven point win last year on the road to ENMU, the defense was one of the biggest questions for the Bears. But the defense answered those questions.

Yes, they can stop the option. Yes, they are very fast.

And apparently they can force turnovers. ENMU fumbled five times, losing three, and quarterback Michael Benton’s fourth pass of the game was intercepted by Isaac Hendrix.

Jacob Ford was named the defensive player of the game with four tackles, one sack and two forced fumbles.

Offensively the Bears cruised from the second “official” play of the game. Chris Reil found Aaron Fairooz on his first two pass attempts, the second a 43-yard play-action pass that left Fairooz without a defender within 10 yards.

The second touchdown of the game appeared to be the a very similar play except that Reil threw it to the short receiver, tight end Austin Cade. Cade made a spectacular run to get inside the ten but then fumbled the ball. ENMU’s luck didn’t change here as wide receiver Ben Faires was in the right place to scoop and score from about the one yard line. Cade was upset with himself after the play, but got his revenge with three big hits on special teams and finally reaching the end zone in the third quarter on a four yard pass from backup quarterback Nathan Brown.

Both quarterbacks had efficient games and combined to finish 17-for-23 with four touchdowns.

The rest of the backfield was also solid. Kentrel Rogers picked up where he left off last season with another 100-yard game. Willie Hopson returned from a year off and finished with 81 yards on only nine carries, an average of nine yards per carry. Two end-arounds, a hand full of quarterback scrambles and some powerful straight up-the-gut runs by Derrick McKenzie totaled up 235 total yards rushing for the Bears. Both Hopson and Rogers scored touchdowns in the game.

Michael Norvell set the career record for receptions at UCA with his fourth catch of the game. Norvell replaced Draylon Galloway atop the list with 174 catches. He also led the team in receptions and yards where’s he’s third on the career list.

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Final score 51-0… *not 52

I heard several times “either we’re really fast, or they’re really slow”…

Some stats for you:

• Passing offense: ENMU 1, UCA 318
• Fumbles: ENMU 5-3, UCA 1-0 (resulted in a TD)
• Both teams had one INT
• The Bears kicked off 9 times. ENMU only once… to start the game.
• Reil’s #’s—— 11-15-1 for 227 yards, 3 TDs
• Brown’s #’s— 6-8-0   for 91 yards and 1 TD
  (Brown appeared to intentionally throw an incompletion near the end of the game. But I could be wrong on that.)

As has been mentioned Norvell got his four catches to set the career record and then headed to the bench after getting a good ovation. He then iced down his knee. He led the team in catches and yards (68) as 9 bears had receptions in the game. He wasn’t able to get into the endzone though.

Our kickoff coverage was probably the biggest weakness I saw.

The greyhounds had only one opportunity to score, and the WR completely dropped a WIDE-OPEN ball that would have resulted in a TD.

After watching the game it was one of those times when you don’t know if we were “that good” or if they were “that bad.”

The only injury that I really noticed was to WR Brandon Kennemer.  It appeared he had a high ankle sprain. Isaac Hendrix about knocked himself out a couple of times. And Josh Cade had his face mask ripped off his helmet, only held on by the top of it- personal foul ENMU.

Austin Cade, yes there is a relation, had a heck of a game and if he didn’t fumble, probably would have been the player of the game for UCA. His run on the play of his fumble was incredible and he had three big special teams tackles, and I mean big as in powerful.

Late addition: Jacob Ford, selected as the defensive player of the game, led the team with four tackles, had one sack and forced two fumbles. I’d say he deserved it.