Freshman QB Cody Kirby rolled untouched into the end zone from two yards away with 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter to bring the Missouri State University football Bears from behind for the third time in the contest on their way to a 42-38 win over the Central Arkansas Bears in a non-conference shootout Saturday night at Plaster Field.

Kirby’s third touchdown of the game moved Missouri State to 3-1 for the young season and provided Bears’ second-year head coach Terry Allen with the 100th victory of his coaching career. Allen is now 100-69 in a career which has spanned 15 seasons at Northern Iowa, Kansas and Missouri State. Central Arkansas fell to 1-3 with the loss.

Central Arkansas took a 31-28 lead on a field goal with 9:41 left in the game as the Bears punted four straight times in the second half after punching up four straight touchdowns in the first half for a 28-21 halftime lead. A tipped pass was intercepted by UCA after Central Arkansas took the lead but MSU forced a punt and then drove 80 yards on eight plays to regain the lead. TB Kingjack Washington got 63 yards on four carries and TB Gerald Davis went in from the four to give MSU a 35-31 edge with 3:10 left in the game.

UCA started on its own 10 and covered the last 78 yards on four straight pass completions by QB Nathan Brown. Brown hit WR Cedric Logan for the final 30 yards and a TD to slip UCA back into the lead at 38-35 with 1:20 to play.

After UCA’s first kickoff went out of bounds, FB Waylon Richardet fielded a short kick and returned it 26 yards to the UCA 39. Kirby then hit McElvane for 11 yards to the 28, for nine yards to the 17 and for 15 yards and a first down at the two. On the first play after a UCA time out, Kirby kept the ball and went over the left side of the line and breezed into the end zone for the winning TD with 21 seconds left. UCA tried a long pass from its own 27 on the final play of the game but MSU CB Roger Wright batted it away to seal the Missouri State victory.

Central Arkansas got onto the board with a TD midway in the first period before Missouri State answered with three straight touchdowns. Kirby threw a five-yard scoring pass to TE Clay Harbor and then scored twice himself on one-yard runs for a 21-7 lead midway through the second period. UCA got a 53-yard TD throw from Brown to WR Willie Landers to close to within 21-14 but Missouri State went 66 yards in six plays with Kirby getting a nine-yard TD pass to McElvane with 2:55 left before halftime. Central Arkansas came right back and marched 56 yards in just over two minutes to score with 22 seconds left before halftime.

While it was slowing the MSU Bears throughout the third quarter, UCA got a 66-yard scoring pass from Brown to Landers with 8:33 left in the period to tie the game and set up four lead changes in the final period.

The offensive show produced 1,052 yards to go with the 80 points the two teams had, with UCA enjoying a 562-490 edge in total yards. Brown hit 26 passes for 439 yards and Landers caught five for 144 yards. For Missouri State, Kirby was 22-of-38 for 247 yards. McElvane caught 10 passes for 104 yards, WR Eric Davis had six catches for 62 yards and TE Clay Harbor caught five for 80 yards. G. Davis rushed for 121 yards on 16 carries and K. Washington had 82 yards.

Missouri State, having topped its win total for all of a 2-9 season in 2006, goes into Gateway Football Conference play with just one loss for the sixth time in the past seven years. The only year in that stretch MSU had more than one loss before Gateway play was last year, when the Bears were 1-3. Missouri State makes its first league start next Saturday (Sept. 29) in Youngstown, Ohio, when the Bears take on the defending Gateway champs and FCS playoff semifinalists from 2006, the Youngstown State Penguins, at 5:00 p.m. (CDT).