Wildcats close 2017 season at #3 Central Arkansas

CONWAY, Ark. – The ACU Wildcats will close out their 2017 season Saturday against the nation's third-ranked team in Central Arkansas, the fourth nationally ranked team the Wildcats will have played in head coach Adam Dorrel's inaugural season at the helm of the ACU program.

Kickoff from Estes Stadium is set for 3 p.m. and the game can be heard locally on 98.1 FM, and it can be seen on ESPN3.

The Wildcats are 0-3 in their three previous games against teams ranked in the nation's top 25, but those games have seemingly brought out the best in the Wildcats this season. ACU lost at home to then-No. 22 McNeese, 13-7, in a defensive slugfest on Oct. 7 before going to Thibodaux, La., the next week to take on then-No. 23 Nicholls in a game the Colonels won, 29-20.

And last week at home in the season finale at Wildcat Stadium, ACU spotted then-No. 4 Sam Houston State a 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter before mounting a furious second-half rally to take a 35-31 lead with less than six minutes to play. But the Bearkats scored 13 points in the final three minutes to walk out of the Wildcats' first-year venue with a hard-fought 44-35 victory.

ACU has lost two straight against the Bears and enters the season finale having lost five straight games. The Wildcats haven't won their season finale since beating then-No. 24 Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches, 37-35, on Nov. 15, 2014.