LAFAYETTE – The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns found itself in a 21-point hole at halftime before a spirited second-half rally came up just short as South Alabama stopped a potential game-tying, two-point conversion with 1:16 remaining to claim a 24-22 win in a Sun Belt Conference game on Saturday at Cajun Field.
Gio Lopez completed 24 of 34 passes for 285 yards while rushing for a pair of scores while Jamaal Pritchett caught 11 passes for 170 yards as South Alabama (5-5, 4-2 SBC) built a 24-3 lead at halftime and held on to win its second game at Cajun Field in the past three seasons.
Louisiana (8-2, 5-1 SBC), which remained in first place in the SBC West Division ahead of USA, Texas State and Arkansas State, had its six-game win streak snapped.
The Jaguars, who gained 295 yards of total offense and capitalized on a pair of rare Louisiana turnovers (including the first lost fumble of the season) in the first half, were held to 58 yards in the second half as the Ragin’ Cajuns nearly erased a 21-point halftime deficit for the third time since 1971.
“Sometimes things just don’t go your way, it doesn’t matter how hard you work at it or what you plan on doing, sometimes it’s just the way that it goes,” head coach Michael Desormeaux said. “We didn’t play a very good first half, my job as head coach is to get us ready to go, get us ready to play. Certainly, I thought we were. We got hit in the mouth a little bit, didn’t run it very well and didn’t stop it very well in the first half and they (South Alabama) jumped out on top of us.”
South Alabama scored on its first three possessions – the first team to accomplish that against the Cajuns’ defense all season – while limiting Louisiana to one score with a fumble and interception through its first six.
Lopez scored on touchdown runs of 2 and 9 yards to give the Jaguars an early 14-0 lead and after Kenneth Almendares got Louisiana on the board with a 35-yard field goal, Kentrel Bullock scored on a 2-yard run and Laith Marjan booted a 35-yard field goal to end the half.
Chandler Fields came in for an injured Ben Wooldridge during Louisiana’s first drive of the second half and helped direct the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 25-yard field goal by Almendares to cap a 15-play, 60-yard drive which took nearly eight-and-a-half minutes off the clock.
A fumbled snap on a USA punt would give Louisiana solid field position at the Jaguar 21, but Louisiana was only able to manage a 22-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 24-9 with 14:18 remaining.
Fields, who went 14-for-17 for 185 yards, would toss his first TD pass of the season when he connected with Dre’lyn Washington on a 66-yard scoring pass to cap a 3-play, 82-yard drive.
Kody Jackson then picked off Lopez at the UL 14 for his first career interception with 5:30 remaining and the Ragin’ Cajuns would score 12 plays later when Fields scored on a 2-yard run off the left side to close the gap before coming up short on a two-point conversion.
“I’m really proud of the second half effort in this team and I don’t care what anyone that has anything to say about that because it would’ve been really easy to lay down,” Desormeaux added. “I think it showed great leadership, I think it showed belief in each other. And for these guys to fight all the way down to the wire, you know I’m proud of that.
“I think I let our guys down. We had plenty of opportunities down in the red zone area and we didn’t score a touchdown. My job is to get us in the end zone, we settled for a field goal early in the second half when we should’ve went for it. My thought was try to get points on the board and we were struggling to run it a little bit, had a couple throws to the end zone that didn’t get in there.”
Almendares maintained his All-America worthy season for Louisiana as he became the first Ragin’ Cajun since Stevie Artigue (113, 2019) to eclipse the 100-point mark. The senior, who has scored 102 points on the season, also broke Brett Baer’s single-season record for field goals made (20, 2012) after improving to 22-for-24 on the season.
Tyrone Lewis had nine tackles to lead Louisiana. Bill Davis gained a team-high 50 yards on the ground for the Ragin’ Cajuns while Lance LeGendre (7-75) and Harvey Broussard (6-84) each setting career-highs in receptions.
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