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.”