Written by: Sun Belt Conference

Release: 09/05/2009








Saturday, September 5

Louisiana-Lafayette 42, Southern 19
LAFAYETTE, La. - After trailing 12-7 in front of a sold-out, record crowd at Cajun Field, Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns football team scored a string of 35 unanswered points to comeback and cruise to a 42-19 victory over Southern University on Saturday evening.

The attendance of 41,357 broke the previous attendance record of 38,783 against Texas A&M on Sept. 14, 1996.

It was the first meeting between both schools.

Louisiana quarterback Chris Masson turned in an impressive debut in his first career start. The Miami native completed 18-of-24 passes for 283 yards and tossed two touchdown passes. It was the 24th highest passing output in school history.

Undrea Sails was the leading rusher for the Ragin' Cajuns (1-0). He piled up 114 yards on 19 carries with one score.

The highlight of the evening was a 42-yard touchdown pass by wide receiver Richie Falgout - the fourth of his career on his fourth career attempt - which triggered the string of 35 straight points that carried the Cajuns to victory.

Southern quarterback Bryant Lee passed for 254 yards on 18-of-29 passing. He tossed two TD passes to Juamorris Stewart who finished with 173 yards on 10 receptions.

The Cajuns jumped out to an early 7-0 lead mid way through the first quarter. A 1-yard touchdown run by Masson capped off a 12-play, 81 yard drive. During the drive, he completed a key third-and-five pass to Marlin Miller for 18 yards to Southern's two-yard line.

The Jaguars responded on the next possession scoring on a nine-play, 73-yard drive. Lee was able to find Stewart open along the sideline for a 26-yard score. Josh Duran's extra point kick was no good.

A fumble by Marlin Miller on the Cajun's second possession led to a Southern touchdown. Lee hooked up again with Stewart for a 51-yard reception near the end of the first quarter.

UL was able to recapture the lead when Falgout was able to connect with Pierre Hill for a 42-yard touchdown pass. The touchdown throw was Falgout's fourth of his career and the second time he has thrown the Cajuns' first touchdown pass of the season. In 2007, Falgout registered UL's first touchdown pass of the season against Ohio.

UL was able to get the ball back after Hall Davis picked off Lee at the Cajuns 43-yard line. Four plays later, Sails scored on a 56-yard screen pass from Masson. After Tyler Albrecht's extra point the Cajuns held a 21-12 advantage.

The defense was able to come up again for UL on the Jaguar's next possession. Maurice Rolle, Jr. was able to intercept Southern's Kevin Matthews intended pass to Stewart in the end zone. It was the junior free safety's first-career interception.

UL wasted no time taking advantage of the turnover, scoring nine plays later. The 80-yard drive was capped off by a two-yard rush by Sails. Masson led the charge with a 44-yard pass to Louis Lee.

Heading into the half, the Ragin' Cajuns held a 28-12 advantage. Masson highlighted the first half, going 10-for-11 for 178 yards and one touchdown pass.

UL continued their offensive production in the second after Masson was able to convert a fourth-and-three with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Luke Aubrey to end an 8-play, 80-yard drive with 6:58 left in the third quarter. Masson was 4-for-5 on the drive, including a 33-yard pass to Draylon Booker and a 30-yard completion to Lee.

Southern's next drive was stymied by the Cajuns as Dwight Bentley recorded his first career interception at UL's 1-yard line. But Louisiana gave the ball right back to the Jaguars after Sails fumbled at UL's 19-yard line. The Cajuns' defense was able to hold off the Jaguars after stopping Southern on a fourth-and-goal from the five yard line.

Louisiana tacked on another score when Julian Shankle rushed from six yards out to put the game away, 42-12 with 8:38 in the fourth quarter.

The Jaguars tacked on a late score with 1:15 remaining in the game. Jeremiah McGinty scored on a 1-yard plunge to trim the final margin to 42-19.

The Ragin' Cajuns stay at home for one more week. Louisiana welcomes Kansas State to Cajun Field on Saturday, Sept. 12. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will be carried live on ESPN360.com.

Way to go Cajuns!

41,000! I bet that place was wild

(09-07-2009 10:14 AM)chrisattsu Wrote:  Way to go Cajuns!

41,000! I bet that place was wild

It was incredible.

Experiencing that many fans in your own stadium will send chills down your spine.


By the way, I read your article on Texas State's drive for FBS and your wanting the Bobcats to pursue SBC membership.

There is a group of SBC followers, such as myself, who are strong believers that, if and when we go to 12 members, that Texas State is one of the schools added.

I have been fighting for you guys for years over here. Texas State has so many positives and so much potential for growth that it would be silly not to add y'all.

Anyway, good luck this season, and if y'all continue with "The Drive", I'm willing to bet that we'll be conference bothers pretty soon.

Awesome job!!!

niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!

(09-07-2009 01:17 PM)Cajunman02 Wrote:  

WOW, very impressive . . . bet the noise level was just AWESOME when the Cajuns scored again, again, and again . . .

Go SBC !!!!

Did the university handle the large crowd well, as far as parking, tailgating, concessions, etc ?

I'm wondering how our folks (parking, ticket takers, etc) will do when we host Miss. State. I don't think we will be prepared.

Impressive!! Congrats on the win, and that awesome crowd...hopefully the first of many, not only in Cajun land, but the whole SBC!!

(09-07-2009 03:00 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Did the university handle the large crowd well, as far as parking, tailgating, concessions, etc ?

I'm wondering how our folks (parking, ticket takers, etc) will do when we host Miss. State. I don't think we will be prepared.

We are having to deal with the usual complainers on RaginPagin. These are the people who are used to 10-15k crowds, so parking, concessions, etc were never a problem.

As for myself, I had no problem parking...that's what happens when you get there at 9:30 am. I also had no problems with concessions, bathrooms...but that's because I didn't move from my seat once the game started.

How many of that crowd was the away team?

(09-07-2009 06:42 PM)galojah Wrote:  How many of that crowd was the away team?

We normally pull 22-24K for the opener.

We've never played Southern. So, there were some Cajun fans who were intrigued with that idea which bumped our numbers a little more to around 26-28K.

Trust me. The rest were Southern fans. They are without a doubt the best traveling FCS team in the south.

If you can schedule them, do it. $$$$$$$$

We stopped selling tickets a few hours before kickoff. Thousands were turned away.

We'll probably have around 29-30K for Kansas State with most of that Cajun fans.

We already have the SBC record for conference game attendance and non-conference attendance, and we've never won the conference outright.

This thing is boiling over. If we ever put a 9 or 10 win team on the field, we will average 30K.

I fully expect the seating to be increased to 45K in a few years. Plans are already in place for a complete renovation of the pressbox with luxury suites to be added as well. The seating expansion will take place at the same time. The lower level of Cajun Field is already bowled completely. We will simply add in the end zone seating at a minimal cost.

Thats an awesome picture!

(09-08-2009 06:25 AM)Cajunman02 Wrote:  

Great Picture!! And congrats on the crowd and the win. A couple of years ago, ULM had around 32K for the Grambling game. Grambling and Southern travel well and have great bands that pump up the numbers of any game they go to, especially if it is in the state.

I would love to see ULM play Grambling again or mayber Southern. With those numbers, I would think that the AD for ULL would also look at Grambing in the near future.

Congrats again.

Congratulations Cajuns!!

I wish someone would have a shot of the Tailgating area, it was wall to wall tents cooking up everything you could think of.. And of course, the
live Band kept everyone dancing under the Oak,, What a party !
I'll bring my camera Saturday and post some pics next week.
good Luck to all this weekend.. We are going to have our hands full with
Kansas State as well as some of you will with some tuff opponents.
I sure wish we all didn't have to play these money games, and could replace them with regional opponents who would bring a good crowd,
and give us a chance to improve our overall records. I know some say we have to, I say we have to find a way NOT To..And more and more
fans are starting to think the same way. I know, I'm among them every day. I actually like a team like Kansas state. I know they have a better football team than we do, but i think we can compete with them, but
Top 20 teams is just too much to ask of a team who has 1/20 th the athletic Budget. AD'S ,Stop asking your Football teams to do the improbable, and promote winning, not finances. Must i remind you, there is a scoreboard in the endzone, not a Cash Register !

(09-08-2009 12:29 PM)InjunJohn Wrote:  

(09-08-2009 06:25 AM)Cajunman02 Wrote:  

Great Picture!! And congrats on the crowd and the win. A couple of years ago, ULM had around 32K for the Grambling game. Grambling and Southern travel well and have great bands that pump up the numbers of any game they go to, especially if it is in the state.

I would love to see ULM play Grambling again or mayber Southern. With those numbers, I would think that the AD for ULL would also look at Grambing in the near future.

Congrats again.

I would like to purchase a 8 x 10 copy of this photo...do you sell them??


quote='InjunJohn' pid='4603308' dateline='1252430971']

(09-08-2009 06:25 AM)Cajunman02 Wrote:  

Great Picture!! And congrats on the crowd and the win. A couple of years ago, ULM had around 32K for the Grambling game. Grambling and Southern travel well and have great bands that pump up the numbers of any game they go to, especially if it is in the state.

I would love to see ULM play Grambling again or mayber Southern. With those numbers, I would think that the AD for ULL would also look at Grambing in the near future.

Congrats again.
[/quote]

Hey, I would also like to send kudos to the Ragin'CajunNation (like the sound of that). That is exciting to a USA Jaguar fan looking forward to a visit to Lafayette. Keep up the good work and some BCS conference might come calling. Good luck on the year!