McNeese grabs homecoming win

LAKE CHARLES – James Tabary had another stellar night throwing the ball for the McNeese Cowboys while the defensive unit stuffed an offense that has been putting up decent numbers lately as the Cowboys posted a 33-14 homecoming win over Abilene Christian on Saturday night to post the program’s 200th all-time win in Cowboy Stadium.

Tabary completed 28 of 41 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns, and for the fourth time this season, didn’t throw an interception.

“We needed this win,” said head coach Lance Guidry whose Cowboys improve to 5-4 on the season and 4-3 in the Southland Conference. “We stacked two in a row now with wins at Northwestern and now Abilene. Now we’re going to play Sam Houston State. The giant. The number one team in the country.”

McNeese scored a touchdown on its opening possession for the second straight game when Justin Pratt ran it in from four yards out less than five minutes. It was the first of two scores for the true freshman, the first multi-TD game of his young collegiate career.

ACU, who was held to 244 offensive yards, 170 below its average, knotted the game up at 7-7 after recovering a Ryan Ross fumble at the McNeese 16 and needed just two plays to get to the endzone, that coming on a 13-yard Dallas Sealey pass to Troy Grant with 6:16 to play in the first quarter.

The Cowboys’ Defense With Attitude stepped it up several notches after that and held the Wildcats (1-8, 1-6) 66 yards of offense the rest of the first half and a total of 39 in the second half until their final drive of the game.

“I thought we played really well defensively,” said Guidry. “We gave up a touchdown early on but we fumbled the ball inside our 20. But other than that, we didn’t give up anything until the end.”

The defense came up with some big plays as well.

With the ball at the McNeese 29, the Cowboys held the Wildcats on a fourth-and-3 attempt then turned around and got a 13-yard touchdown pass from Tabary to Lawayne Ross to make it 16-7 with 5:27 to play in the half.

On ACU’s next possession, Sealey hit Grant for a 10-yard gain to the McNeese 41 but on the ensuing play, Micah Udeh’s pressure forced Sealey into an intentional grounding and an eventual ACU punt when Kent Shelby returned it 40 yards to help set up a 47-yard field goal by Gunnar Raborn with 13 seconds to play in the half to put McNeese up 19-7.

The Cowboys started off the second half like they did with their first drive of the game as Tabary connected with Parker Orgeron for a 10-yard gain followed by a 20-yarder to Darious Crawley. Four plays later Pratt ran it in from a yard out to make it 26-7.

On ACU’s next possession, Jammerio Gross made his presence felt as he sacked Sealey 1 ½ times in six plays then on the Wildcats’ next possession, sacked Sealey again on a third-and-10 attempt. For the night, the Cowboys sacked Sealey a total of six times, the most since having six sacks against Nicholls last season.

“They’ve been putting up a bunch of yards on people with their quarterback,” said Guidry. “I thought we rose to the occasion defensively tonight.”

Jermaine Antoine picked off his second pass in as many games while Chris Livings added two sacks on the night.

McNeese ran for just 86 yards on the night but had a nice 14-yard touchdown run by Benjamin Jones called back for a holding. Jones didn’t go without the points however. Five plays later Tabary found him on a route as he sprinted to the end zone for the score to make it 33-7 with 7:37 to play in the game.

“Offensively, it looked like we threw the ball well again,” said Guidry. “They kind of stuffed us in the run a bit but we threw the ball well, so that was good.”

Orgeron led 12 players who had catches with five grabs on the night for 65 yards while Shelby hauled in four passes for 69 yards.

Pratt led the team in the running department with 32 yards on eight carries.

For ACU, Sealey completed 15 of 32 passes for 154 yards, a touchdown and interception. His longest completion of the night went for 15 yards.

“We didn’t give up any long ones in the pass,” said Guidry. “Jermaine (Antoine) had another good game and Khalil (Thomas) continues to get better and Dominique (Hill) being back really helps. We were a little beat up in the safety spot but Erik Jones came in and did a good job.

“Come next week we’ll have to put it all together.”