South Alabama holds on for 24-22 win over first-place Louisiana

South Alabama didn’t let this one get away, and is still alive for a Sun Belt championship.

The Jaguars held on for a 24-22 victory over first-place Louisiana on Saturday night at Cajun Field in Lafayette, winning despite failing to score in the second half. South Alabama (5-5, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) still has a chance to earn a spot in the Sun Belt championship game if it wins its final two contests and gets some help.

“The first half was really beautiful. In the second half we made our mistakes,” South Alabama coach Major Applewhite said. “We had a special teams error that resulted in a field goal. We had a bust on the defensive call that ended up in a big touchdown, bringing it within eight, but we also did some good things. After the issue on the punt, we held them to a field goal. We did move the ball a little bit, obviously we need to sustain drives better in the second half; put points up on the board, but when it mattered, we got some first downs and took some time off the clock.”

On Saturday, South Alabama built a 24-3 halftime lead before Louisiana stormed back to get within two points with 1:16 to play. However, Jaguars nose tackle Wy’Kevious Thomas stopped Ragin’ Cajuns quarterback Chandler Fields short of the goal line on a 2-point attempt to preserve the lead.

Louisiana (8-2, 5-1) then tried an onside kick, but the ball went out of bounds and to South Alabama. The Jaguars then knelt on the ball three times for the victory, its second straight thriller in Lafayette after a 20-17 win on a last-second field goal in 2022.

For most of the night Saturday, it looked like no such dramatics would be necessary. The Jaguars — who blew fourth-quarter leads in losses to Arkansas State and Georgia Southern this season — scored touchdowns the first three times they had the ball on two short runs by Lopez and a third by Kentrel Bullock, then got Laith Marjan’s 35-yard field goal on the final play of the half to lead by 21 at the break.

“We were just executing the offense,” Lopez said. “We weren’t trying to do too much. If the hole was open, we took it. We game-planned for two weeks and we just executed it.”

Louisiana rallied, however, even after starting quarterback Ben Wooldridge was knocked from the game with a shoulder injury early in the third quarter. The Ragin’ Cajuns got a pair of short Kenneth Almandares field goals to cut the lead to 24-9 early in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, South Alabama could not muster much of anything offensively in the second half. After a punt with 9:30 remaining, Louisiana scored quickly on Fields’ 66-yard touchdown pass to Dre’Lyn Washington, which made it 24-16 at the 8:28 mark.

South Alabama tried to run out the clock, but Lopez was intercepted on a deep ball by safety Kody Jackson with 5:30 to play. Louisiana then drove 85 yards for a touchdown, taking advantage of an offsides penalty and a pass interference flag before Fields powered in from the 2 with 76 seconds remaining to pull the Ragin’ Cajuns within the fateful two points.

South Alabama can clinch bowl-eligibility for the third straight year by beating last-place Southern Miss next Saturday. To win the West, the Jaguars would need to beat both the Golden Eagles and Texas State on Nov. 29 and have Arkansas State (which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker) and Louisiana lose at least once each in their final two games.

Fields finished 14-for-17 for 185 yards and a touchdown for the Ragin’ Cajuns, in addition to the rushing score. Louisiana outgained South Alabama 413 yards to 353, 253-58 in the second half.

Lopez finished 24-for-34 for 285 yards passing with one interception, and also rushed for 34 yards and a score. Jamaal Pritchett caught 11 passes for 170 yards, but the Jaguars ran for just 68 yards as a team.

The South Alabama defense had its share of big moments before Thomas’ stop on the 2-point attempt, including a fourth-down stand on Louisiana’s opening possession, an interception by Jaden Voisin and a fumble recovery by Wesley Miller. Voisin’s interception was his fourth of the season and 10th of his career, a South Alabama program record.

South Alabama also allowed just one touchdown on four trips into the red zone by Louisiana, with three of those possessions ending on Almandares field goals of 35, 25 and 22 yards. The Ragin’ Cajuns were 4-for-13 on third down, though they did go 3-for-4 on fourth.

Kickoff for South Alabama at Southern Miss is set for 2 p.m. next Saturday, with live streaming on ESPN+.