Louisiana (Lafayette) is heading to a postseason bowl for the eighth straight year — and in such fitting fashion.
The far-from-perfect, but undeniably resilient Ragin’ Cajuns (6-6, 5-3) weathered adversity early and often and finished strong to survive rival ULM (3-9, 1-7) in overtime, 30-27, for their fourth straight win and sixth overall.
“I don’t know how else you thought that game was gonna end,” coach Michael Desormeaux said. “I mean, it was just kinda par for the course this year with what we’ve been through. Didn’t know if we had enough truthfully to go out there and find a way to win. That’s just what these guys are, man. They scratch and they claw, and I think it was really important to them to send the seniors out with a win someway, somehow. And you don’t get any style points for it, but I’ve never been more proud of a group of people or to be part of a group than I am right now.”
Quarterback Walker Howard (St. Thomas More), relieving an injured D’Wanye’ “Lunch” Winfield (Lutcher), led a fourth-quarter drive to set up a game-tying Tony Sterner field goal, and the defense provided a pair of late stops to force the extra period.
Freshman cornerback Brent Gordon Jr. (Cecilia) made a potentially touchdown-saving stop on first down, then a leaping, acrobatic interception in the end zone three plays later to hold the Warhawks scoreless and set up Sterner’s walk-off kick.
“It was a very good feeling,” Gordon said. “The fact we face adversity and we don’t let that bring us down knowing that we’ve got out brothers that are also there with us, so we can’t let adversity take over. So at moments like that, it’s a real good feeling.”
This story will be updated….