A homecoming king had already been announced during halftime Saturday at Cajun Field. But, by night’s end, kicker Tony Sterner made a hell of a case for that title in his own night.
The redshirt senior capped a pair of late Louisiana (Lafayette) with two field goals in the final 5:38 of the team’s Sun Belt opener against Arkansas State — the first pulling the Ragin’ Cajuns back even, and the latter lifting them to a 23-20 walk-off victory.
“Just trying to stay calm,” he said matter-of-factly. “I just have to go out there and execute. I have to wait my time. They got in field-goal range. I knew what was gonna happen, knew we were gonna run down the clock and I would have to just go out there and just do my job.”
Sterner finished 3-for-3 on field goals — game-tying kicks of 38 and 25 yards in the third and fourth quarters and the 37-yard game-winner — and 2-for-2 on extra points.
The final boot clinched a third straight victory for the Cajuns (4-1, 1-0) both on the season and in the series with the Red Wolves (2-3, 0-1).
But if many of the 21,211 in attendance may have left Our Lady of Lourdes Stadium considering Sterner the night’s hero, he arguably showed in his reaction that his humility is as consistent as his left leg.
“I just did my job, don’t really —,” he said. “The other 10 people on the field have the harder job. They’re my hero.”
Louisiana (Lafayette) needed every bit of every performance not just on the kick unit, but in all three phases to survive yet another back-and-forth battle with the Red Wolves with four second-half lead changes.
The Ragin’ Cajuns out-gained their guests, 435-293, with a hefty 246-87 edge in the run game and some timely third-down conversions — both components that loomed large late.
“What a team win,” coach Michael Desormeaux said. “In all three phases we had to make plays in that game that made a difference, and good teams find a way to win. It was not always pretty. It didn’t always look like a good team, but in the end you’ve got to find a way to win it. And, Arkansas State, more times than not this is the way the game goes. I mean, it’s just what it is. I do have a lot of respect for their program and what coach (Butch) Jones is continuing to do there. This has been I’d say a good rivalry for a long time where these games typically come down to this.”
Louisiana and Arkansas State traded rushing touchdowns and leads early in the fourth quarter: a 13-yarder by redshirt freshman J.J. Garner on the first play of the period, and then a 6-yarder by Red Wolves freshman Solomon Baggett three minutes later.
But the final minutes belonged solely to the Cajuns.
Quarterback D’Wanye’ “Lunch” Winfield (Lutcher) led an 11-play, 67-yard drive with a half dozen different weapons involved to the Sterner’s game-tying 25-yarder.
The defense forced a quick three-and-out with sophomore defensive back Brent Gordon Jr. (Cecilia) and junior linebacker Micah Johnson (Parkview Baptist) wrapping up a third-down tackle for loss to send the Red Wolves’ offense off the field for the last time.
Winfield, Garner and redshirt sophomore Steven Blanco (St. Martinville) helped lead a long march for inside their own 10-yard line all the way to the game-winner.
“It’s nothing that can get you out of that moment,” Winfield said of his trust in handing . “This is just, like, legendary moments that you can’t just fail that. It’s that little-league play where you just need to kick a field goal, and it’s like, ‘That’s why you signed up for football is for moments like this. You saw this all your life.’ So things like that, the team trusts in him. We watch him kick field goals at every practice and do things like that, so it’s like it’s normal.”
Winfield finished 18-for-21 for 189 yards and rushed 14 times for 64 yards and a touchdown.
Garner led the rushing attack with 78 yards and a touchdown on seven carries, with Blanco’s nine touches for 42 yards next on a list of seven different players with positive contributions on the ground.
The receiving corps was similarly balanced with 10 different pass-catchers, including six totaling between 24 and 36 yards.
“We always told the defense there was gonna come a day when they needed us,” Winfield said. “So it was our time to take that step, because we didn’t play our best the first four games. We know that as offense. We know that there was gonna come a game where they needed us. So we all knew what we needed to do. We were better than that team.”
Johnson and Gordon wrapped up 10 and nine tackles, including 1.5 for loss each.
Redshirt senior linebacker Jake St. Andre (Haughton) had seven tackles, and redshirt senior safety Collin Jacob (Loreauville) had five tackles, including one for loss, and deflected a pass.
The Cajuns are 4-1 for the second time in three years after grinding through the ups and downs of an injury-riddled 2025 campaign.
Next up is a trip to Louisiana Tech (2-2) for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff next Saturday.
“For us, 4-1 is huge,” Desormeaux said. “I said this last week: Your second goal is to get to six wins. Obviously that’s a huge goal to get to postseason play. Right now all of these are really like double, because you’re trying to get to six, and you’re trying stay undefeated in the (Sun Belt) West. And after the first game, you’re either tied for first or you’re tied for last. Well, as long as you’re in first, you control your own destiny.
“Last year, as tough as last year was, we were one game away from getting in the conference championship. You don’t wanna depend on anybody else. This league is freakin’ nuts. You don’t know who’s gonna do what. The teams that you think are gonna win, hell, you’ve got no idea week after week. So for us, what it’s about is controlling your own destiny. And we knew this was gonna be a tough game. Next week is gonna be a really tough game. That’s what it is. You’ve got to find ways to win in the end.”
