Don’t look now, but the McNeese Cowboys are 2-0 inside Cowboy Stadium so far in 2024.
Clifton McDowell ran in a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter, including the game-winner with 31 seconds left as McNeese took down Stephen F. Austin 28-24 in Lake Charles to win their first Southland Conference opener since 2019.
“What a crazy game,” head coach Gary Goff said postgame. “I couldn’t be more proud of our guys. I mean, they battled and battled and battled, and even there in the fourth quarter, when things still weren’t going our way, they continued to just play hard. You can’t ask for anything better than that right there and just in the locker room. You know, we got the making of a good team.”
After falling behind 10-0 in the second quarter, McDowell launched a Hail Mary to Jihad Marks for the 54-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 3 points and gave the Cowboys a ton of confidence coming out for the second half.
The McNeese defense, minus Micah Davey who is out for an extended period with an injury, didn’t give up any points in the fourth quarter to gain control of the game and allow McDowell and the offense to score 14 unanswered points.
The Lumberjacks looked strong early and in the third quarter with Sam Vidlak throwing three touchdown passes with two being 30+ and one of those being a 61-yard strike to put SFA ahead by 10 in the third quarter.
In the end, the defense stood up when necessary to help secure the win.
“Four weeks in a row those guys have battled, they really have,” Goff said. “I mean, even A&M last week. I mean, they fought their tails off. They were overmatched and still played solid defense. I think we had one blown assignment, you know, we didn’t carry their back out of the backfield, and that one touchdown there after we went for the fake punt, and that was about the only blown assignment I saw tonight. There might be more, but hats off to that defense. They battled their tails off.”
McNeese improves to 2-2 with the win and will now shift their focus to Alcorn State, a team that Goff has yet to defeat in his time in Lake Charles. Kickoff from Cowboy Stadium is set for 7:00 p.m.