The Cowboys broke their 11-game losing streak on Saturday night at home.
After falling to Tarleton State on the road in week 0, the McNeese Cowboys made it back to Lake Charles for a home-opening matchup with the Southern Jaguars.
It was a defensive battle throughout the majority of the game. Both teams turned the ball over multiple times and there were only seven points on the board through three quarters of play.
McNeese’s defense allowed just one touchdown and under 200 yards on the day. Southern’s lone scoring drive came on a short field as the Jags went 32 yards in eight plays with running back Jaylon Ford breaking the plane of the goal line from one yard out.
“Couldn’t be happier with our defense. Our defense played unbelievable for the second week in a row,” Gary Goff said postgame. “I can’t speak enough about them. One side of the ball had pressure on them from last year and a lot of finger pointing from everybody. I couldn’t be more proud of that group right there. They have battled their tails off and I thought they played a heck of a game tonight.”
In the second quarter coach Goff made a change at quarterback from Clifton McDowell to Kamden Sixkiller. Coach’s reasoning for the switch was “just looking for a spark…we stalled there a couple of series. Had a couple of turnovers again and we wanted to give Six (Sixkiller) a shot and see if he sparked us and I thought Six (Sixkiller) moved the ball really well.”
The execution with Sixkiller under center was underwhelming as he overthrew his receivers who were going deep on multiple occasions and fumbled on his first posession, resulting in zero points scored for the Cowboys. McDowell went back out there early on in the fourth quarter after Stephen Johnson blocked a Southern field goal attempt. McNeese recovered the live ball and returned it to the Jaguar seven-yard line where McDowell ran the ball into the endzone two plays later to tie the game at seven with 11 minutes to go.
Southern, on the ensuing possession, stalled and their long snapper threw the football over the punter’s head. The punter then drew a flag by illegally kicking the ball out of the endzone. Instead of adding an automatic two points via safety, the coaching staff accepted the penalty and set up McNeese at the Jaguar’s three-yard line where McDowell scored again to give the Pokes the lead.
“Special teams came up with a big block… and then the punt went over their head. Winning ins’t easy, half the country loses every Saturday… but I’m just on cloud nine with how hard these guys continue to battle,” Goff said.
McNeese put up one more touchdown after a Southern three-and-out as D’Angelo Durham has a 27-yard run to set up a two-yard score the following play.
The lead remained the same for the last couple of minutes as McNeese won 21-7. Neither team completed above 50% of their pass attempts and McNeese had just 272 yards of offense on the day.
In the second quarter, defensive back Boogsie Silvera made a spectacular play in the endzone, intercepting Southern quarterback Noah Bodden’s pass and recording 10 tackles (seven solo). Start linebacker Micah Davey had 17 tackles on the night (nine solo), one being a tackle for loss, and broke up a pass.
The win on Saturday was McNeese’s first on the field since November 19th, 2022, and their first home-opening win since the 2019 season when the Pokes beat the Jags. Goff mentioned “it was great. It’s for the kids. I just sat there in the locker room with them and watched them soak it up and how happy and excited they are. They’ve been working hard and listening to us as far as accepting accountablility and trusting the process and doing their job to the best of their ability one play at a time. If you continue doing that, good things will happen.”
Now McNeese will get ready for a road matchup against Texas A&M. Kickoff at Kyle Field is secheduled for 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, September 7th.