Football: Lamb, Mountaineers Hand Cajuns Season-Ending Loss, 63-14

BOONE, N.C. – Taylor Lamb tossed three second-quarter touchdown passes and rushed for a 29-yard TD in the first quarter as Appalachian State defeated the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, 63-14, in the Sun Belt Conference regular-season finale for both teams on Saturday at Kidd-Brewer Stadium.
 
Thomas Hennigan caught four touchdown passes, including three from Lamb in the second quarter, as Appalachian State (8-4, 7-1 SBC) won its third straight game and claimed a share of the Sun Belt Conference title for the second consecutive year.
 
Louisiana (5-7, 4-4 SBC) needed three plays to take an early 7-0 lead as Jordan Davis broke loose on a 47-yard run on the Ragin’ Cajuns first play from scrimmage before connecting with Devin Scott two plays later on a 28-yard TD pass.
 
The Mountaineers were stopped on their first drive after Tracy Walker dropped Ike Lewis for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1 at the UL 37, but after forcing Louisiana to punt, App State drove 84 yards to knot the score at 7-7.
 
Lamb, who finished 17-for-22 for 242 yards while rushing for 87 yards on five carries, connected with Lewis on a 48-yard pass on third-and-3 to the UL 29 before the senior quarterback optioned right and scored his fifth rushing TD of the season with 7:39 remaining in the first quarter.
 
After Desmond Franklin returned a Louisiana fumble 28 yards to the UL 16, Jalin Moore capped the drive scored on a 3-yard TD run for the Mountaineers and a 14-7 lead with 2:14 left in the quarter.
 
Lamb tossed TD passes of 9, 33 and 12 yards to Hennigan in the second quarter as App State built a 35-7 lead at halftime. The duo connected on a 42-yard scoring pass in the third quarter before Moore scored on a 6-yard TD run for a 49-7 lead after three quarters.
 
Moore finished with 110 yards on 17 carries for the Mountaineers with Daetrich Harrington gaining 118 yards and a 15-yard TD run in the fourth quarter. Backup quarterback Curtis Fitch added a 2-yard TD run with 3:01 remaining for his first career TD for the Mountaineers.
 
Davis completed 9 of 15 passes for 105 yards while gaining 78 yards on the ground on 11 carries. Levi Lewis completed 5 of 9 passes for 96 yards and scored on a 14-yard TD run with 11:09 remaining for Louisiana.
 
Tracy Walker, playing in his final game in a Ragin’ Cajuns uniform, recorded a career-high 15 tackles for Louisiana with Damar’ren Mitchell adding nine.