Football: Cajuns roll past Warhawks

Tim Buckley, The Advertiser, November 4, 2012

MONROE — As he prepared to put Monroe in his rearview mirror Saturday night, Ragin’ Cajuns football coach Mark Hudspeth could not be happier.

"The bus ride to Lafayette will never be shorter," he said.

That is thanks to a handful of very long drives that helped Hudspeth’s Cajuns beat UL Monroe 40-24 here Saturday night, ending ULM’s five-game win streak, knocking the Warhawks off of their Sun Belt Conference perch and snapping UL’s own two-game losing skid.

UL’s six scoring drives went 77, 79, 86, 87, 99 and 85 yards, the key one being the 99-yarder that started with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter, ended with 5:47 to go, lasted 17 plays and was capped by quarterback Terrance Broadway finding tight end Jacob Maxwell with a 1-yard pass in the back of the end zone to help extend the Cajun lead from 28-17 to 34-17.

That pushed UL, which has now won five straight over rival UL Monroe, to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in Sun Belt play.

ULM, which lost star quarterback Kolton Browning to a reported broken bone in his foot late in the first quarter, fell to 6-3 overall. The Warhawks are now 4-1 in the Sun Belt, out of sole possession of first place in the conference and tied instead now with Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee.

And it’s largely because of how UL was able to milk the clock after the break on Saturday, chewing up 23:03 while protecting its 21-17 halftime lead.

The Cajuns, now tied for fourth in the Sun Belt with Western Kentucky, won the possession time battle 40:35 to 19:25 overall.

"We didn’t panic early when we had two turnovers," said Broadway, whose lone interception came when a pass to Maxwell went off his hands.

"I really appreciate Jake Maxwell. I mean, he came back and made the (TD) play," Broadway added. "I told him when the interception happened, ‘I’m coming back to you, man. It might be the last play of the game, I don’t know, but I’m coming back to you, man.’ "

Broadway did, and it was one of his four touchdown passes in front of 20,203 at Malone Stadium.

The University of Houston transfer from Baton Rouge finished 23-of-32 for 373 yards, with two TD passes to Jamal Robinson and one each to Maxwell and Harry Peoples.

Broadway also ran 14 times for 87 yards and one touchdown, giving him a Cajun career-high 460 combined passing and rushing yards.

"Terrance Broadway, to me, stepped up big-time — because he was really determined to come back and show that he could play much better than he did the week before," Hudspeth said of Broadway, whose had five turnovers — three interceptions and two lost fumbles — in an Oct. 23 loss to Arkansas State.

Broadway completed a 20-yard pass to Robinson to set up UL’s first touchdown, a 12-yard Alonzo Harris inside run that put UL up 7-0.

Robinson, starting in place of the injured Javone Lawson, jumped high and used one hand to pull in Broadway’s pass.

"That was incredible," Hudspeth said.

ULM, however, needed just one play from scrimmage and the ensuing PAT to tie the game, as Browning found a wide-open Tavarese Maye down the left side for an 81-yard TD.

With Browning later out — he left after getting hit by UL defensive lineman Christian Ringo and linebacker Le’Marcus Gibson — ULM recovered an Effrem Reed stripped fumble and, after its drive stalled on the UL 6, came up with a 23-yard field goal from Justin Manton to go up 10-7.

Broadway then found Robinson on a short crossing pattern to go up 14-10, and extended its advantage to 21-10 after slot receiver Harry Peoples pulled in a 23-yard Broadway pass.

Peoples juked a couple would-be tacklers, and scored with just under five left minutes left in the first half.

ULM did get a touchdown in the half’s final minute — backup quarterback Cody Wells threw 19 yards to Je’Ron Hamm — to trim UL’s lead back to four.

But Broadway came out blazing in the second half, first scoring on an 8-yard keeper with just more than six minutes left in the third quarter and — after video review held up a UL Monroe punt that pinned the Cajuns at their own 1 — finally finding Maxwell for his third TD catch of the season.

UL protected its 28-17 lead as Rodney Gillis claimed his third interception of the season and fellow safety Trevence Patt recovered Gillis’ fumble of the INT, a key play with also withstood video review.

"That was some momentum," Ringo said of the interception. "That was right on time."

And the 99-yard drive, boosted by two Harris runs that got the Cajuns out of trouble, took a ton of time, consuming a whopping 9:33.

"We were just looking at the clock, like, ‘Keep ticking, keep ticking,’ " Ringo said.

And it did.

After the Broadway-to-Maxwell touchdown, ULM did get a quick 22-yard TD pass from Wells to Brent Leonard to help make it 34-24 with 4:30 left.

"I’m just proud for the kids, because they went through a really tough last two weeks, and have taken a lot of heat," Hudspeth said.