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Football: One for the coachJoshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • November 28, 2010 MONROE — Cooper Gerami helped UL coach Rickey Bustle go out a winner on a chilly Saturday night in north Louisiana against a heated in-state rival. Gerami swatted Radi Jabour’s extra-point attempt with 4:55 left as the Ragin’ Cajuns held off a late rally by Sun Belt Conference foe ULM for a 23-22 win at Malone Stadium. After the win, which snapped a seven-game losing streak for UL, Bustle told his players that he would not return for the final year of his contract, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Bustle declined to talk about his future with the Cajuns (3-9, 3-5 Sun Belt) afterward. Instead he focused on the thrilling win that kept ULM (5-7, 4-4) from becoming bowl eligible. "It was a great game tonight," Bustle said. "The kids played their hearts out again and finally we found a way to win." Gerami made the play of the game after ULM pulled within one on Kolton Browning’s 10-yard touchdown run with 4:55 to go. The redshirt freshman safety from Lafayette proceeded to block Jabour’s kick as the Cajuns clung to the one-point lead. UL moved down to the ULM 3 on its ensuing drive with two minutes left, but Chris Masson got picked off by Alex Ibe at the goal line. Browning, though, threw four straight incomplete passes to give the ball back to the Cajuns, who ran out the clock for the win. It was all made possible by Gerami’s blocked kick, the 44th for UL since 2002. That ranks fourth nationally over that stretch. "Usually nine times out of 10 or 19 times out of 20, you’re going to get touched, but I guess they had a bust in their blocking," Gerami said. "I came through clean and got my left hand on it." Bustle was impressed by the play. The Cajuns edged North Texas, 28-27, on Oct. 2 after Jermaine Rogers blocked an extra point in the final minute. "That was awesome," Bustle said. "We didn’t block all but two all year, and I believe they both won football games for us." That play resulted in first-year ULM coach Todd Berry coming up just short of getting the Warhawks to the six-win mark. "This one is tough to swallow," Berry said. "You have to give Lafayette and coach Bustle a lot of credit. He was in a difficult situation today, and I thought his team rose up for him. We didn’t play as well as we would have liked."
ULM played well early, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter. Browning hit Keavon Milton with a 1-yard TD pass three minutes into the game to make it 7-0. The Warhawks tacked on Jabour’s 34-yard field goal five minutes later after recovering a fumbled punt by UL’s Orkeys Auriene deep in Cajun territory. After UL’s Brett Baer and Jabour traded field goals, the Cajuns scored 20 straight points to take a 23-13 lead. Masson, who passed for a career-high 330 yards and two TDs, connected with tailback Aaron Spikes on a 3-yard scoring strike to start the spurt and make it a three-point game midway through the second period. Baer drilled a pair of field goals — from 31 and 32 yards, respectively — in the third quarter before Masson tossed a 5-yard TD pass to tight end Ladarius Green in the final seconds of period to make it 23-13. "I think we just executed better," Bustle said of UL’s 20-point run. "We threw the ball better. We had some guys make some plays." Jabour answered with a 28-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter and Browning’s TD run with 4:55 remaining to trim UL’s lead to one. Gerami kept ULM from tying it up by blocking Jabour’s extra-point attempt. "I think some significant events today were the fact that we had some penalties that hurt us," Berry said. "I’ll get that corrected in the offseason. We had some turnovers that hurt us. I will get that corrected in the offseason. And we had some missed assignments. Some of those I will get corrected in the offseason, some I won’t. "You can’t play like we played today and expect to win." After the win, Masson tracked down the game ball. Later he gave it to Bustle, who went out a winner in his final game as UL’s coach after a season that was filled with injuries and inconsistency. "We came out with a fire," said UL defensive end Emeka Onyenekwu. "We needed to do it for the fans. This is the last time this group will be together. We just felt strong that we needed to go out with a bang and set a tone for next season."
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