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LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Elijah McGuire rushed for 136 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns while Terrance Broadway completed 12 of 23 passes for 158 yards and three touchdowns as the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns scored 28 unanswered points and cruised to a 44-16 win over New Mexico State in a Sun Belt Conference game on Saturday at Aggie Memorial Stadium.
Jared Johnson caught TD passes of 5 and 9 yards and Tracy Walker picked off a pair of passes as Louisiana (6-3, 5-0 Sun Belt) became bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive year and opened 5-0 in league play for the second straight season.
"To me, it says a lot about the stability and the overall health of our program," Louisiana head coach Mark Hudspeth said. "The thing that I'm excited about is that we're playing so many young kids right now and developing players. We're playing a lot of people and that's only going to help us as we move forward. There's a lot of football to be played, but we're excited to be bowl eligible for the fourth time in the past four years."
Louisiana gained 402 yards of total offense, including 244 on the ground. James Butler caught five passes for 95 yards for Louisiana with Jevante Watson adding an interception. The Ragin' Cajuns defense forced four turnovers against the high-powered NM State (2-8, 1-5 Sun Belt) offense and allowed 307 yards of total offense, including 103 on the ground.
"To me, our defense continues to improve," Hudspeth said. "Anytime you cause four turnovers and hold a team that's had a lot of success offensively this year the way we did tonight, you've got to really give them credit."
After allowing NM State to take a 3-0 lead on a 22-yard field goal by Maxwell Johnson, the Ragin' Cajuns took the lead for good as Broadway connected with Johnson on a 5-yard TD pass to complete a 15-play, 75-yard drive.
"That was big to be able to go down and score and answer their first drive," Hudspeth said. "They (NM State) did a nice job on getting down the field and (head coach) Doug Martin does a really good job. He's got a really young team and they're getting better. For our guys to come back and score said a lot about our team. Our kids were ready to play tonight."
McGuire added a 7-yard scoring run for Louisiana in the second quarter before Effrem Reed added a 2-yard scoring run to give the Ragin' Cajuns a 21-3 lead at halftime.
McGuire added a 4-yard scoring pass from Broadway with 11:23 remaining in the third quarter to give Louisiana a 28-3 lead and the Ragin' Cajuns added a defensive extra point when Corey Trim returned a NM State extra point attempt that was blocked by Darzil Washington.
Broadway closed out the night with a 9-yard scoring pass to Johnson for a 37-9 lead before redshirt freshman Darrius Hoggins recorded his first career TD when he scored on a 3-yard run.
NM State, which dropped its eighth straight game after opening the season 2-0, scored its first touchdown of the game with Tyler Rogers connected with Teldrick Morgan on a 42-yard scoring pass in the third quarter. Xavier Hall added a 5-yard TD run for NM State with 2:09 remaining.
Rogers finished 19-for-34 for 204 yards for the Aggies with three interceptions. Hall gained 47 yards on 19 carries for the Aggies with Morgan posting game-highs with eight receptions for 117 yards.
Louisiana will return to action on Saturday (Nov. 15) when it visits ULM in a 6 p.m. contest at JPS Field at Malone Stadium.
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