DENTON, Texas - The Louisiana Ragin' Cajun football team could have panicked here Saturday night, but they didn't.

They've been in this situation before.

Twice in the last two weekends, the Cajuns have held on for last-second victories. So when they started with the football at their own 12-yard-line with 9:44 left, it was business as usual.

What resulted was an 88-yard, 15-play march, one leading to Tyrell Fenroy's third touchdown of the game with 1:10 left, and one that will be remembered if that postseason dream really does come to fruition.

The late score, and a fumble recovery on the ensuing kickoff, locked up a thrilling 31-28 victory over four-time Sun Belt Conference champion North Texas and kept UL in the thick of the league race. More importantly, the Cajuns won a third straight game and a second straight road game for the first time since 1995.

"These guys are going to give me cardiac arrest," said Cajun head coach Rickey Bustle, "but I don't think anyone felt any panic. That's just the way we're winning every one of these ... it's just the way we play.

"Sooner or later, that luck is going to run out."

Hopefully for the Cajuns (4-5, 3-2 Sun Belt), it won't run out for two more weeks, and all the talk of winning five in a row to end the season sounds a lot more plausible.

It may not have seemed plausible when UNT running back standout Patrick Cobbs bowled into the end zone with 9:44 left for his third touchdown of the game, one that gave the Mean Green (2-6, 2-2) its first lead of the game at 28-24. Cobbs had a pair of third-quarter touchdowns that helped the hosts rally back from deficits of 14-0 and 21-7.

Cobbs, the nation's leading rusher in 2003 before missing all of last season with an injury, finished with 197 yards along with the three scores. But he never set foot back on the field after that last score. UL's offense saw to that, even after a penalty started the Cajuns at their own 12 with what turned into a marathon eight-minute, 46-second drive.

"We knew we had a job to do," said Cajun quarterback Jerry Babb, who made his first start since a shoulder injury early in the Oct. 1 Central Florida game. "We had to do it one play at a time and take care of the little things."

It was Babb that scrambled for 11 yards on third down to ignite the drive and provide one of three third-down conversions during the Cajuns' third-longest march of the year. Dwight Lindon had one of those with an 11-yard run to near midfield, and two plays later Babb hit Fenroy with a screen pass for 19 yards to the UNT 32.

With the Mean Green defense reeling, Babb went 12 yards on an option, Fenroy carried two straight times for 10 yards and suddenly UL was inside the UNT 10 with two minutes left. Babb almost scored on a seven-yard option, stretching the ball just short of the goal line, and Fenroy bowled across one play alter for the game-winner.

"Give them credit," said UNT coach Darrell Dickey. "They just ran it down our throats tonight and controlled the ball and the game because of it."

The rest of the story

Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com