The Southeastern Lions football team endured a surprising, bitter Homecoming loss to McNeese State Cowboys, 13-10, in a Southland Conference game on Oct. 23 in Strawberry Stadium.
The defeat was only seconds before the end of the fourth after a nine-play, 62-yard drive by the Cowboys, which ended in a 52-yard field goal by McNeese kicker, Josh Lewis with only 1.5 seconds left in the game.
“We played hard and played our guts out,” said head coach Mike Lucas. “We moved the ball in the third quarter. That first drive, getting in to field goal range only to throw an interception, but they run back and that was their field goal. Then, here in the very last drive, I use a time out after first down, and then they end up with 1.5 seconds to kick the field goal. If I hadn’t called the time out, time would have run out and we would still be playing.”
Along with the loss, Lucas found the lack of sensitivity by some of his players to be upsetting.
“What upsets me right now, after I shook coach Viator’s hand, I turn around and I see couple guys who are laughing, their guts oughta hurt,” said Lucas. “If they laid it on the line for the Lions, their guts should hurt like mine does. I know there’s a whole bunch of them that do hurt. The amount of time and effort we put into this, if it doesn’t hurt, there’s something wrong.”
The game itself was tedious, as both teams had trouble performing drives throughout the game. Sophomore punter Beau Mothe and his McNeese State counterpart Ben Bourgeois combined for 18 punts in the game.
Offensively, senior quarterback Tyler Beatty finished 19-for-38 for 212 yards and produced an interception for the Lions. Sophomore running back Zeke Jones carried 16 times for 65 yards and scored his seventh rushing touchdown of the season.
On defense, senior linebacker Mark Newbill finished with a game-high 13 tackles to become the school’s career tackle leader along with one sack. Senior defensive back Tommy Connors had eight stops.
“Coverage was nice,” said Connors about the last drive of the game. “We got outside pressure, it turned into a scramble drill. That play, when they [McNeese] dumped to 22, he got about 20 yards, that was a pretty big play for them. It was a hell of a kick.”
The Lions will face off against their Southland Conference rival Central Arkansas on Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. in Conway, Ark. The game will be televised on the Southeastern Television Network located on channel 18 in the Hammond area.