| Photo courtsesy of McNeese Athletics |
| Cowboy Football By Mason Griffin The Poke Press McNeese football fell to UTRGV 27-10 Saturday at Robert & Janet Vackar Stadium, dropping the Cowboys to 1-3 overall and 0-2 in Southland Conference play. UTRGV scored first late in the opening quarter when quarterback Aidan Jakobsohn connected with wide receiver Kyran Lee for a 4-yard touchdown. Jakobsohn added a 7-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter to give the Vaqueros a 14-0 lead. McNeese got on the scoreboard with a 28-yard field goal from kicker Deaglan Camron late in the second quarter. UTRGV answered with a 28-yard field goal from kicker Brysen Gardner before halftime to take a 17-3 lead at the break. Jakobsohn scored again in the third quarter on a 3-yard rushing touchdown, extending UTRGV’s lead to 24-3. The Cowboys responded early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Devin Lippold connected with wide receiver Curtis Deville Jr. for a 39-yard touchdown. The score cut UTRGV’s lead to 24-10. UTRGV added one more field goal in the final two minutes to secure the 27-10 victory. Following the loss, McNeese Head Coach Matt Viator said the Cowboys did not execute well enough to win. “We didn’t play good enough to win, we didn’t execute good enough,” Viator said. “Defensively, you know, we didn’t do a good enough job against the run, got to tackle a little bit better, got to contain the quarterback better.” McNeese finished the game with 279 total yards, including 109 rushing yards and 170 passing yards. Lippold completed 12 of 29 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 45 yards. Defensive safeties Sentario Willis and Jermaine Hargraves recorded a team-high eight and seven tackles, respectively. Lippold will be out for three weeks with a wrist injury. The Cowboys will host the Texas A&M-Commerce Lions at 6 p.m. Saturday at Navarre Stadium. Cowgirl Soccer By Wyatt Junkmann The Poke Press The Cowgirls’ showed their firepower at the Southland Conference home opener, led by forwards Rhiannon Maynes-Tourond and Gabbi Barusic, to take down Stephen F. Austin 3-2. SFA entered Lake Charles on a three-game winning streak, with wins over Texas Southern, Jackson State and Southland Conference opponent, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, looking to extend their streak with a win over the Cowgirls. However, goals from Maynes-Touround, Barusic and forward Emma Korhonen gave McNeese enough of a cushion to take the victory over the Ladyjacks. SFA made a late push to at least tie, scoring in the 85th minute and applying constant pressure in the final five minutes to score again. In the end, the Cowgirls held off the pressure and secured a 3-2 victory. “The chemistry on the team is great,” Maynes-Tourond said in her post-game interview. “We work really well together on and off the field and I think that our dynamic off the field is why we get results like this… we’ve had two really strong games now and I think a lot of that is due to our chemistry.” Looking ahead to Sunday, the Cowgirls travel to Corpus Christi to take on the Islanders. With the SFA game so close to their victory against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Head Coach Alexsis Cable was very optimistic heading to the Texas coast. “I think using this win and the momentum, I was able to rest a lot of our starters tonight so that we’re able to have a little more breaks,” Cable said. “Going into Corpus Christi, it’s a very hard place to play but I’m familiar with it a little bit, but I think we’ll be able to celebrate this win and use it to carry on for the rest of the season.” Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is not the only common opponent that McNeese and Stephen F. Austin share, as both have played against Jackson State, with both matches resulting in victories. Could this match be a precursor to how McNeese will fare against the Islanders? McNeese looks to make a strong statement in the Southland, with Sunday’s game set at 12 p.m. All games are streamed live on ESPN+. Cowgirl Volleyball By Wyatt Junkmann The Poke Press McNeese Volleyball showed signs of potential at the Southland Conference home opener, but things did not go the way the Cowgirls’ hoped, as McNeese fell to UT Rio Grande Valley in a 3-0 set match. The scoresheet does not tell the whole story of this match, as the Cowgirls were on par with UTRGV while they played what Coach Tayler Gray called much “cleaner ball.” In the first set, McNeese had a much better hitting percentage (.314 compared to UTRGV’s .194), came down from three or more points and kept the Vaqueros honest as they squeaked out the set win. However, the second and third sets were not as clean, with UTRGV holding a hitting percentage of .320 to McNeese’s .032. The third set was not as close as the first two, as the Cowgirls never held the lead in what came to be the final set. “We were uncleaned in this match. I didn’t think we handled ourselves behind the service line and we didn’t handle the service pressure… for whatever reason, our first contact across the board was poor,” said Gray in her post-game interview. The Cowgirls next matchup against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi playing at 1 p.m. Saturday for the first road game on the Cowgirl’s Southland slate. All games are streamed live on ESPN+ |
