LAKE CHARLES, La. – Thirty-three unanswered points from the Texas A&M University-Commerce football team on Saturday night at Cowboy Stadium gave the Lions a 40-15 win over the McNeese Cowboys and coach David Bailiff his 100^th career win as a head coach.
 
The Lions have won three games in a row, including two in Southland Conference play, and are one of two remaining undefeated teams in the SLC. McNeese is 1-5 overall and 0-2 in SLC games.
 
For the Lions, Eric Rodriguez (Fort Bend Travis) tossed three touchdowns, while Andrew Armstrong (Dallas – Bishop Dunne) added two more touchdowns to increase his season tally to 11. He led NCAA Division I FCS with nine receiving touchdowns coming into the day.
 
After the Lion defense forced a three-and-out on the first drive of the game, McNeese picked off Rodriguez and gave the ball to its offense at the Lion 38-yard line. The Lion defense forced a turnover on downs to keep the Cowboys off the board.
 
On the ensuing drive, Rodriguez hit Armstrong for a 48-yard touchdown catch. Seven of Armstrong's 11 touchdown catches have been for 30 yards or more.
 
The Cowboys forced two turnovers in the first half, after not capitalizing on the first turnover, they did on the second one. Richard Akers recovered a fumble and returned it to the Lion 12-yard line.
 
Knox Kadum hit Josh Matthews for a three-yard touchdown catch with 58 seconds left in the first quarter. McNeese elected to go for two and Walker Wood ran it in to make it 8-7 in favor of McNeese after the first 15 minutes.
 
Deonta McMahon rushed up the middle from a yard out with 10:37 left in the second quarter to extend the Cowboys lead to 15-7.
 
The kickoff from the Cowboys was originally ruled as recovered by McNeese deep in Lion territory, but it was overturned, and the Lion offense put together a 13-play drive to pull to within one as Rodriguez hit Armstrong for an eight-yard touchdown.
 
McNeese was forced to punt with 2:47 left in the half. The Lion offense drove down the field once again and took the lead for the first time since the first touchdown of the game on a 42-yard field goal by Emmanuel Adagbon (Mesquite Horn).
 
The Lion offense came out of the locker room at halftime and put more points on the board with a 27-yard field goal from Adagbon. On the drive that started inside McNeese territory thanks to a 59-yard kickoff return by Sean-Krystoff King (Humble – Summer Creek), Spencer Long (Mont Belvieu – Barbers Hills) had a 25-yard reception.
 
Entering the fourth quarter leading 20-15, the Lions scored 20 points in the fourth quarter with touchdown runs from Long and Reggie Branch (Crosby) as well as a three-yard touchdown catch from BJ Busbee (Long Beach, Calif.). Adagbon went 4 for 5 in his point-after attempts.
 
Rodriguez totaled 268 passing yards with three touchdowns on 24 for 35 passing, but did throw two interceptions. Armstrong had over 100 receiving yards once again. He totaled 113 yards on nine catches with two touchdowns. On the ground, Branch rushed for 63 yards.
 
Michael Noble (Orange, Calif.) led with eight tackles defensively, while Kendall Paul (Dallas – Bishop Dunne) had seven tackles as well as an interception. King also had an interception for the Lions in the fourth quarter.


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UP NEXT
Playing four of the first six games of the season on the road, the Lions close out the season with four of the final five games inside Ernest Hawkins Field at Memorial Stadium. The Lions welcome Houston Christian next Saturday during Homecoming weekend, with kickoff scheduled for 2 p.m.