LAKE CHARLES – A near capacity crowd of 17,469 watched McNeese open its 50^th season in Cowboy Stadium with a dominating 48-16 win over Prairie View A&M.
 
The win evened the Cowboys' record to 1-1 on the season as the largest crowd since 19,235 witnessed McNeese beat Lamar in the 2010 season opener.
 
Junior running back Derrick Milton led the offense with three touchdowns and tacked on 109 rushing yards on 12 carries as the Cowboys rolled up 379 yards on the ground while averaging 7.0 yards per carry.
 
Kelvin Bennett added 95 yards and a score followed by Daniel Sams' 73 yards rushing and Dylan Long with 72.
 
Tyler Bolfing completed 7 of 8 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown.
 
Defensively, the Cowboys' unit scored for the second consecutive game when Deonte Thompson scooped up a fumble late in the first quarter to blow the game open early.
 
In last week's opener at Nebraska, Aaron Sam intercepted a pass and returned it 98 yards for a score.
 
"That's definitely a momentum changer," said defensive end Brian Hine. "I thought we played well on defense tonight but not as well as we did at Nebraska. But it's great to get the win."
 
Milton put the Cowboys on the board first with a 27-yard touchdown run with 7:37 to play in the first quarter. Kjellsten missed the extra point and McNeese led 6-0.
 
Prairie View kicker Chris Barrick hit a 47-yard field goal with 4:40 to play in the quarter to cut the margin to 6-3.
 
McNeese's next possession was capped by a 2-yard run by Bennett to make it 13-3. A 30-yard pass from Bolfing to Ernest Celestie set up the touchdown run.
 
On Prairie View's first play on the ensuing possession, Antoine sacked quarterback Jerry Lovelocke which knocked the ball free and Thompson scooped it up at the 7-yard line and ran it in for the score as the Cowboys opened up a 20-3 first quarter lead.
 
"All I was thinking was just to scoop it up and get in the endzone," Thompson said.
 
Milton scored his second touchdown of the game on a 13-yard run to make it 27-3 with 1:03 to play in the second quarter.
 
Celestie, who made two catches for 49 yards, scored on a 19-yard pass play from Bolfing to cap a 4-play, 62-yard drive that upped the score to 34-3 with 12:14 to play in the third quarter. Bennett set up the scoring play with 43 yards on three carries, including a 25-yard dart.
 
The Panters (0-2) scored on their next possession when Lovelocke ran it in from three yards out to make it 34-10 then added another score early in the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 34-16.
 
McNeese added two more scores – a 15-yard run by Milton for his third score of the game, and a 2-yard blast by Long to make it 48-16.
 
The Cowboys put up 517 total offensive yards as the defense held Prairie View to 336, including just 94 on the ground.
 
The Cowboys will be off next Saturday but will return to Cowboy Stadium on Sept. 27 against Arkansas Tech.