LAKE CHARLES – The 9^th-ranked McNeese Cowboys kicked off the Lance Guidry era in style on Saturday night when after scoring 33 unanswered points, the Cowboys downed Tarleton State 33-3 in front of 11,901 fans.
 
The win was the 11^th-consecutive regular season win for the Cowboys and ninth-straight non-conference regular season victory.
 
"Anytime you can start the season with a win, no matter who you're playing, you're happy," said Guidry. "I thought our kids competed hard. I didn't think we played flawless by any means but I challenged them to play with a lot of enthusiasm, effort, and by physical and I thought we did that."
 
New quarterback James Tabary completed 19 of 29 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns and adding in Grant Ashcraft's 7 for 12 game and Joe Lissard (4-for-4), the McNeese passing game recorded its fourth-highest yardage output in school history with 358 yards.
 
Eight running backs combined to run for 210 yards as McNeese racked up 568 total offensive yards.
 
On the other side of the ball, the D.W.A. (Defense With Attitude) held the Texans to minus-5 yards rushing and 134 total yards.
 
Tarleton, a Division II school out of the Lone Star Conference, scored the game's first points on a 20-yard Sergio Sroka field goal with 4:20 to play in the first quarter.
 
The Texans managed to cross mid-field just one more time in their next 10 possessions and never crossed their own 40-yard line in the second half.
 
Tabary, in seeing action for the first time as a Cowboy, started off a little sluggish by throwing four incompletions and taking a sack in his first two series but after that, he gathered himself and connected on 19 of his next 25 passes including a perfectly thrown 35-yard spiral to Darious Crawley in the endzone.
 
"I thought once he settled down he started throwing some strikes," said Guidry. "I think a couple of things got us going. Jimmy (Converse) recovering that fumble and Grant throwing a good pass. James settled down and started playing which was good."
 
After completing 6 of 13 passes for 89 yards in the first quarter, Tabary fell into rhythm and connected on 13 of his next 14 for 165 yards and two scores in the second and third quarters combined before cheering on Ashcraft and Joe Lissard in the fourth quarter.
 
Ryan Ross led all rushers with 77 yards on 19 carries while Benjamin Jones, who is coming off a knee injury suffered in the season opener last year, ran for 54 fourth quarter yards on seven carries.
 
Dylan Long, who is also returning from a knee injury, scored two rushing touchdowns and had 31 yards on seven carries.
 
Kent Shelby led 14 different Cowboys receivers to catch a pass with five grabs for 71 yards while true freshman Just Pratt caught four passes out of the backfield for 48 yards while he rushed for 24.
 
Defensively Chris Livings and Kendall Franklin each had a sack. Livings added two tackles for a loss and forced a fumble while Jalen Bowers and Franklin also recorded a TFL apiece.
 
A 22-yard field goal by Trent Manuel tied the game at 3-3 with 12:36 to play in the second quarter.
 
That score opened up the flood gates for the Cowboys.
 
Long's first score came on a 1-yard plunge that was set up by a pin-point, 27-yard, over-the-shoulder strike by Ashcraft to Kylon Highshaw helped set up that score as McNeese took a 10-3 lead with 10:07 to play in the second.
 
The highlight of that 1-yard run was having all-America defensive lineman Isaiah Golden and tight end Austin Nelson set up in front of Long to block the scoring path.
 
Five minutes later, Tabary connected with Crawley from 35 yards out to make it 17-3.
 
Manuel hit a 24-yard field goal at the buzzer to put McNeese up 20-3 at the half.
 
Tabary and Crawley connected once more for a score from 19 yards out with 10:01 to play in the third quarter the Long burst through from 6-yards out with 3:30 to play in the third to make it 33-3. After that, the Guidry called off the dogs and milked the clock.
 
TSU quarterback Garrett Simpson completed 7 of 18 passes for 120 yards while Zed Woerner hit 5 of 13 targets for 19 yards.
 
The Cowboys converted on 8 of 19 third downs while holding the Texans to 0 for 12.
 
McNeese returns to action next Saturday in the highly anticipated matchup against long time rival Louisiana-Lafayette.