LAKE CHARLES – Cody Orgeron threw for 367 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 35 yards and a score, but the No. 1 team in Division II, West Florida, took advantage of critical McNeese penalties and scored touchdowns on six of 10 possessions to beat the Cowboys 42-36 in the 2021 season opener.
 
Orgeron's passing yards is a career-high and ranks as the fourth-most in a single game in school history. He completed 31 of 47 ranking as the second-most completion and tied for third-most attempts in a game.
 
Josh Matthews caught eight passes for 88 yards and a touchdown while Walker Wood reeled in seven passes for 104 yards while making his debut at the wide receiver spot. Stephon Huderson debuted at running back for the Cowboys with 73 yards and a TD.
 
For the game, the Cowboys totaled 490 yards to UWF's 466 and ran 91 plays while the Argonauts snapped it 56 times.
 
West Florida quarterback Austin Reed completed 19 of 36 passes for 380 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. His top target was David Durden who had six catches for 172 yards and a score.
 
It was a back-and-forth game with McNeese striking first with a 3-yard touchdown run by Deonta McMahon in the Cowboys' second possession of the game. That came after McNeese missed on a 32-yard field goal in the game's opening possession.
 
UWF tied it early in the second quarter when Reed connected with Durden for a 44-yard score then the Argonauts took a 14-7 lead nine seconds into the second quarter on a Durden 6-yard run. The score was set up when a defensive penalty by the Cowboys on a UWF third-and-10 that extended the drive.
 
Orgeron threw his first touchdown of the game on a 13-yard strike to Markel Cotton, but a missed extra point due to a bad snap kept the Cowboys behind on the board at 14-13 with 10:15 to play in the first half.
 
Another long TD pass by Reed, this one of 26 yards to Ka'Ron Ashley, grew the lead to 21-13 a the 6:28 mark. After the Cowboy offense was held to a 3-and-out, West Florida failed to extend its lead after missing on a 39-yard field goal by Danny Laudet with 3:33 on the clock.
 
McNeese pushed the ball down the field in the final three minutes and a crucial 11-yard completion by Orgeron to Cotton with two seconds to play set up a 31-yard Graycen Kennedy field goal to pull McNeese to within 21-16 at the half.
 
The third quarter got off to a good start for the Cowboys with the defense holding UWF to a 3-and-out to start the quarter. McNeese moved the ball from its own 29 deep into Argonaut territory, but on fourth down, Orgeron's completion to Wood was overturned due to a penalty on Wood for going out of bounds and coming back in to make the catch. Wood was forced out on the play by the defender but since he didn't re-enter the field where he was forced out, the penalty was called. So instead of McNeese having the ball with a first down at the 6, West Florida took over on the 20 and marched down the field behind Reed's passing, ending with a 4-yard touchdown pass to Rodney Coates to make it a 28-16 game with 5:16 to play in the third quarter.
 
On the ensuing kickoff, Mason Pierce returned the kick 49 yards, then after a 15-yard face mask penalty by UWF set the ball at the 32, Orgeron capped an 8-play drive with a 1-yard, fourth down touchdown dive at the 1:19 mark. But another missed kick failed to put a crucial point on the board and the Cowboys trailed 28-22.
 
McNeese had a chance to regain the lead after Colby Richardson intercepted a Reed pass at the McNeese 23 but the Cowboy offense was unable to move the ball and was forced to punt it away. Four plays later, West Florida's Shomari Mason scored from 17 yards out to up the lead to 35-22 with 12:37 remaining in the game.
 
The Cowboys continued to battle and on the next possession, McNeese marched 75 yards on 13 plays, ending with a 2-yard Orgeron score to Matthews with 7:31 to play to make it a 35-28 game. The extra point failed, the sixth point of the game kept off the board by the kicking game.
 
The two teams traded scores the next two possessions, UWF scoring on a 9-yard Hargrove catch to put the Argonauts up 42-28 with 5:09 remaining, and McNeese getting a 2-yard Huderson score followed by a two-point conversion pass by Orgeron to Matthews with 2:44 left to pull McNeese to within 42-36.
 
The Cowboys' onside attempt was awarded to West Florida after a Cowboy player touched the ball before the allowable 10-yards and Argonauts were able to run out the remaining time on the clock.
 
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES:
• Three times West Florida was held on a third down and set to put the ball away but McNeese penalties allowed the drives to continue and each led to Argonaut touchdowns.
• The Cowboys left six points off the board, three PATs and one 32-yard field goal.
• Facing a 4^th-and-4 at the UWF 20 early in the third quarter and trailing 21-16, a 14-yard completion to Walker Wood was overturned after Wood was penalized for illegal touching for getting pushed out of bounds and then coming back onto the playing field to make the catch. The official stated if he's pushed out, he must re-enter the field at the spot exiting. Had the play stood, the Cowboys would've had first down at the 6-yard line. West Florida went on to score on the following possession as that one play could've been a 14-point swing.
 
QUOTING COACH FRANK WILSON
"We had costly penalties at critical times and third down situations where we could have gotten off the field. We did not and that cost us and hurt us. We did not play the way that we desire to play it. It's unacceptable to miss three PATs and field goal. Those types of things will put you in a bad position an entire season if you're not able to capitalize and get better from that. I thought our team did continue to compete through the very end. It was close on the onside to give us opportunity to go get another possession and felt confident we'd had an opportunity to win the game.
 
"They have a lot of transfer new guys that we didn't quite know a whole bunch about. But we had an expectation of what they would do schematically but still we were adjusting to some of those things. I give a lot of credit to that football team. There's a reason why they played in two national championships in the last two years and being in existence only five years is a credit to them in the job that their head coach and their staff does.
 
"I thought our offense was resilient. We had some guys that went down like CJ Powell and a couple other guys that we had counted on and the same defensively. We lose our starter in the corner in Chris Joyce and some other guys that went down as well like Trent Winbush and things like that. And so the next guys have to step up. And so unfortunately those guys went down, hopefully they're minor injuries and we'll get them back soon."
 
WORTH NOTING:
• Cody Orgeron extended his streak for consecutive pass attempts without an interception to 138 straight, four shy of matching the record of 142 held by Cody Stroud (2013).
• Markel Cotten made his first career touchdown catch as a Cowboy on a 13-yard play in the second quarter.
• 10 different Cowboys caught a pass for the game.
• Stephon Huderson scored his first TD as a Cowboy on a 2-yard run late in the fourth quarter.
• In his first game as a Cowboy, Corione Harris led the team with 7 tackles.
• Walker Wood, moving from QB to WR during fall camp, debuted in receiver spot by catching 7 passes for 104 yards.
 
NEXT UP:
McNeese will be back in action next Saturday when it visits LSU at 7 p.m.