University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
Central Florida
UCF Slips Past Cajuns With Last-Second Field Goal
10/1/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Loss spoiled 21-point comeback effort by Louisiana-Lafayette
Saturday, Oct. 1, 2005
Statistical RecapLAFAYETTE - A 21-point comeback was negated by a 28-yard field goal with three seconds remaining as Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns fell to Central Florida 24-21 on Saturday night at Cajun Field.
Louisiana (1-3) played almost the entire contest without the services of starting quarterback Jerry Babb. Babb injured his shoulder on the first series of the game and did not return.
UCF (2-2) built a 21-0 lead in the second quarter before UL began their comeback.
The Cajuns found the scoreboard with an eight-play, 47-yard scoring drive under the direction of back-up Michael Desormeaux. Desormeaux had a 19-yard touchdown run negated by a holding penalty, marking the second time in his brief career that he had a TD run taken off the board. UL persisted and eventually found the end zone thanks to a one-yard plunge by Abdule Levier.
Louisiana gained the momentum and was able to make their first defensive stand of the game on UCF's next possession. The ensuing punt was blocked by Derik Keyes and recovered by Wes Simon on the visitor's 23 yard-line.
On third-and-10 from the 12, Desormeaux looked toward the end zone but his pass was intercepted at the goal line by James Cook.
Trailing 21-7 at the half, UL scored twice in the third quarter following a missed field goal by UCF.
Desormeaux engineered an 11-play, 80-yard drive. The redshirt freshman completed 3-of-4 passes for 39 yards and added a pair of rushes for 20 yards. The drive was capped by a six-yard scoring run by Booker Jenkins.
The Cajuns defense then assisted the offense in tying the game. Mark Risher and Marshall Delesdernier recorded sacks on back-to-back plays. The latter, forced a fumble at the UCF seven yard-line which was recovered by Joe Bradley.
Levier scored on the next play to tie the game at 21-21 with 1:51 to play in the third quarter.
Lamar Morgan registered his first interception of the season and third of his career to give the Cajuns the ball at midfield. Louisiana was forced to punt, but was able to get the ball back after another defensive stand.
UCF's defense continued to match the Cajuns defense stop for stop, until an errant 27-yard punt by the Cajuns gave the visitors the ball on their 38 yard-line with 4:04 to play.
Kevin Smith ran eight straight times to move UCF down to the Cajuns 11 yard-line with 21.9 seconds remaining.
Time ran down to 5.3 seconds as UCF rushed to attempt the field goal, but the Cajuns called a timeout. Josh Brown's attempt from 28 yards was good with 2.3 seconds left to play.
Desormeaux led the Cajuns with 76 yards rushing on 17 attempts.
The Cajuns started the game's opening possession from their six yard-line, but were able to move the ball out of their own shadow. Babb scrambled 15 yards to the Cajuns 33, but was unable to get back to the huddle. Desormeaux extended the drive until it stalled near midfield.
UCF opened the scoring on a 60-yard touchdown strike from Steven Moffett to Brandon Marshall on UCF's third offensive play.
The visitors made it 14-0 with an eight-play, 55-yard drive following an interception by Desormeaux. Running back Dontavius Wilcox caught an 11-yard swing pass from Moffett and found the end zone.
Moffett found Marshall again to extend the UCF lead to 21-0 with 9:30 to play in the second quarter. The 15-yard strike was Moffett's tenth straight completion in the game.
-Ragin' Cajuns-
