NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Terrance Broadway wasn't projected as Louisiana-Lafayette's starting quarterback heading into this season.
Now he's a bowl game MVP.
Broadway passed for 316 yards and ran for 108, helping Louisiana-Lafayette repeat as winners of the New Orleans Bowl with
a 43-34 victory against East Carolina on Saturday.
Alonzo Harris rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns for the Ragin' Cajuns (9-4), who briefly squandered a three-touchdown
lead before moving back in front for good on Broadway's 14-yard scoring pass to Javone Lawson late in the third quarter.
Brett Baer added his second and third field goals in the fourth quarter to seal the win.
Broadway, who took over as starter after senior Blaine Gautier's injury in late September, also ran for a 12-yard score.
Shane Carden passed for 278 yards and two
touchdowns for East Carolina (8-5) but was intercepted in Cajuns
territory by Jemarlous
Moten in the fourth quarter as ECU drove for a potential tying or
go-ahead score. The Pirates' Reggie Bullock rushed for 104
yards and two touchdowns.
Carden's touchdowns went to Justin Hardy for
19 yards and Danny Webster for 16 yards. Hardy finished with five
catches for
59 yards. East Carolina's Andrew Bodenheimer had five catches for a
team-high 65 yards, but could not secure a crucial fourth-down
pass in the final minutes as defensive back T.J. Worthy ripped the
ball away in ECU territory. That allowed the Cajuns to
run the clock down to 15 seconds before setting up Baer's final
field goal from 40-yards out.
Jamal Robinson had six catches for 116 yards for ULL, while Lawson finished with four catches for 71 yards.
The Cajuns carried a 37-31 lead into the
fourth quarter after Lawson for a 14-yard score in which the receiver
juggled but
secured the ball for a sprawling, rolling catch. The point-after
kick failed, however, and East Carolina pulled to 37-34 on
Warren Harvey's 26-yard field goal.
Broadway's lone interception on a tipped pass then gave East Carolina the ball on the Cajuns 39, but Moten was able to step
in front of Carden's long pass over the middle to help preserve the slim lead.
With Lafayette a drive of about two hours west of New Orleans, red-clad Cajuns fans came in droves and made up the bulk of
a record New Orleans Bowl crowd of 48,828, and they were celebrating early.
Broadway's scoring run, his ninth rushing TD of the season, gave ULL a 7-0 lead on the Cajuns' first series of the game and
Harry Peoples' 10-yard scoring run pushed the lead to 14-0.
ECU didn't get a first down until early in the second quarter, when Carden converted on third-and-long with a pass to left
sideline, which Jabril Solomon turned into a 45-yard gain. That set up Bullock's first touchdown from 5 yards out to make
it 14-7.
Harris' two scores had the Cajuns seemingly in command at 28-7, but ECU responded with two touchdowns in a span of 13 seconds
off the clock to make it a one-score game again.
First came Hardy's leaping, outstretched
grab in the back of the end zone to cap a 10-play, 80-yard drive. Then
Darryl Surgent
fumbled a kickoff return, giving ECU the ball on the Cajuns 16.
Carden found Webster over the middle for a score on the next
play to make it 28-21.
Louisiana-Lafayette was able to regain some
momentum in the final 37 seconds of the first half, driving 47 yards on
five plays
to set up Baer's 50-yard field goal, which was the same distance
and direction as his game-winner at the end of last year's
New Orleans Bowl.
The Pirates tied it in the third quarter on Harvey's 45-yard field goal and Bullock's 13-yard scoring run, capping a drive
that included a converted fourth-and-3.