Fields’ magic helps lead Cajuns to bounce back win against Troy 

Chandler Fields starting his first game of the season helped lead the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns to a bounce back win over the Troy Trojans 51–30, bringing the Cajuns up to nine wins on the season. 

Kickoff gave Troy the ball first, where they were forced to punt the ball by the Louisiana defense after five plays. The Cajuns showed they would not waste their first drive as Fields found Jacob Benard for 46 yards on the very first play of the drive. A Dre’lyn Washington run would be followed by a 17 yard pass to freshman tight end Caden Jensen. 

Fields would finish the drive with a 20 yard touchdown to senior Tavion Smith for six, Kenneth Almendares kicking the PAT to make it 7–0 Cajuns. 

The rest of the first quarter would not go well for the Cajuns as they ended their only other two drives after with punts. The Trojans would take this chance to strike, rattling off back to back touchdowns to put them up 14–7. 

That final touchdown would come at the very end of the first quarter for the Trojans. After it was scored the entire team came onto the field and began to jump around in celebration, spectators might almost mistake it for them celebrating a win. Louisiana would not take this lightly, showing them that the “Ragin’” in the name was not just for show. 

On the first drive of the second, Fields would lead the Cajuns down the field again with another deep pass to Smith for 38 yards. 

The drive was capped off with Bill Davis punching in six from the one yard line to tie the game. 

On the second play of the Trojans next drive senior corner Keyon Martin would pick off Troy’s Matthew Caldwell to give the Cajuns back the ball. 

Louisiana would turn that into a touchdown in the form of a 44 yard bomb from Fields that connected with senior Lance LeGendre to put the Cajuns up 21–14. 

Defense would quickly force a punt from the Trojans after only three plays that resulted in five yards. The Cajuns would once again drive to the field to score, this time with a Almendares field goal to make it a 10 point game. 

Yet another Martin interception would set the Cajuns up to score again. Louisiana would run six plays from the Trojan 49, all of them were runs, including a 34 yard run by Fields. That drive would end in another touchdown by Bill Davis from the 3. The lead would expand even more 31–14. 

Another forced punt by the Cajuns would set the team up in a position for Almendares to kick a field goal right before half, which he drilled to give the Cajuns a 20 point lead going into half. 

The Trojans saw some hope at the start of the third quarter after they held Louisiana to another field goal to make it 37–14. 

Troy would once again score back to back touchdowns, forcing Louisiana to punt in between the drives, while also making both two point conversion attempts to make it a one possession game 37–30. 

Junior receiver Robert Hunt would call the game on a 96 yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Cajuns back up 14. Troy would not score for the rest of the game. 

They would fail to convert a fourth and 20 from their own three yard line, setting up the Cajuns for one last touchdown to end the game with the final score of 51–30. 

Fields looked amazing in his first start of the season, completing 18 of 24 pass attempts for 323 yards and two touchdowns while also doing damage on the ground. 

His ability to roll out of the pocket and make throws on the run or plays with his legs were a great help to the offense and the team as a whole. The accuracy he showed and the calm in and out of the pocket was completely different than his play in previous years. 

His favorite target was LeGendre, who caught six passes for 109 yards, including the 44 yard touchdown catch. 

Fields also found tight end Terrance Carter five times for 63 yards, though Carter did not see any end zone targets this week. 

Davis did not do as much damage on the ground, as he only averaged 3.4 yards per carry on 19 touches. Davis did have a career day though, as he found the endzone for a career high three touchdowns in a game. 

The defense played great for the most part today. Despite allowing 30 points, they did hurry the quarterback a number of times, including two sacks. 

K.C. Ossai once again led the team in tackles with nine, including a 0.5 TFL. The star on defense though was Keyon Martin whose two second quarter interceptions helped in paving the way for the 27 unanswered points scored by the Cajuns. 

The way the season ends is entirely in the teams hands, as the loss to South Alabama will continue to haunt them, forcing Louisiana to make ULM a must win game in order to make it into the Sun Belt Championship game. 

A win over the Warhawks will also likely mean hosting the championship, that possibility would become absolute fact if Marshall loses to JMU next week.