SAN ANTONIO -- The University of the Incarnate Word football team defeated a ranked opponent for the first time in its ten-year history on Saturday night with a 45-17 win over No. 6 McNeese on national television at Benson Stadium.
 
The game featured a Cardinal offense that preserved long scoring drives with key third- and fourth-down conversions, a run-stopping defense that forced vital turnovers, and strategic punting that pinned the Cowboys deep in their own territory.
 
The victory moved UIW into a three-way, first-place tie in the Southland Conference standings with a 4-1 record -- tied with McNeese and Central Arkansas. The Cardinals are 4-3 overall. McNeese fell to 4-1 in the conference and 5-2 overall.
 
UIW quarterback Jon Copeland passed for 236 yards and three touchdowns -- two to senior Phillip Baptiste. The Cardinal defense limited McNeese to 222 yards of total offense, 90 yards below its per-game average.
 
UIW got out of the gate quickly. After Malick Phillips intercepted a McNeese pass on the game's second play, Copeland marched the Cardinals 50 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead. Lamont Johnson's two receptions, the second a leaping 14-yarder, set up Baptiste's 20-yard touchdown catch in the left corner of the end zone.
 
McNeese answered with 37-yard field goal by Gunnar Raborn, after the Cardinal defense forced a fourth-and-ten situation that halted a 14-play Cowboy drive.
 
A gutsy fourth-down-and-one conversion in UIW territory set up consecutive receptions of 28 and 14 yards by Jezel Parra, followed by an eight-yard touchdown catch from Johnson. That 89-yard, 10-play drive gave the Cardinals a 14-3 lead, which they held at the end of the first quarter.
 
Javon Burse's key nine-yard quarterback sack snuffed out a promising McNeese drive, forcing a missed 41-yard field goal attempt on McNeese's first drive of the second period.
 
Another critical third-and-long conversion set up the Cardinals' third touchdown. Facing third and ten at his own 43-yard-line, Copeland hit Baptiste for a 13-yarder. Two plays later, Baptiste caught a 30-yard pass to set up Ra'Quanne Dickens' seven-yard touchdown blast up the middle. The offensive line opened a massive hole for Dickens on a play that capped off a 76-yard drive and a gave UIW a 21-3 lead.
 
A critical fumble recovery led to the Cardinals' fourth touchdown, a drive during which UIW converted another key third-and-long situation. Phillips claimed his second Cowboy turnover of the game when he fell on a fumbled punt return at the McNeese 28. Then, with the Cardinals facing a third-and-11, Dickens ripped off a 14-yarder. Three plays later, Copeland faked to Dickens and then sprinted around the left end for the touchdown that gave UIW a 28-3 halftime lead.
 
A second-half, opening-drive interception set McNeese up for its first touchdown of the game, a four-yard scoring pass from quarterback James Tabary to Kylon Highshaw. That capped a five-play, 33-yard drive and made the score 28-10 in favor of UIW.
 
Taking over at its own 45-yard line after a favorable exchange of punts -- highlighted by a 66-yard boot by freshman David Balcomb -- UIW put together a drive that led to Cody Seidel's 35-yard field goal. The drive was kept alive by another fourth-down-and-one conversion, a four-yard dive by Dickens. The field goal made the score 31-10 in favor of UIW.
 
The Cardinals scored again with 1:50 remaining in the third quarter on Copeland's 15-yard pass to Baptiste. The 36-yard drive began when UIW received favorable field position after McNeese had been pinned deep in Cowboy territory by another Balcomb bomb. The score resulted in a 38-10 UIW lead.
 
McNeese scored on the first play of the fourth quarter to make the score 38-17 in favor of UIW.
 
The Cardinal defense made it 45-17, the final score of the game, on a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown by Louis Otis with 6:31 left in the game.

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QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH ERIC MORRIS
Opening Statement…
"It feels good to get a bad taste out of our mouths that strung about a week [after] losing a game like we did last week to a good Lamar team. I give them all the credit in the world. We had a lot of mistakes that we needed to correct, especially on the offensive side of the ball. We had to protect to ball from a really good McNeese team and challenged our kids all week, challenged them to be more physical than them. We thought that, on tape, this was one of the most physical teams we had seen, so it feels good for our kids to have worked so hard during the week and come out and get a team victory. I mean, our defense played lights out pretty much the whole game. I'm proud of those guys and the way that they stepped up and continue to get better each and every week. Copeland did some good stuff. The only mistake I think was that third down early there in the third quarter, which kind of gave [McNeese] a touchdown there. We put our defense in a bad spot, but I'm proud of the resiliency of this team and their continuing to fight for one another. They believe in one another. They love each other. And it's just fun to see and celebrate a win like that."
 
About reaching this point in the team's development…
"Well it will take me a while to reflect on that one. I'm just proud of them and my mind is still racing. But like I said, proud of the way our guys came out and competed and they matched their physicality and proud of the way we handled business in key situations during the game. You know, I don't think it was the prettiest game. We didn't have a ton of yards like we have been, but when it counted, when the game was on the line, our guys did a good job of bowing our necks and standing up as a team, as a unit -- offense, defense, special teams, I thought every phase had a key role in this game and it's fun to get a team win; it's a lot of fun."
 
On this being a signature win in the program's history…
"We knew this was a team that led our conference, and it's been our goal to take things slow here and win one game a week. I haven't taken a holistic approach to this team because we had to fix so many little things when I got here. So we're really paying attention to detail, taking it day-by-day, game-by-game. I really thought that's what we needed moving forward as a program. They continue to buy in and do it, and anytime you can knock off the number 6 program in the nation in that fashion on a win like that is something I'll remember for a long time. "