McNeese uses strong second half to beat Southern 31-24

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Mason Pierce returned the opening kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown and Cody Orgeron tossed a 3-yard scoring pass to Josh Matthews early in the fourth quarter to help McNeese rally past Southern 31-24 in nonconference play. The first half was all Ladarius Skelton and Southern after Pierce’s TD return for the Cowboys (1-2). Skelton had scoring throws of 42 yards to Travis Tucker and 7 yards to Devon Benn to put the Jaguars (1-2) up 14-7 with 5:50 left in the first quarter. After a Jacob Abel 32-yard field goal pulled McNeese within 14-10, Skelton struck again with a 42-yard scoring strike to Ethan Howard for a 21-10 halftime lead.