Louisiana beats Georgia Southern in Sun Belt opener, 37-24

STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) — Elijah Mitchell and Trey Ragas each ran for two touchdowns and Louisiana-Lafayette beat Georgia Southern, 37-24, in the Sun Belt Conference opener for both schools Saturday night.

The Ragin’ Cajuns now have won back-to-back road games and their first win in a conference opener since the 2016 season.

With Louisiana-Lafayette (4-1, 1-0) leading 17-13 in the third quarter and facing fourth down at the Georgia Southern 1, Levi Lewis rolled left after a play fake, deked a linebacker with a run fake himself, then stepped back and found Ja’Marcus Bradley in the back of the end zone to make it 24-13.

The Eagles cut their deficit to three on a 1-yard run by J.D. King with 15 seconds left in the third quarter.

Mitchell scored from 19 yards out early in the fourth quarter and Ragas put the game out of reach with his second touchdown of the game with 2:34 left.

Tyler Bass kicked field goals from 28-, 44- and 31-yards out for the Eagles (1-3, 0-1).