LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) Cody Orgeron threw two touchdown passes to Trevor Begue and D'Andre Hicks returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown to propel McNeese State to a 30-20 victory over Northwestern State on Saturday night.

Northwestern State jumped out to a 7-0 lead on its first possession when Jared West scored on a 9-yard run to cap an eight-play, 53-yard drive. Hicks took the ensuing kickoff all the way to the end zone, but Bailey Raborn's point-after kick was blocked and left the Cowboys (6-4, 4-3 Southland Conference) trailing 7-6. Daniel Justino's 37-yard field goal gave the Demons (1-8, 1-5) a 10-6 lead after one quarter.

Raborn booted a 23-yard field goal 46 seconds into the second quarter to pull McNeese within 10-9, but Shelton Eppler hooked up with Quan Shorts for a 22-yard scoring strike with 11:09 left and Northwestern State took a 17-9 lead into halftime.

Orgeron and Begue connected for their first TD from 27 yards out and Orgeron hit J'uan Gross for the 2-point conversion to knot the score at 17. Justino's 21-yard field goal put the Demons up 20-17 after three quarters.

McNeese took the lead for good on Orgeron's 3-yard TD toss to Begue with 11:09 remaining in the game and Raborn kicked two more field goals in the final 8:14 to complete the scoring and wrap up the Cowboys' fourth straight victory.

Orgeron finished 16-of-18 passing for 191 yards. Justin Pratt was the game's top rusher with 87 yards on 29 carries. McNeese had a 117-20 advantage in yards rushing.

Eppler completed 28 of 53 passes for 294 yards and a score, but he also threw two interceptions.

Copyright 2019 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.