No. 22 La.-Lafayette beats Liberty for 10th win in a row

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — Levi Lewis threw for 166 yards and three touchdowns, Louisiana-Lafayette had five takeaways and seven sacks and the No. 22 Ragin’ Cajuns capped the nonconference portion of their schedule with a 42-14 victory over Liberty on Saturday night.

Louisiana-Lafayette (10-1) won its 10 straight game since a season-opening loss at Texas. Liberty dropped to 7-3.

Lewis completed one of his first eight passes, then connected on 13 of 17 attempts with touchdown strikes of 4, 15 and 2 yards. He has thrown 10 touchdown passes to one interception in his last four games.

Louisiana-Lafayette contained Liberty quarterback Malik Willis and prevented him from getting into a rhythm. Willis completed 14 of 34 passes for 162 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Willis has thrown 11 interceptions this season after throwing only six in the 2020 season.

Chauncey Manac has four of the Ragin’ Cajuns' seven sacks. All four of his sacks came in a dominating first half that saw Louisiana-Lafayette build a 21-7 lead.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Louisiana-Lafayette will remain in the poll another week by posting an impressive road victory. The Ragin’ Cajuns extended their program-record winning streak to 10 games and improved to 15-0 when scoring more than 40 points under coach Billy Napier.

THE TAKEAWAY

Louisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin’ Cajuns never trailed in this game and handed Liberty its first home loss since Aug. 31, 2019.

Liberty: The Flames fell to 1-3 in games in which they committed multiple turnovers and allowed multiple sacks. Their lone triumph came Oct. 9 in a 41-13 win over Middle Tennessee.

UP NEXT

Louisiana-Lafayette: The Ragin’ Cajuns return home for two games. They host Louisiana-Monroe in the regular-season finale and then welcome the East Division champion for the Sun Belt Conference championship game Dec. 4.

Liberty: The Flames host fellow FBS independent Army for the first time on Nov. 27.