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Montgomery, AL - The Louisiana College football team, coming off three straight American Southwest Conference Runner-Up finishes, got their season started on Saturday afternoon as they fell to the Huntingdon Hawks in a 56-35 shootout at Samford Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama.
 
Things looked good for the Wildcats early on, as they got on the board first on their first possession of the game when junior quarterback Easton Melancon, the preseason ASC Player of the Year, connected with senior receiver Ladarius Gardner for a 42 yard touchdown to take a 7-0 lead.
 
But the Hawks would answer in a huge way, scoring the next 21 points to take a 21-7 lead midway through the second quarter when John Iwaniec scored on a three yard touchdown run with nine minutes left before the half.
 
LC appeared to gain some momentum on their next possession when Melancon hooked up with Gardner again, this time from seven yards out, at the 6:07 mark of the second quarter to draw closer at 21-14.
 
But that was as close as the Wildcats would get the rest of the day, as Huntingdon scored twice in the final five minutes of the half, both on long touchdown passes from quarterback Luke Bailey, to take a 35-14 lead into the locker room.


While the Cats would score three times in the second half on touchdown receptions from Devin Sylve, Gardner, and Zac Barrient, the Hawks offense, who rolled up 652 total yards of offense on the afternoon, including 392 yards on the ground, was simply too much for LC to overcome.
 
Melancon finished with 230 passing yards and four touchdowns while Gardner tied a single game school record with three touchdown receptions, as he racked up five catches for 64 yards and three scores.
 
The Wildcats will get an early season bye week next week before returning to action on September 19^th in Seguin, Texas against Texas Lutheran at 6 p.m.