LAKE CHARLES, La. -- Marcus Wiltz ran for three touchdowns and Cody Stroud threw for two as 18th-ranked McNeese State defeated Arkansas-Pine Bluff 58-14 on Saturday night at Cowboy Stadium.

Wiltz scored his three touchdowns in the first half as the Cowboys (2-0) opened a 37-14 lead. He finished with 115 yards on 12 carries. Stroud threw both touchdown passes in the third quarter, 33 yards to Ernest Celestie and 12 yards to Dylan Long. Stroud was 21 of 30 for 251 yards, becoming the fifth quarterback in school history to exceed 5,000 career passing yards.

McNeese had 528 yards of offense while holding the Golden Lions (0-2) to 216 yards. Arkansas-Pine Bluff has been outscored 120-25 in two games. "It's hard to tell what's going on with the defense, I'll have to go back and look at the film. But, I did see a lot of missed tackles once again in this game. We practice hard every day to be in the right position to make the tackle,"said head coach Monte Coleman. "What've got to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do in practice to ensure that we will get them done when we make contact with them."

The Golden Lions were still missing players on the defense going into the game on Saturday, byt Coach Coleman was not about to lean on that fact as an excuse for the loss. "We are still missing players on defense, but that's an excuse and we don't make excuses. I don't give the kids an opportunity to make excuses and I'm not going to make any of them for ourselves."

"Would it be better to have more guys out there that could possibly help us, yes sir, but these other guys, this is their opportunity to play and I expect them to go out and play."

The game was tight early as both teams exchanged a pair of touchdowns. After McNeese scored the first touchdown, Jamie Smith tied the game with a 7-yard scamper with 6:00 left in the first quarter.

The Cowboys answered with another touchdown late in the quarter and took a 14-7 into the second. The Golden Lions tied the game at 14 on a 2-yard run by Jeremiah Young in the opening minute of the second quarter. But things went south from their for UAPB as McNeese ran off the next 44 points.

Smith was a bright spot for the Golden Lions, finishing the game with 90 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries. "We're very pleased with what Jamie's doing. When other guys aren't here, we don't have Billings, somebody's got to step up and did what we asked him to do, not a bad performance tonight." said Coach Monte Coleman about Smith.

Going into the Southwestern Conference opener against Alabama State next Saturday, Coleman is hoping to have gotten out of the first two games healthy.

"One of the things that scares you as a coach, when you play teams like Arkansas State and McNeese, that's larger, have more scholarships that we do, we don't want to get beat up." said Coleman about the tough back-to-back openers. I did see a couple of guys with some bumps and bruises, nothing serious. But as we get into SWAC play next week, that we can have all of our guys that at least were on the bus this week, and last week against Arkansas State, we can go to war with them.