USC grabbed control late in the first quarter and left Louisiana chasing from behind, taking a 7-3 lead after Avery Demery intercepted Jayden Maiava and Tony Sterner answered with a 47-yard field goal. The Trojans then flipped the short-lived Cajuns lead with a quick touchdown drive and were up 7-3 at the end of the period in Week 2 of the 2026 college football season.
That score mattered because it came in the first ever meeting between Louisiana and USC, with No. 14 USC trying to move to 3-0 after beating San Jose State and Fresno State. Louisiana arrived off a 38-7 win against Lamar, but the early numbers showed how steep this step up already was: USC had 63 rushing yards and Maiava had thrown for 87 yards by the end of the first quarter, while Louisiana managed just 18 total yards.
Demery gave Louisiana its cleanest moment of the opening period when he picked off Maiava on third and long, and Sterner turned the turnover into points. For a few minutes, that made the Cajuns look capable of matching a ranked opponent on the road to the scoreboard. Then USC settled in. Maiava found Mark Bowman for a five-yard touchdown at 4:57, and the first-quarter balance shifted for good.
That sequence is why the matchup was being framed as a BIG 10 after dark-style test for Louisiana even without the label matching the teams on the field: it had the feel of a night game where a ranked power can grind you down if the underdog cannot string together first downs. Michael Desormeaux needed more than one defensive play and one long kick. Lunch Winfield’s offense had to answer, because 18 first-quarter yards is not a statement so much as a warning.
The next question is whether Louisiana can force USC into a longer game. If the Cajuns stay at the level they showed in the opening quarter, the gap will widen fast. If they can build on Demery’s interception and make Maiava work for every drive, the first quarter may become the only clean part of the night.
