FIU snapped a skid of 13 consecutive quarters without a touchdown by jumping out to a 7-0 lead against Louisiana-Lafayette (5-5, 2-3 Sun Belt) Saturday night at FIU Stadium. But in the end, there was more offensive frustration as the Golden Panthers lost for the tenth-straight time, 17-7.

After a Jeremiah Weatherspoon set up the offense at the UL 41-yard line, the Golden Panthers took eight plays to break their scoring drought. John Ellis took a one-yard pass from Josh Padrick for a touchdown and a 7-0 FIU (0-10, 0-5) lead with 2:49 to play in the first quarter.

But that seemed to pretty much be the end of the FIU offense. The Golden Panthers could muster just 53 yards rushing and 137 yards of passing. More alarming was the fact that FIU was just 1-of-12 on third-down conversions and had the ball for only 23:46, some 12:28 less than UL.

Louisiana-Lafayette made the score 7-3 before halftime when Drew Edmiston booted a 47-yard field goal?his 11th in 14 attempts this season.

The second half belonged to UL and running back Tyrell Fenroy, who moved into fifth place all-time on the Ragin' Cajuns career rushing list. Fenroy rushed for 172 yards on the night, 125 of those in the second half, and UL went for 270 yards rushing as a team?both season highs against the FIU defense.

The Cajuns took a 10-7 lead midway through the third quarter with an 80-yard drive, highlighted by a Fenroy 52-yard run to the FIU 10. Two plays later, it was Fenroy from seven yards out.

UL iced the victory with less than four minutes to play in the game after Gerren Blount intercepted Padrick deep in FIU territory. Playing against a worn-down Golden Panthers defense playing without its leading tackler Keyonvis Bouie who went down moments earlier with what was diagnosed as a possible MCL sprain, it was Fenroy again, this time from two yards away.

The win stopped the Cajuns' three game losing streak and prolonged FIU school-record 10-game losing streak.

“It sounds like a broken record but we had opportunities that we couldn't cash in on,” said FIU head coach Don Strock who earlier this week announced his resignation that takes affect at season's end.

“We played hard defensively, but there are areas were we just need to improve. We would make some plays and then we would give up some big plays. It takes a full team effort to win games.”

For the first time in nearly a month, FIU played the game at full strength as all 16 of its suspended players from Oct. 14's fight against the University of Miami, were reinstated. One of those, wide receiver Chandler Williams, led FIU with seven receptions for 77 yards and another, defensive back Lionell Singleton, ran back three punts for 48 yards and returned two kickoffs for 47.

Padrick ended the game completing 17-of-31 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown and now needs just 106 passing yards in the final two games of the year to throw for 9,000 career yards.

Defensively, Bouie finished with 18 tackles to become FIU's all-time leading career tackler. He ended the night with 299 career stops, four better than the previous record holder John Haritan who accomplished the feat from 2002-04.

In addition to Fenroy, UL's Abdule Levier carried the ball five times for 50 yards and statistically, while the quarterback tandem of Jerry Babb and Michael Desormeaux completed just eight-of-20 passes for 84 yards, several were in key spots that sustained drives and frustrated the Golden Panthers.

FIU plays its last road game of the year next Saturday at Miami's Dolphin Stadium against Florida Atlantic in the fifth annual Shula Bowl. The Golden Panthers broke a four-year win streak by the Owls with an NCAA record-tying 52-6 victory in last year's game played at FIU Stadium.

FIU will then end the season and the Don Strock-era on Dec. 2 at home against Troy. For tickets and information, call toll free, (866) FIU-GAME or (305) 348-4263 in Miami-Dade County.