BEAUMONT — Somehow, Lamar finally found a cure for its longstanding curse by Northwestern State.

The cure: DeWan Thompson.

The sophomore transfer from Washington State scored on an overhead catch with 6 seconds left — the second of Lamar’s TDs in the final 1:43 — Juan Carranco tacked on the go-ahead extra point, and Lamar came from 15 points down to beat Northwestern State 32-31 before 7,159 at Provost Umphrey Stadium on Saturday night.

Thompson had dreams of a Hail Mary-type winning catch the night before, something he had never done in his career.

“I just envisioned it. For me to have it, to make the game-winning catch, is just an amazing situation. I just thank God for everything he’s done for me,” said Thompson, who had 139 yards on four receptions. One of them was an 86-yard strike from Carson Earp early in the third quarter.

Earp stepped in the pocket and had just enough time to find the 5-foot-7 Thompson, who had a taller defender in front of him, in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-20 for the winning catch. Thompson let a pass go through his hands the play before.

“I just tried to buy enough time for him to get to the end zone,” said Earp, who completed 29 of 52 for 412 yards and four touchdowns. “On the line, I think they rushed three. Our O-line did a great job giving me enough time. I just threw it up. You’ve got to take a chance, and he made a great catch. I actually couldn’t see it because the defender was in the way, but I saw everyone go crazy.”

Lamar had last beaten NSU on Nov. 10, 1979, and lost four meetings since relaunching the football program in 2010 after a 20-year absence. Now, the Cardinals are winners of three straight games for the first time since 1989.

Earp found Marcus Daggs for a 36-yard touchdown pass to bring Lamar (3-3, 3-1 Southland) to within 31-25. Lamar successfully executed an onside kick after the ball took a big hop and squeezed out of the first pile only for Caleb Abrom to recover it at the Cards’ 42.

But the final drive wasn’t flawless.

Following an 11-yard run by Nederland freshman Austin Krautz and 10-yard completion to Zae Giles, Earp was sacked for no gain at the Demons’ 37. A false start against the Cards forced them to call timeout with 46 seconds left to avoid a 10-second runoff.

Earp them completed 9- and 21-yard passes to Giles to the 12 before spiking the ball. The quarterback was sacked again for no gain, but a holding call against Lamar stopped the clock with 27 seconds left.

Passes to Daggs and Thompson were incomplete before the winning play. NSU’s Ronald Green returned a squib kick 18 yards, running into a teammate and being stopped as time expired.

The Demons (1-5, 0-4) all but defeated the Cards with their run game, as they did last year in Natchitoches, La., to pick up their first win. On Saturday, De’Mard Llorens raked in 211 of the Demons’ 390 rushing yards, becoming the team’s first 200-yard rusher in a game since Brian Lawrence in 2007. Green had 126 yards on 13 carries.

Llorens and Green each had long runs of 64 yards. Green’s run led to his 8-yard scoring carry early in the third quarter to pad NSU’s lead to 24-9, while Llorens set up a 2-yard TD tote for Jared West with 6:44 left in the game, making the score 31-18. Thompson’s 86-yard haul followed the Llorens run.

NSU’s defense was successful stopping Lamar’s rushing attack early on. Senior Kade Harrington got going enough to grind out 42 yards on nine carries before leaving with a foot injury in the second quarter.

That allowed Krautz to see some more carries. He had 51 yards on 20 carries.

Defensively, Brendan Langley made his sixth interception and Kevin Davis returned a pick 38 yards for Lamar.

Welcome back, Handy

Senior wideout Michael Handy made his season debut for Lamar, coming off a combined five-game suspension for not passing enough credit hours under NCAA rules and violating team policy.

He had two passes for 15 yards, but he came back in a big way. He caught a 10-yard pass on an inside slant route with 12 seconds left before halftime, cutting the Cards’ deficit to 17-9.

Also, Lamar sophomore Martell Hawthorne, who had three catches for 16 yards coming into Saturday, eclipsed those totals with four catches for 60 yards.

FG situation

A bleak field goal situation for Lamar turned bright thanks to senior Juan Carranco, who is also the punter. He went 2 for 2, converting attempts of 22 yards (in the second quarter) and 30 yards (in the fourth), in place of senior Alex Ball, who’s out for the season with a torn ACL suffered against Abilene Christian. Ball had made 3 of 7 attempts this season.

Uncertainty in the field goal game seemingly caused Woodard to have the Cardinals try to convert fourth down in what might have been field goal range. Lamar converted 3 of 7 fourth downs for the game, while NSU went 1 for 1.

Northwestern State’s Eric Piccione went 1 for 3, making his first try of 45 yards in the first quarter but missing a 47-yarder in the third and 37-yarder early in the fourth.

Next for the Cards

Lamar will visit red-hot Central Arkansas (5-1, 4-0 Southland), which shut out defending Southland champion McNeese State 35-0 Saturday. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. next Saturday at Estes Stadium in Conway, Ark.

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews