CONWAY, S.C. It was never really the goal of this version of the UL Ragin' Cajuns, but it was a box to check off.

As the Cajuns walked off the field with a 34-24 win over Coastal Carolina on Saturday at Brooks Stadium in Conway, South Carolina, they did so as the only second Group of Five team to be bowl eligible this season.

In fact, you could hear the postgame celebration after the win with a yell, "We're going bowling!'

Naturally, the Sun Belt Conference championship is what this year's Cajuns are really after, but it was an encouraging first step.

"When I took this job, I knew the expectations here and I love it, because you want to be in a place where people expect to win," UL coach Michael Desormeaux said. "We have embraced that. Every year, your goals are to get to the College Football Playoff, win a conference championship and win a bowl game.

"Well the first one you can accomplish by getting bowl eligible. So yeah, it's the first step. There's still a lot of work left to do. There's still a long road for us to go on in these next five regular-season games to get there, but these guys have attacked each challenge every step of the way and I'm excited about the task ahead of it. We've got some really good football teams that we're going to play in the back half of this year. It's going to require our way."

Overall, it's the seventh straight season UL will be bowl eligible.

"This team said they wanted to be a championship game," Desormeaux said. "That's what they said. Those aren't my goals. That's what they said they wanted to do, so we're coaching and holding them to that standard and they're certainly performing to it."

It took until late November the last two seasons to get sneak in as a bowl eligible team.

Penalties problems again

For the most part, the Cajuns have avoided penalties in running their record to 6-1 on the season with a few exceptions - both in the Carolinas.

The first one resulted in four ejections for targeting during the 41-38 road win over Wake Forest. The second one came in Saturday's 10-point win over Coastal Carolina.

And frankly, coach Desormeaux wasn't overly pleased with the game management scenarios that produced some of them.'

"I was frustrated because the music is supposed to stop when you take the line on offense," Desormeaux said. "They were playing music the entire time. We're asking them to stop and they wouldn't stop it."

For the game, the Cajuns were penalized 10 times for 75 yards, including a handful of critical false starts.

"You can say whatever you want," Desormeaux said. "Yeah, I guess it's an excuse and it doesn't matter, but there's a certain way the game has to be played. The music blaring the entire time, especially on this end of the field. The speakers are right behind us and we're getting false starts.

"It's frustrating for us, but it's just not the way it's supposed to be. We've got to handle those situations better, but it was frustrating at times. And yeah, it cost us some manageable situations."

Ironically, the last false start on the Cajuns backed UL's offense up to its own 41 to make it third-and-13. That's when Ben Wooldridge connected with tight end Terrance Carter on the game-securing 59-yard touchdown pass.

"You can't live in that world and think you're going to get those very often," Desormeaux added.

Catching backs

Coming into Saturday's game, UL's running backs had combined for 11 receptions for 48 yards in six games. In the first half alone against Coastal, UL's running back trio had seven catches for 61 yards, led by Bill Davis with five grabs for 42 yards.

Davis finished with six catches for 52 yards.

"We were expecting to probably have to do that a little bit," Desormeaux said. "With the way that they played it, there were some things that we felt like we could get those guys open and get them on the edge. So yeah, kind of a lot of the game plan was to them. We were able to get them in space a little bit too and those guys in space are tough to get down.

"Yards are yards and moving the chains is moving the chains. It doesn't matter to me who we throw it to as long as we're moving the ball and having production."

It likely would have been even more catches for even more yards for UL's running backs if not for an injury. Zylan Perry caught a short pass for three yards on the first play of the second quarter and received a facemask flag on the Chanticleer defender. It also was Perry's last play of the game.

He left the game with "an upper body injury" after being driven to the turf on top of the football.

That resulted in Davis not only catching for 52 yards but also being UL's leading rusher with a career-high 110 yards on 19 carries.