MONROE, La. — Vicksburg needed a win in the worst way. So did Cameron Cooksey, the Gator offense, the Gator defense, and coach Alonzo Stevens.

Cooksey led the Gators (1-1) on a dramatic, 16-play, 68-yard drive with the game on the line to beat Richwood 32-31 Friday night. Cooksey threw five touchdown passes and the last, a 10-yarder to A.J. Stamps, came with 1:10 left in the game. Justin Hearn booted the extra point to put the Gators ahead.

But the host Rams still had some fight left.

Richwood (0-1) reached the Gator 30-yard line after a 17-yard fourth down conversion pass with nine seconds left. A 15-yard personal foul penalty on the Gators moved the ball to the 30 and gave Richwood one untimed play. The last pass was broken up at the goal line.

Stevens, beads of sweat falling from his face, was ecastatic,.

“We hadn’t won a game in September in three years,” Stevens said. “We overcame so much adversity tonight. The offensive line came to play. The defensive line showed they can play. And you can’t say enough about Cameron Cooksey.”

Cooksey completed 21 of 36 passes for 332 yards and five touchdowns. He had three TD passes in the first half, a 25-yarder to Lamar Anthony, and 37 and 30-yard hookups to Clyde Kendrick. He hit Stamps for two second-half TD connections, a 57-yarder and the game-tying 10-yarder.

Cooksey felt vindicated.

“You think about a drive like that while you’re listening to your music on the way here,” Cooksey said. “We just excecuted and made some big plays.”

Perhaps the biggest was a conversion on fourth-and 11 yards to go with two minutes left. Cooksey rolled out and hit Kendrick for an 18-yard gain to get the Gators moving. A 12-yard draw play by Darius Youngblood got it to the 26. After an incompletion, Cooksey hit Stamps for a 20-yard gain to the 6. Another draw lost four yards. A second down pass to Stamps was broken up. The Gators went back to the same play, and Stamps made the grab for the score.

“The play was there,” Stamps said. “I told the coaches, let’s run it again,”

Kendrick caught 10 passes for 167 yards and Stamps was right behind with seven catches for 150. Each had two TD catches.

The loss for the Rams spoiled a great game from Martex Carter.

He had an 84-yard TD run just 49 seconds into the game. He caught a 60-yard screen pass and then added a 76-yard punt return for another score to tie the game at 19.

Richwood also got scores from Antonio Wilson on a 7-yard run and Andrick Mitchell on a 1-yard run. The latter gave the Rams a 31-25 lead with 4:40 to play and came after the Gators shanked a punt from their own 5.