Brett Baer booted a 50-yard field goal with no time remaining to give Louisiana-Lafayette a dramatic 32-30 victory over San Diego State in Saturday’s New Orleans Bowl.

Baer’s career-long kick slid inside the left upright and gave the Ragin’ Cajuns (9-4) their first bowl victory since 1943.

Blaine Gautier threw for a career-high 469 yards and fired three touchdown passes and moved Louisiana-Lafayette 49 yards for the winning points after San Diego State (8-5) had taken a 30-29 lead with 35 seconds left on Ryan Lindley’s third scoring hookup with Colin Lockett.

Javone Lawson caught nine passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns and Darryl Surgent returned a punt 87 yards for a touchdown as the Ragin’ Cajuns were victorious in their first bowl appearance since 1970.

The teams combined for 1,048 yards - 567 by Louisiana-Lafayette and 481 by the Aztecs.

San Diego State rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to take the lead on Lindley’s 12-yard scoring pass to Lockett. The two-point conversion attempt failed.

Lindley passed for 413 yards and guided the Aztecs to 27 second-half points on a night in which star running back Ronnie Hillman struggled with 55 yards on 24 carries. Hillman entered the contest as the nation’s third-leading rusher at 138 yards per game.

Lindley and Lockett teamed up for two 16-yard scoring passes in the third quarter as the Aztecs cut a 19-3 deficit to 19-17.

Gautier’s three scoring passes raised his season total to 23, breaking the school record accomplished twice by longtime NFL quarterback Jake Delhomme.

Louisiana-Lafayette led 13-3 at halftime and started the second half by moving 73 yards on three plays with Gautier’s 20-yard scoring pass to Ladarius Green increasing the lead to 16 points.

San Diego State was vying to win bowl games in back-to-back seasons. The Aztecs notched their first bowl victory in 41 years last December by beating Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl.