Appalachian State 14, Wofford 7
October 14, 2006 - BOONE, N.C. ? No. 2 Appalachian State University needed just two first-quarter touchdowns and another superb defensive effort to extend its home winning streak to 22-straight victories with a 14-7 triumph over Wofford on Saturday afternoon at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Appalachian (6-1, 3-0 SoCon) held Wofford to just 237 yards of total offense and snuffed out a pair of Terrier scoring threats in the fourth quarter to help secure the win.
With the Mountaineers clinging to a 14-7 lead, all-American Corey Lynch made the first of a series of big plays by the ASU defense in the final period when he blocked a 34-yard field-goal attempt by Wofford’s Nick Robinson with 9:39 left to play.
On their next series, the Terriers again drove well into Appalachian territory, but this time it was Lynch’s all-America counterpart in the defensive backfield, Jeremy Wiggins, that made the big play when he dragged Wofford’s Kevious Johnson down for a seven-yard loss on third down. On fourth-and-12 from the ASU 40, Josh Collier’s pass fell short of the reach of Andy Strickland and the Apps took over on downs.
From there, Appalachian made three first downs to run the final 4:46 off the clock and seal the win.
It didn’t appear that the Mountaineers would be involved in a barn-burner in the opening period when it out-gained the Terriers 141-18 en route to a 14-0 lead. The Apps benefited from terrific field position courtesy of punts of just 14 and nine yards by Wofford’s Chris Tommie to find the end zone twice in the first 10 minutes of the contest, first on a 12-yard pass from Armanti Edwards to Dexter Jackson and later on a 16-yard Edwards run.
ASU drove inside Wofford territory on three-of-four possessions in the second quarter but couldn’t find paydirt and had to settle for a 14-0 halftime lead. Appalachian failed to convert on fourth-and-seven from the 29 and turned the ball over twice inside the 25 on a fumble and interception by Edwards.
The Terriers took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards in 11 plays, capped by a Kevious Johnson touchdown run from 12 yards out to cut the Mountaineer lead in half. However, that would be all the points Wofford would manage against the staunch Black and Gold defense.
Lynch highlighted the defensive effort with a career-high 13 tackles, including 1.5 for loss, and his second blocked field goal in as many weeks. Linebacker Pierre Banks led all players with 14 tackles and Wiggins and defensive tackle Daniel Orlebar chipped in with 12 and 11, respectively.
Walter Payton Award candidate Kevin Richardson reached the 100-yard plateau for the third-straight week with a game-high 111 yards on the ground, while no one in Wofford’s vaunted rushing attack registered more than 37 yards.
Edwards, the three-time defending SoCon Freshman of the Week, racked up 223 yards of offense (132 passing and 91 rushing). The Terriers’ quarterback duo of Collier and Ben Widmyer managed just 92 yards on a combined 6-of-13 passing.
Appalachian, which will likely regain the No. 1 ranking in the national polls by virtue of top-ranked New Hampshire’s 42-23 loss to No. 13 James Madison, returns to action next Saturday when it goes for its first win in 10 years at Georgia Southern. Kickoff is set for noon at Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Ga. and the contest will be televised live on SportsSouth (formerly Turner South).
NOTES: Despite his third-straight 100-yard rushing performance, Richardson saw his streak of consecutive games with a touchdown snapped at 12 ... it was the longest such streak by a Mountaineer since John Settle scored in 15-straight games during the 1985-86 seasons ... former Appalachian all-American Jason Hunter took in the game since his current team, the Green Bay Packers, has a bye this week ... Hunter was recognized during a special segment on the Kidd Brewer Stadium videoboard between the first and second quarters ... the 14 points were the fewest scored by the Apps during their 22-game home winning streak ... the pervious low was 21 versus East Tennessee State in 2003 and James Madison earlier this season ... the last time ASU was held to 14 or less at The Rock was in its last loss at home, a 14-13 setback to Maine in the 2002 playoffs ... Devon Moore became the third true freshman (Edwards, offensive tackle Mario Acitelli) to start a game for the Mountaineers this season when the Apps opened in a two running back formation ... Wiggins recorded double-digit tackles for the first time this season and 14th time in his career ... with the 12 stops, he moved into fifth all-time at ASU with 355 career tackles ... Orlebar’s 11 stops were a career high.
Georgia Southern 28, Elon 21
STATESBORO, Ga. ? Lamar Lewis scored the second of his two rushing touchdowns with
63 seconds left as Georgia Southern defeated Elon 28-21 in Southern Conference
action Saturday (Oct. 14) at Paulson Stadium. The Eagles (3-3 overall, 2-1 SoCon)
set both passing and receiving records not seen in more than 20 years en route to
the win.
Travis Clark completed 27 passes, a single-game record, for 375 yards and a
touchdown. He broke Tracy Ham’s record of 26 completions against East Carolina in
1984. Clark’s 375 yards are the most since Ham threw for a record 419 yards
against Furman in the 1985 National Championship game. In the fourth quarter alone,
Clark accumulated for 159 yards.
Reggie McCutchen hauled in 191 of Clark’s yardage on seven receptions. The senior
wide receiver broke Deryl Belser’s record of 170 yards against James Madison done
15 years ago. It was the first 100-yard receiving game by an Eagle receiver since
the late Teddy Craft two years ago at Western Carolina. Jayson Foster’s nine
receptions (84 yards) tied Robert Baker’s record set against ECU in 1984.
However, it was Foster’s kickoff return in the final minutes that spurred the
Eagles to victory. Karlos Sullivan intercepted Clark and returned it 32 yards for a
game-tying touchdown with 2:21 left in the game. It was Clark’s first interception
thrown in 150 attempts. On the ensuing kickoff, Foster returned it 40 yards to the
GS 47.
Clark hit Raja Andrews for 11 yards, Tim Camp for 12 and Foster for another 20 which
put the Eagles 1st-and-Goal on the 10. Lewis rushed up the middle on the next play
for the game-winning score.
The Eagles struck first during the opening quarter. Clark found McCutchen down the
right sideline for 48 yards. Two more completions put the Eagles down to the three.
However, the Eagles had to settle for a 21-yard field goal by Patrick Bolen.
Elon took the kickoff and marched down the field. Wes Pope found Terrell Hudgins
open for an 18-yard touchdown right before the first quarter ended, giving the
Phoenix a 7-3 lead.
Defensive end Larry Beard snared Pope’s pass in Elon territory, his first
interception this season and second of his career. Clark found McCutchen for a first
down, then Michael McIntosh tried a fade route but the Elon defender was flagged for
pass interference. That put the Eagles on Elon’s 10. On the next play, Lewis broke
around the right corner for his fourth rushing TD this year.
During its next drive, Elon converted a 4th-and-4 from the Eagles’ 35. Two plays
later Pope and Hudgins connected again from 22 yards out. Andrew Wilcox’s PAT gave
the Phoenix a 14-10 lead with 3:43 left in the half.
Elon gained 35 yards on a pass to start the second half, but Brandon Jackson
intercepted Pope. Jackson recorded his team-leading fourth interception.
Bolen nailed a career-long 39-yard FG midway through the third, cutting the deficit
to 14-13.
Early in the fourth, Clark found McCutchen on a screen pass and the senior wide
receiver broke through on a career-long 62-yard reception. On 2nd-and-Goal, a
scrambling Clark found Jayson Foster for a 4-yard score. That touchdown was the 42nd
of Foster’s career. Clark scrambled to his right and found Foster in the back of
the endzone for the 2-point conversion, making it 21-14.
“I’ve been saying we want to get four quarters of football. We’ve been
inconsistent until today. Not that today was a perfect day, but it’s certainly
good to see our guys concentrating and focusing for 60 minutes, and that’s what it
took for us to win today,” said head coach Brian VanGorder. “I think the big
thing was our players stepped up and made plays. The quarterback, receivers and
defense I thought were outstanding at times, so that’s a good sign when you start
to see that. I’m happy with our defense and where it’s headed. It should keep
imas should our whole team.”
Despite all the passing yards, the Eagles managed just 59 yards on the ground, 42 on
11 carries by Lewis. Clark completed a pass to eight different receivers.
Branden Daniel made a career-high eight tackles, including two for a loss. Ronnie
Wiggins, John Mohring and Jason Earwood had seven tackles each.
Pope, the SoCon passing leader, completed 17-of-35 for 214 yards and two
interceptions to go with his two TDs. Terrell Hudgins caught seven passes for 100
yards while Reggie Hall rushed for a game-high 46 yards. Chad Nkang recorded a
game-high 12 tackles.
The Eagles conclude their three-game homestand next Saturday (Oct. 21), hosting
Appalachian State on Homecoming. The game will be televised live on SportSouth
(formerly Turner South), with kickoff scheduled for noon. Elon hosts Wofford next
week at 2 p.m.
GAME NOTES: Georgia Southern has yet to win the coin flip this season... It was the
first time the Eagles trailed at halftime... Dan Jordan kicked a season-long 56 punt
late in the third quarter, sticking Elon inside its own 20. He averaged 45.4 yards
on five kicks... Foster accumulated 164 all-purpose yards... Jackson entered the
game 13th nationally in interceptions per game, adding to his team-leading total...
Bolen accounted for the Eagles’ first multi-FG game since Jonathan Dudley nailed
two in the 2005 season-opener at Northeastern.
Furman 23, The Citadel 17
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Jordan Sorells passed for 251 yards and Jerome Felton
scored three times to lift NCAA I-AA 11th-ranked Furman to a 23-17
Southern Conference victory over The Citadel Saturday afternoon at Paladin
Stadium.
Sorrells, a redshirt freshman making his first collegiate start in place
of injured Paladin junior Renaldo Gray, completed 20-of-31 passes in the
contest in helping Furman (5-2, 3-0 SoCon) to its 11th consecutive home
victory. Felton’s three touchdowns ? all in the first half ? improved his
season total to 19, tying the school season standard set by Louis Ivory in
2001.
Furman built a 23-0 lead by halftime but was forced to hang on in the
fourth quarter to preserve the victory, its third straight and 10th
triumph in the last 12 meetings against The Citadel (1-5, 1-2 SoCon), the
Paladins’ oldest Southern Conference football rival.
“It’s a win, and we’re very happy to get the victory,” said Furman head
coach Bobby Lamb. “I know a lot of people will be disappointed in the
score, but it was a win. Our defense stepped up and made some big plays
when they had to, especially Jeremy Blocker’s interception on their last
series. Offensively, we had a pretty good first half but didn’t do much
in the second half. The Citadel had a lot to do with that.”
“We’ve had a lot of closes losses this year,” said The Citadel head coach
Kevin Higgins. “We obviously had a chance here today. I was disappointed
how we came out in the first half, not being to get anything going on
offense.”
“There was no magic,” Higgins said about the Bulldog energy after the
half. “We just came out and made some plays. Their defense gave us a
turnover, and we were able to make some plays.”
“We’re still trying to teach our guys about this rivalry. They really
don’t understand the rivalry and we’ve spent the last year and a half
teaching them about it. I think the more we play and closer we get they
will understand.”
The Citadel commanded a slight 358-339 advantage in total offense, and the
Bulldogs limited Furman to just 85 total yards in the second half.
Citadel quarterback Duran Lawson also completed 20-of-31 passes for 246
yards in the game, but the Bulldog junior was intercepted twice by Paladin
free safety Jeremy Blocker.
Both teams failed to get untracked offensively in the early going before
an interception by Furman’s Jeremy Blocker at the Bulldog 35 led to a
34-yard Scott Beckler field goal that gave the Paladins a 3-0 lead.
It remained 3-0 until early in the second quarter when Furman used five
plays, including a 42-yard catch an run by freshman R.J. Webb, to cover 64
yards for the first of Felton’s three scores, which came on a 3-yard burst
off the left side at the 11:02 mark to make it 10-0.
After bottling up The Citadel on the ensuing possession and forcing a punt
from the Bulldog 11, Furman moved 39 yards in six plays for Felton’s
second score of the contest, a 2-yard plunge with 6:30 left in the half
for a 17-0 lead.
Furman then recovered an on-side kick at the its own 49 and from there
covered 51 yards in 10 plays for its third touchdown of the quarter.
Felton’s 4-yard run with 2:32 remaining stretched the advantage to 23-0.
Scott Beckler’s PAT attempt failed.
The Citadel got untracked in the second half, using an interception and
10-yard return by Joshua Lawson to the Furman 41 to set up its first score
of the game, which came six plays later on a 12-yard run around left end
by Nuru Goodrum.
Two possessions later The Citadel sliced the lead to 23-10 with a 38-yard
Blake Vandiver field goal, and on its next possession got back-to-back 29
and 24 yard Lawson pass completions to set up a fourth down, 3-yard
scoring run off right tackle by Lawson to make it 23-17 with 8:00 to go.
The Bulldogs forced a punt on Furman’s next possession but ended up
turning it over on downs at its own 40 with 1:52 remaining. After forcing
a Paladin punt with just over a minute left, the Bulldogs advanced to
their 46 before Blocker stepped in front of Lawson’s pass to end the
comeback attempt.
Furman entertains Chattanooga next Saturday in a 2:00 p.m. game. The
Citadel will play host to Western Carolina at 2:00 p.m. next Saturday in
Charleston.
Chattanooga 17, Western Carolina 14 (OT)
Cullowhee, N.C. ? Chattanooga’s Esteban Lopez, who had missed his last two field
goals coming into the game, connected on a 37-yard field goal on the Mocs’ first
drive of overtime to lift UTC to a 17-14 victory, spoiling Western Carolina’s
Homecoming Saturday afternoon at E.J. Whitmire Stadium/Bob Waters Field. Western
(2-4, 0-4 Southern Conference) did not convert on four scoring opportunities,
missing three field goals and being kept out of the endzone on a fourth-and-one.
Western Carolina is now 1-4 all-time in overtime contests, its first since 2004, and
Chattanooga improves to 4-8 in such contests.
Chattanooga (3-4, 2-2 SoCon) was led by Eldra Buckley, who rushed for 162 yards on a
season-high 30 attempts. It marked Buckely’s sixth 100-yard game of the season and
his second-highest total of the season. Buckley’s biggest impact came in the
second half where he rushed for 124 yards, including 85 in the fourth quarter alone.
Pacing the Mocs on defense was Chris Camacho, who tallied a career-high nine tackles
with
Thanks to Buckely’s performance, UTC held the ball for just under 20 minutes in
the second half while rolling up 226 yards of total offense. Western only had the
ball for just over nine minutes, including just 2:41 in the third quarter, while
gaining just 48 yards of offense.
Despite the setbacks, Western Carolina got two outstanding performances from seniors
Darius Fudge and Mitchell Dukes. Fudge rushed for a career-high 151 yards, including
a 15-yard touchdown, on 25 carries, one shy of a career mark. Dukes picked off two
passes, returning one for a score, and recorded a career-high 13 tackles. The Cats
also got double-digit stops from Kadeem Morgan and Mordy Ornguze, who each tallied
11.
Western looked like it was going to take control early, running a trick play on the
first snap of the contest. Receiver Michael Hines, on a double reverse pass, found
Chris Jefferson for a 31-yard pass. However, three plays later, Bennett Swygert was
picked off by Qunitez Smith. The Mocs were forced to punt and, on the attempt, a bad
snap forced punter Jonathan Wright to try to run the ball. He was stopped for an
11-yard loss, giving the Cats first and goal from the UTC seven.
The Cats would get down to the one and were denied twice from the spot. First, on
third down, Joe Clark was kept out of the endzone, while Mike Malone could not turn
the corner on fourth giving UTC the ball.
On the ensuing drive, Chattanooga moved the ball to the Catamount 15, but Dukes came
through with the first of his two picks. However, Western could not take advantage
and the teams traded punts over the next four possessions.
Midway through the second quarter, Fudge broke off a 54-yard run, his second longest
carry of his career, getting Western to the UTC 14. The Catamounts could not take
advantage, missing a 25-yard field goal.
After a UTC punt three plays later, Western put together an impressive drive,
highlighted by a 24-yard, Swygert to Eddie Cohen pass. On the next play, Fudge ran
off the left tackle and reached the endzone for a 15-yard score to make the score
7-0.
Chattanooga answered right back with a seven-play, 62-yard scoring drive to tie the
game at 7-7. Matt Lopez completed seven passes in the drive, including five straight
to Emanuel Hassell. The drive was capped with an eight-yard M. Lopez to Micheal
Johnson strike in the right corner.
The Cats tried to regain the advantage as time expired in the first half, but
Jonathan Parsons’ career-long, 48-yard attempt came up short.
Three plays into the second half, Western would get back on top. Facing third and
two, M. Lopez was picked off by Dukes, who returned the ball 28 yards for his second
score of the season.
Once again, the Mocs answered right back, putting together a 17-play, 80-yard drive
with consumed 9:03 on the clock. The key play during the drive was, on fourth and
three from midfield, when UTC punter Wright took the snap and dashed over left end
to pick up the first down. Erroll Wynn also had a big play in the drive, picking up
21 yards to the WCU four. Western tried its own goal line stand, but M. Lopez, who
was denied on third down from the one, snuck the ball in on fourth and inches to tie
the game at 14-14 with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter.
The teams traded punts the rest of the game.
In overtime, Western won the toss and elected to play defense first. Chattanooga was
facing a third and one after two runs by Buckley, but a penalty forced the Mocs back
to the 21 where M. Lopez’s pass fell incomplete. E. Lopez came on an connected on
a 37-yard field goal to give the Mocs a 17-14 lead. Western had one rush and two
incomplete passes. Despite making two from 41 yards last week at Elon, the normally
dependable Parsons’ final 41-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left.
Western Carolina will start the first of three road game next weekend (Oct. 21),
heading to Charleston, S.C., to face The Citadel at 2:00 pm. Chattanooga will stay
on the road to play at Furman Oct. 21.at 2:00 pm.