NCAA Playoffs Quarterfinals Recaps from December 1, 2007
APPALACHIAN STATE 38, EASTERN WASHINGTON 35
BOONE, N.C. - Quarterback Armanti Edwards accounted for 347 yards of offense and three touchdowns while Appalachian State University's defense limited Eastern Washington's potent aerial attack to a season-low passing output en route to a 38-35
triumph in Saturday's NCAA Division I Football Championship quarterfinal at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
With its 10th-straight postseason victory, which ties an NCAA Division I FCS (Football Championship Subdivision - formerly Division I-AA) record, Appalachian (11-2) becomes just the sixth team to ever advance to three-consecutive FCS/I-AA semifinals. ASU will host Richmond on Friday, Dec. 7 at 8:00 p.m. at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
The Mountaineers led 21-7 at halftime and 38-21 with just over six minutes to go in the ballgame, but Eastern Washington (9-4) mounted a furious comeback to cut the deficit to just three points on Matt Nichols' two-yard touchdown pass to Matt Martin with 28 seconds remaining. However, ASU's Chase Laws recovered EWU's ensuing onsides kick attempt to seal the Apps' victory.
Appalachian's defense smothered Eastern Washington's high-powered passing game for much of the afternoon, limiting the Eagles to less than 100 yards through the air until the final five minutes of the game. With its late flurry, EWU finished with 185 passing yards, still its lowest total of the campaign and 120 yards below its season average.
Buck Buchanan Award finalist Corey Lynch led the defensive effort with an interception, fumble recovery and field-goal block. With his 23rd-career interception and seventh-career fumble recovery, Lynch extended his school record for takeaways to 30 in just 54 career games. His field-goal block, which thwarted the Eagles' only scoring opportunity of the first quarter, was the sixth of his career (all in his 19 games).
Not to be overlooked by the defensive performance was the play of Appalachian's offense, which racked up an ASU-playoff-record 529 total yards (308 rushing, 221 passing). For the fourth time in its last six postseason games, Appalachian featured two 100-yard rushers, as Edwards' turned in a game-high 126 yards on the ground and running back Devon Moore added a career-high 100. Kevin Richardson chipped in with 69 yards on just eight carries (8.6 ypr) despite still nursing an ankle injury sustained in last week's first-round win over James Madison.
All three of Edwards' touchdowns came in the first half on a four-yard run and passes of 41 yards to Dexter Jackson and 15 yards to Hans Batichon. Eastern Washington benefited from an 82-yard kickoff return following ASU's second touchdown to score its only touchdown of the half on a seven-yard pass from Nichols to his go-to receiver, Aaron Boyce.
Mountaineer special-teams miscues also led to the Eagles' next two scores. Early in the third quarter, following a questionable running into the kicker penalty on Lynch, EWU cut the ASU lead to 21-14 on a 51-yard fake-punt run by Bryan Jarrett. After Appalachian stretched its advantage back to 10 points on a 21-yard field goal by Julian Rauch, Eastern Washington's A.J. Jimerson returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a score to make it 24-21.
The Apps appeared to put the game on ice with touchdown runs of 10 and 18 yards by Moore and Richardson, respectively, but EWU scored twice in the final 3:17 to make it interesting.
In addition to Lynch, senior cornerback Justin Woazeah and freshman linebacker D.J. Smith led Appalachian's defensive performance with 12 tackles apiece. Woazeah added a game-high four pass break-ups and Smith recovered a fumble for the third takeaway of
his young career.
Offensively, wide receivers Batichon (five receptions for 41 yards), CoCo Hillary (3-66) and Jackson (2-54) helped pace the Mountaineers.
For Eastern Washington, Nichols completed just 24 of his 42 pass attempts, found the end zone twice and was intercepted once. Boyce was the team's leading receiver with five catches for 37 yards and Dale Morris ran 16 times for 69 yards.
RICHMOND 21, WOFFORD 10
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? Wofford College was defeated 21-10 by the University of Richmond on Saturday night at Gibbs Stadium. Richmond is now 11-2 on the season and will advance in the FCS Playoffs. The Terriers end the season at 9-4.
Wofford was led by Kevious Johnson with 89 yards on 16 carries and Andy Strickland with 98 yards on six catches. Wofford’s lone touchdown was by Michael Hobbs. Richmond was led by Tim Hightower with 88 yards on 23 carries with two touchdowns and Kevin Grayson with eight catches for 92 yards.
“To tell you the truth it is exactly what we expected,” said head coach Mike Ayers. “First and foremost Richmond has a quality program. Their kids are just like our guys, they are going to go out, they are going to compete, and do everything they can do to try to get it done. We had concerns with our match-up offensively versus defensively. They did some things that created some problems for us, and then we compounded the problem by making some mistakes; not executing on certain situations. It has been a great year; it has been a great ride. I’m not going to let this one loss take away from what we have accomplished for the long run this season.”
Wofford had the opening kickoff, but turned it over on downs after an unsuccessful fourth-and-six play. Richmond drove into Terrier’s territory, but with 5:31 left in the first quarter Andrew Howard missed a 34-yard field goal wide right.
The Terriers were then able to drive the ball, but Patrick Mugan missed a 42-yard field goal attempt with 19 seconds remaining in the first quarter. On the next drive by the Spiders, Seth Goldwire forced a fumble that was recovered by Brian Kemp. After the turnover, Wofford drove to the one-yard line, but had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Patrick Mugan to take a 3-0 lead at 7:47 in the second quarter.
On the next drive by Richmond, Erid Ward found Joe Stewart alone in the back of the endzone for a 10-yard touchdown reception. Richmond took a 7-3 lead with 4:19 left in the second quarter. After the touchdown, Wofford’s Josh Collier had a pass intercepted by Michael Ireland and returned to the Terrier’s 46-yard line with under three minutes to go in the half. But the Wofford defense held, and the Spiders missed a 39-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.
The Spiders opened the second half with the ball, and after picking up two first downs, Filmon Dawkins intercepted Eric Ward at the Terrier’s ten-yard line. Wofford returned the turnover when a pitch was fumbled and recovered by the Spiders. But on fourth-and-nine, Richmond turned the ball over on downs.
Wofford took over at its own 29-yard line. After three first downs, Jeremy Marshall converted on a fourth-and-two at the Spider’s 27-yard line. After a key third-down conversion by Kevious Johnson, Michael Hobbs took it in from one-yard out for the touchdown and a 10-7 lead at 3:34 in the third quarter.
On the next drive by Richmond, Tim Hightower ran it in from one yard out to give the Spiders a 14-10 lead at 11:55 in the fourth quarter. With the ball back, Wofford picked up a first down before they were forced to punt. The snap went over the head of Chris Tommie and the ball was recovered at the one-yard line by the Spiders. On the next play, Tim Hightower went in from one-yard out to take a 21-10 lead with 8:40 left in the fourth quarter.
With the ball back, Wofford was forced three-and-out and punted. The Terrier defense came up with a stop as well, and the Spiders punted after a three-and-out. Wofford had the ball back with 5:48 remaining in the game and were able to drive to the Richmond 14 before turning the ball over on downs. The Spiders gained a first down and were able to run out the clock for a 21-10 victory.
Richmond will face Appalachian State, who defeated Eastern Washington 38-35 on Saturday afternoon. In the other semifinal, Southern Illinois will host Delaware.