Josh Brown - The Appalachian

Appalachian State reserve quarterback Brian
Moriarty (10) tires to elude an ETSU defender in
the late stages of the Mountaineers 33-14 SoCon
victory Saturday afternoon at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
The freshman signal caller from Bexley, Ohio, was
0-1 passing and carried the ball once for eight yards.

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Intense week of practice culminates
with impressive win

James Nix - Sports Beat

The Appalachian State University football team showed it can still play in dominant fashion in Saturday’s 33-14 win against East Tennessee State University (ETSU) at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

The Mountaineers went into the game 2-1. It had suffered a hard loss to Wake Forest University three weekends before and a near loss to The Citadel only one weekend ago.

“This was our outbreak game,” said junior running back Jerry Beard. “Liberty was a good game, but I think we kind of lost grip of what we really wanted to get accomplished.”

After squeaking past The Citadel, head coach Jerry Moore said that his team needs to evaluate all of its problems and polish them.

Moore still feels more polishing will be needed, but things are looking better.

Junior quarterback Joe Burchette had four interceptions against The Citadel. The Bucs didn’t touch any of his 24 pass-attempts Saturday.

Burchette completed 15 of his passes, one for a touchdown.
“I was in a better mood this week,” said Burchette.

Appalachian was penalized seven times against The Citadel, a number that dwindled to two against the Bucs.

With senior running back Jimmy Watkins on the bench with an injured hip, Beard got his hands on the ball a lot more. He had 121 yards on 23 rushes.

Moore said he was glad to give Beard that opportunity.
“We’re going to let a guy get his feet on the ground, let him get a feel for the game,” said Moore.

Appalachian spent most of the first quarter running the ball.
“Appalachian State football is running the ball,” said Burchette. “We wanted to come out and establish the run and if we needed to throw it, we’d throw it.”

With the offensive line reorganizing itself, Appalachian spent more time in the red zone against the Bucs.

“It’s great just to get back in the end zone,” said Burchette.
Another perk to the one-sided affair with ETSU came late in the fourth quarter when freshman quarterback Brian Moriarty was put into the action.

This was only the second time this season the Mountaineers have had the chance to give the young quarterback some game experience.

“It’s good for Brian to get in the game,” said Burchette. “It’s a lot different when you’re out there as a starter, so you just got to get your feet wet and see what’s going on.”

“We’ve been wanting to play him for a while and he showed some signs of doing the things we need him to do,” said Moore.
Burchette has been the sole quarterback this year, which is very dangerous for Appalachian. If Burchette gets hurt, what next? All that’s left are freshmen who have not played in a game yet.

Burchette has been under the gun all season long. Now with Moriarty getting playing time, he’ll have someone to back him up later in the season.

Now that the confidence levels are back up, Appalachian has to prepare for its next two games against SoCon and NCAA Division I-AA powers Furman University and Georgia Southern University.

To do that, it must build on the good practices it had last week.
“The biggest thing about this week, from last week, is our practice,” said Beard. “Coach Moore was more intense and really stepped up practice.”

“He knew that he had to get on us. He opened his mouth and got on us and I think it paid off in the end,” he said.

“Coach Moore got out to the receivers, and really just about everybody, about catching the ball and going to score,” said Burchette.

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ASU hosts Blue Ridge Blowout frisbee tournament

Jared Kavlock - Club

Appalachian State University hosted the fourth annual Blue Ridge Blowout Ultimate Frisbee tournament Sept. 22-23 in Boone.

The tournament drew the most teams in its four-year history.
Due to last year’s initial date being postponed, Appalachian’s Ultimate Frisbee club team had trouble attracting teams to the spring make-up date.

The only teams accepting the invitation were Asheville-area teams, so the tournament was moved to Asheville.

“It is a lot of work to get [the teams] up here,” said senior Jimmy Lippert, president of the men’s club. “You really have to sell the tournament, rather than just calling the teams and inviting them.”

During the fall season, the club Ultimate Frisbee schedule is open to all club teams, while the spring season is exclusive to college clubs.

A large mixture of college and independent club teams came to the Blue Ridge Blowout this year.

Teams from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Va. Tech) and Georgia Institute of Technology (Ga. Tech) participated. Independent club teams Nadz (Charlotte), Thor (Tri-Cities area), What’s Up (Winston-Salem) and the Black Market Babies, an all-star team from East Carolina University, also competed in the tournament.

Appalachian State had three teams entered in the tournament.
The university’s club teams were split into rookie and veteran squads and were also joined by a team of alumni.Some members of the women’s club were allowed to play in the tournament on the men’s rookie squad.

“My girls are better than most of the rookie boys,” joked club president and senior Sara Yonnish.

Yonnish was allowed to join the alumni team.

“That was an awesome experience, and it was especially great because I got to play with the alumni, who have been playing for a long time,” she said.

After two full days of competition, the Black Market Babies defeated What’s Up in a landslide to win the tournament.

The third-place game was not played due to fatigue and lack of interest in anything past first place, said Lippert.

“We had a lot of fun out there,” said Lippert. “By Sunday afternoon, we were all pretty tired, and the third place game didn’t really mean anything.”

Ultimate Frisbee is played on a field similar in size to a soccer field.

The Frisbee is advanced down the field by throwing it from one teammate to another. When the Frisbee is caught, the player must come to a stop as his or her momentum allows and establish a pivot foot, like in basketball. A dropped pass results in a turnover, so the team must make it into the end zone using consecutive passes.

Prior to the Blue Ridge Blowout, both the men’s and the women’s teams traveled to the sectional tournament held in Greenville.

The men finished in the middle of the pack, placing eighth out of a field of 16.

The women were not so lucky, however, narrowly losing all of their games.

“We almost beat every team,” said Yonnish. “Almost. Instead, we lost them all.”

The women’s squad remains positive.

The team has been invited to the regional tournament as a wild card on Saturday in Fredericksburg, Va., and was also offered a spot in a tournament to be held at Duke.

Josh Brown - The Appalachian

Appalachian State running back Jerry Beard (34) slips past Andrew Foerster (48) as Mountaineer quarterback Joe Burchette (16) looks on. Beard led the offensive attack for ASU, carrying the football 23 times for 121 yards after being held to just 31 yards against The Citadel. Appalachian travels to Furman Saturday for a 3 p.m. contest with the Paladins.

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Mountaineers turn to Beard, defense in 33-14 win

Chris Boyce - Sports Beat

An intense week of practice led by Appalachian State University head football coach Jerry Moore yielded results Saturday afternoon, as the Mountaineers (3-1, 2-0 in SoCon) defeated the East Tennessee State University Bucs (1-3, 0-2 in SoCon) 33-14 at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Among the biggest benefits for the sixth-ranked Mountaineers was a well-balanced offensive attack that generated 421 total net yards, 257 of which came from the much-improved Mountaineer ground game.

After being held to only 31 yards against The Citadel last week, junior running back Jerry Beard rushed for 100 yards in the first half, finishing the game with 23 carries for a total of 121 yards.

Junior quarterback Joe Burchette also returned to form, completing 15 of 24 passes for 180 yards and one touchdown.

The Mountaineers scored on their first two possessions Saturday and led 17-0 at the half after an eight-play 78-yard drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Appalachian State’s Joey Hoover with 3:14 left in the half.

The drive was set up by several big plays including Jerry Beard’s 17-yard scamper to start the drive and a 37-yard pass play from Burchette to freshman wide-out Jermane Little.

Appalachian State opened the game with a seven-play, 40-yard drive that resulted in a 30-yard field goal by Erik Rockhold with 11 minutes remaining in the first quarter.

The Mountaineers struck again six minutes later with Hoover’s first score of the game, a 1-yard run capping an 11-play 58-yard drive at the 5:15 minute mark that gave the Mountaineers a 10-0 lead.

The Bucs struggled offensively throughout the contest and didn’t gain a first down until 14 minutes to play in the first half. East Tennessee State had only two first downs in the entire first half and penalties and turnovers hampered any chance of an ETSU comeback.

Perhaps the most costly turnover came with 5:29 left in the third quarter after an errant Matt Wilhjelm pass was picked off by Mountaineer defensive back Nygel Rogers at the East Tennessee State 45-yard line.

Appalachian State took full advantage, scoring two plays later on a 22-yard touchdown strike from Burchette to wide receiver Sterling Hayward, putting the Mountaineers up 23-0 with around five minutes left in the quarter.

The Bucs got on the scoreboard after a quarterback sneak by Wilhjelm made it 23-7 with four seconds left in the third quarter.

But Appalachian State added 10 unanswered points including a 20-yard field goal by Mark Wright and a brilliant 20-yard run by freshman sensation Sean Jackson with 7:38 left in the game. It was a different kind of practice last week, said Beard after the victory.

“The biggest difference from this week to last week was our practice. Coach Moore walked around and was more intense. He just really stepped up practice and made people do a bunch of plays over and over,” said Beard.

A good week of practice spoke volumes for the Mountaineer offense, which finally managed to take full advantage of the red zone.

“It’s great just to get back in the end zone. We hadn’t scored in seven quarters and that’s one of the things we harped on all week, just to come out and put it in the end zone and run up the score a little bit to give our defense a rest. They played tough last week,”
said Burchette.

The offense’s success couldn’t have come at a better time, said Sterling Hayward after the game, with two Southern Conference powerhouses Furman University and Georgia Southern University back-to-back in the next two weeks.

“It was important to establish the run and get the offense on track because we’ve got Furman and Georgia Southern coming up. Establishing the offense is always a big part of it. Getting back in sync and on the same page was very important,” said Hayward.

The Mountaineers travel to Greenville, S.C., Saturday to battle the fourth-ranked Furman Paladins at Paladin Stadium. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.

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Newly appointed assistant coach, Chernisky looks to improve pitching staff

Michael Gilliand - Contributing Writer

New assistant baseball coach Chris Chernisky worked on a drill with the outfielders Thursday at Appalachian State University baseball fall-in-season practice.

The drill involved Chernisky standing on the edge of the outfield grass behind second base, hitting fly balls just over the centerfield fence.

The object of the exercise was for the outfielders to make leaping catches, to practice taking away the homerun ball. The only problem was Chernisky, underestimating his own strength, hit some of the balls too far over the fence for the outfielders to make a play.

At the conclusion of the drill, “Coach Ski,” a nickname given to him by his players, asked some of the players, “Did you see all those bombs I hit?”

Head coach Troy Huestess named Chernisky pitching coach back in July. Though his primary responsibilities are with the pitching staff, Chernisky also works with the position players on hitting and defense.

“He’s a huge asset to our program. He is a hard worker, gets along well with the kids, and is very enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We’re just tickled that he is here,” said Huestess.

Chernisky comes to the program with six seasons of coaching experience. A 1993 graduate of Virginia Military Institute (VMI), Chernisky served as a graduate-assistant coach at California University of Pennsylvania (in California, Penn., about an hour south of Pittsburgh) in 1993, followed by five seasons as an assistant coach at VMI.

In 1999, Chernisky turned down an assistant coaching position with the United States Naval Academy’s baseball program. He instead took a two-year break from baseball.

Chernisky said, “I always knew coaching was in my blood. I wanted to see what else was out there, but I knew my love was always going to be baseball.”

Chris’s father, Thomas “Red” Chernisky, spent more than 35 years as an American Legion coach and is a member of the American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame.

Chernisky’s challenge is to help the pitching staff lower their 6.44 team ERA from last season. To help accomplish this, Chernisky has established a regimen to help maximize his pitchers’ efficiency and health each time they take the mound.

Chernisky said, “The biggest change we’re making is to give our players the full-time attention they need at their position and the development they need to get better, from their inception as freshmen through the time they get drafted or graduate.”

Senior pitcher Thomas Krasnor said, “I think we’ll have a better pitching staff this season just because of him and the work he is doing. He has things set up for us to do each day, with a certain objective he wants us to meet. He knows what he is doing.”

Chernisky was also a standout catcher on the VMI baseball squad from 1989 through 1993. “As a catcher, you have the opportunity to work with pitchers from the time you start playing baseball. I think I know the aspects as a former hitter, and as a catcher. You get that side of it, other than if you were just a pitcher and just know what the pitches are and what you’re trying to accomplish.

“I know what the hitters are looking for and what they’re trying to
accomplish as well,” he said.

Although Chernisky has close ties with VMI baseball, he quickly made clear his feelings about facing his alma mater, stating, “My colors are gold, black, gray and white. I have no mixed emotions about playing [VMI].”

Chernisky also made known his appreciation of the Boone community. “Appalachian State and Boone have been wonderfully receptive. They’ve made me and my fiance feel like we’re part of the family,” he said.

“I’m happy. I don’t want to go anywhere else.”