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| Sept 17,2002 | Online Since 1996 | Vol 77 No. 6 |
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“We couldn’t
let our heads be down,” said senior and co-team captain running
back Jerry Beard. “Even if we did drop our heads, we couldn’t
let other players know that we were down.” |
“We came out, we settled down, we got our mind right and went out and did what we had to do,” said freshman quarterback Richie Williams. Appalachian (1-1) put the first points on the board early in the first quarter when Beard ran in a 4-yard touchdown. Senior place kicker Mark Wright then kicked in the extra point to give ASU a 7-0 lead. But that was last time the Mountaineers would score in the first half. On the very next drive, Eastern Kentucky (1-2) turned to the unlikely skills of punter Phil Kuhl, who after a bad snap, ran the football in for a 39-yard touchdown. The extra point attempt failed, however, and ASU remained in the lead 7-6. Eastern Kentucky head coach Roy Kidd said he told Kulh to run it if he gets a bad snap and Appalachian didn’t rush him. “[Appalachian] doesn’t pay much attention, we noticed that against Marshall,” said Kidd. “They’re too busy, which you do, trying to hold guys up and run.” “We’ll be aware of it next time,” said sophomore wide receiver Jermane Little. Kulh’s remarkable play gave the Colonels a first-half momentum boost, which led to two more touchdowns in the second quarter, sending a thwarted Mountaineer team into halftime down 21-7. “We didn’t do anything different in the locker room than we ever do,” said ASU head coach Jerry Moore. “We talked about what we were going to do in the second half and the good thing was we came back out and did what we talked about.” “We just said ‘this is not us, this is not how we play, we play hard,’” said Little about what went on at halftime. “We came back the second half and showed that we really are a good team.” Appalachian seemed to still be recovering from the first half upset when Williams’ pass was intercepted by EKU’s Sunsett Graham. Then ASU had its own momentum boost on the next play when junior defensive back Nygel Rogers forced EKU’s C.J. Hudson to fumble. Junior defensive back Derrick Black recovered the loose ball and ran it in for a 48-yard touchdown. “To me, that was the same thing for us as the bad snap on the punt was for them,” said Moore. “Those two plays just offset each other.” Appalachian was back in the ball game from that point on, scoring on two additional touchdowns, two field goals and a safety. The Appalachian defense held Eastern Kentucky to a single touchdown in the second half. “One pass [quarterback Travis Turner] hit up here, made a nice long gain by [Matt] Miller and set up a touch down,” said Kidd. “We came back with it there in the third quarter and he was wide open again, same play, same thing, but the quarterback can’t throw laying on his back.” After Appalachian’s win over EKU, Moore will need only two more wins to become the winningest coach in Southern Conference history. |
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