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Josh Brown | Chief Photographer
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At this point, a win is a win
for the Appalachian State University football team.
After back-to-back losses to Georgia Southern University and Wofford
College, the Mountaineers raised their spirits Saturday with a 20-17
win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
“It’s like our first win, just to get back on that winning
track,” said ASU quarterback Joe Burchette. “It lifts
you up a little bit.”
Appalachian (6-3, 4-2 SoCon) had a poor first half performance with
several failed red zone attempts. Chattanooga (0-9, 0-5 SoCon) was
able to keep up, and went into halftime with the score tied at 10-10.
Both teams went scoreless in the third quarter. A Mark Wright field
goal put ASU on top in the fourth. Appalachian clinched the lead
with a touchdown pass to Jermane Little.
Chattanooga scrambled to come back and pick up their first win of
the season when quarterback Ryan McCann found Cortez Rankin for
a 13-yard touchdown pass.
Appalachian recovered an on-side kick and ran the clock down but
turned the ball over on downs with only a second remaining on the
clock. The Mocs tried a desperate pitch and lateral play to shake
up the ASU defense but failed.
The Mountaineers had a convincing offensive game but struggled to
put points on the board. With 521 yards of total offense, Appalachian’s
red zone efficiency against the Mocs was poor.
“We needed a good offensive game. We didn’t score a lot
of points, but when we needed to score we did and that’s always
good,” Burchette said.
Burchette finished the game with 344 passing yards. The performance
marks his second 300-yard game this season and his fifth for his
career.
Running back Jerry Beard got his first 100-yard game of the season
with a 126-yard performance.
Beard said he was able to utilize his speed and run to the corners
more against Chattanooga. In past games he has been used more as
a power back and sent into the middle.
Also hitting the century mark against Chattanooga was Little, who
had 111 receiving yards.
Another century marker had a negative impact on the Mountaineers.
Penalties against ASU resulted in a loss of 103 yards.
Burchette said the last week of practice was tough for the team
after the two losses. Many of the players were discouraged, and
playoff hopes were low.
“It’s really good for us to come out and play as well
as we did, take away the penalties,” Burchette said. “If
we didn’t have the penalties, we would have had a heck of a
ball game today.”
Defensive end K.T. Stovall said dominating a game like the game
against Chattanooga is something Appalachian State football lost
in the previous two games.
“We haven’t got back to it yet but we took a good step
toward it today,” Stovall said.
Against Chattanooga, Appalachian used a balanced attack of passing
and rushing, something Beard said was important to his team’s
success.
“If we play one dimensional, the opposing defense is going
to key in on it,” Beard said. “Once we get ready to make
a transition, they key in on that.”
One-dimensional play is something that hurt the Mountaineers in
previous games, especially against Georgia Southern. The Eagles
picked up on the Appalachian running game and forced ASU to pass
the ball.
“Once we keep a balanced game, I think we can keep every team
on their feet and let them know that App State, we still come to
play,” Beard said. |
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