Coming into Saturday’s second round game with Northwestern State, (La.), it seemed like both teams were on equal ground.  

A fact sheet on Northwestern State’s season looked exactly like a fact sheet on Appalachian State.  One local paper’s headline before the game read, “Mirror Image egamI rorriM”

Something had to give.  

Unfortunately for Appalachian State, it was the big play that gave way. 

Perhaps the biggest plays of the game came in the second quarter. 

With Appalachian leading 10-0, Demon quarterback Brad Spangler turned things around for Northwestern with two straight touchdown passes in the second quarter to Eric Granger of 55 and 77 yards apiece, both coming in the last five minutes of the first half.   

‘’The last thing we wanted to do was give up the big play right before half time,’’ said linebacker Adam Neiheisel of the Mountaineers. ‘’If they score, we needed to make them drive the field and eat the clock up.” They took the momentum away from us going into half time. That gave them confidence that they could do some things against us. They were able to come out in the second half and sustain a couple of drives, and I think that maybe started to wear on us a little.’’ 

Appalachian State Coach Jerry Moore said, ‘’We just made some very critical mistakes, especially right before half time. We had ample opportunity to come back and still win the football game, but it was a combination of us not executing very well and Northwestern making key plays when they had to make them.’’

Appalachian tried to shift the momentum with a touchdown run of their own to open the third quarter, but were answered directly with a Northwestern touchdown.  Chris Barden rounded out the scoring for Appalachian State with a 38-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in the third quarter that brought Appalachian closer to Northwestern, making the score 21-20.  The  fourth quarter, however, was owned by Northwestern.  The Demons cashed in on a two-yard touchdown by Spangler and a 32-yard field goal. 

Despite being outscored, Appalachian managed to hold the ball 13 minutes more than Northwestern, had ten more first downs and had 106 more yards of offense than the Demons.       

‘’I think Appalachian State did the things they wanted to do,’’ said Coach Sam Goodwin of the Demons, who advance to the semifinals for the first time. ‘’They ran 86 plays to our 57. They had the ball 37 minutes. I’m sure they felt before the game if they did those things, they’d be in good shape. We obviously averaged a lot more per play.’’

The Achilles heel for the Mountaineers in the end of the game was the lack of a rushing attack.  A flurry of injuries hit the Mountaineers in the second half saw Terrence McCall leave because of a leg injury. After McCall was out for the game, back-ups Chris Abrille and Bap Jansen both were injured, leaving the rushing duties to Chris Charles.

Moore said, ‘’We could never really establish a good, strong running game,’’ Moore said. ‘’Part of that was because we couldn’t keep any backs healthy. We brought four tailbacks with us, and we lost three of them. But I don’t think that was a huge factor. We were fine throwing the ball, if we don’t make the other mistakes.’’

The losses ultimately contributed to Appalachian’s offensive attack becoming too one-dimensional to defeat Northwestern.  

‘’To hold a team that runs the ball so well to 82 yards rushing, especially with as many attempts as they had, is a credit to our defense,’’ Goodwin said. ‘’I bet nobody’s done that against Appalachian State.’’  

The loss dropped Appalachian State to 10-3 and makes them the third football team in ASU history to win ten games.