Chattanooga, HERE WE COME!!! Mountaineers defeat Spiders 55-35

On Friday night, the Appalachian State Mountaineers defeated the Richmond Spiders 55-35 in front of a large and rowdy crowd to advance to their unprecedented third straight national title game.

The Mountaineers won their 11th straight playoff game and became the third program to appear in at least three consecutive championship games. Appalachian will face the winner of Delaware, who defeated Southern Illinois 20-17 on Saturday, next Friday night in Chattanooga, TN for the NCAA Football Championship Series title.

Appalachian quarterback Armanti Edwards put on an offensive clinic for the 24,140 fans, an FCS playoff record for a non-championship game, as he rushed for 313 yards for four touchdowns, and was 14 of 16 passing for 182 yards and 3 touchdowns. "The linemen blocked who they were supposed to block," Edwards said. "They were big holes. Anybody could run through them.”

Appalachian Coach Jerry Moore interrupted his star quarterback. “Some of them just can’t run as far,” Moore observed. Moore also said he had never seen such an impressive performance in his 19 years of coaching. “Especially tonight with the importance of this game, that’s something you have to factor in there,” Moore said.

Edwards fell 20 yards short of the FCS playoff rushing record, but he set the record of rushing for a quarterback (FBS or FCS). Edwards also shattered SoCon records for the position, and several school records including seven touchdowns responsible for and 495 yards of total offense.

“No. 14. He’s the best we’ve seen this year. I think we have some pretty good athletes on defense but he makes plays in space that nobody has on us this year,” Richmond Coach Dave Clawson said of Edwards. “I wouldn’t want to change places with the defensive coordinators in the Southern Conference the next two years.”

On a night expected to showcase Richmond’s star running back Tim Hightower, it was Edwards and the Appalachian offense who stole the show. By the half, Edwards had accounted for 204 rushing yards, while the ASU defense limited Hightower to only 34 yards through two quarters. Hightower would end the night with 95 rushing yards on 22 carries. Eric Ward threw for 208 yards and had 5 total touchdowns for the Spiders.

The Mountaineers led at one point 28-7 before the Spiders took control of the momentum and tied the game at 35 with 9:02 left in the 3rd quarter. However, Appalachian took back over and never looked back. The Mountaineer defense limited Richmond to only 29 yards on their last five possessions and the offense scored 21 straight. Corey Lynch all but sealed the victory with his 24th career interception late in the fourth quarter.

The National Championship game will be held at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga. Kickoff is scheduled for 8:00pm and will be broadcast on ESPN2.