Following a slow two quarters of play at Whitmire Stadium in Cullowee, the Appalachian State Mountaineers pulled away with a strong second half performance by freshman DeAndre Presley to capture the Old Mountain Jug and a 35-10 victory on Saturday.App's first offensive drive was disastrous as Matt Cline fumbled the ball to give the Catamounts the first break of the game.
Western moved the ball fairly well on the ensuing drive but failed to turn their opportunity into points. With 22 seconds left in the first quarter, former Pisgah High School standout Zack Jaynes crossed the goal line for a one-yard score and a 7-0 lead.
Following WCU's scoring drive, the Mountaineers were forced into several three and outs before ASU reserve quarterback DeAndre Presley got into an offensive rhythm. A 10 play, 52-yard Mountaineer scoring drive was capped by a three-yard scamper to the right side to tie the score at seven. Western answered with a field goal to take a 10-7 lead into halftime.
The second half was a different story as the Mountaineers stepped up. Presley led the Black and Gold to 28 unanswered points in the final two quarters, showing glimpses of brilliance that have been evident at times throughout his first season as an App. Presley hit tight end Ben Jorden for a 17-yard touchdown strike as part of 156-yard throwing performance on 16 of 25 passing. The emergence of the freshman allowed the Appalachian coaches to keep a recovering Armanti Edwards on the sidelines without further risking injury.
The Mountaineer defense was stingy all game ling, holding a weak Western Carolina offense to 72 yards of total offense on the afternoon, including minus-two yards total on the ground. WCU's only success on offense game in the passing game, but only for a paltry 74 yards.
ASU forced Jaynes into a poor day, as he completed only five of 26 attempts for 63 yards. In the process, ASU sacked the Catamount signal caller five times, and added one more later in the game, with defensive end Lanston Tanyi posting 2.5 sacks in the contest and his counterpart, Jabari Fletcher added 1.5 sacks. Led by Pierre Banks' 11 tackles, the linebackers were once again strong shutting down anything across the middle - both the pass and rush. D.J. Smith and Jacque Roman followed Banks' lead, clogging running lanes all night and hurrying Jaynes out of the pocket consistently. The ASU secondary also had a busy day, but responded nicely containing Western's experienced receiving corps.
Appalachian racked up a total of 382 total yards of offense, with 224 on the ground. The Mountaineers await its first opponent for the 2008 FCS playoffs with Selection Sunday tomorrow afternoon.
