11:00: Good morning from beautiful Kidd Brewer Stadium on a perfect Saturday for football. Today, 16 teams start their quest for a national title with the Football Championship Playoffs. Appalachian is facing a stiff challenge as South Carolina State comes to Boone sporting a 10-1 record with their only loss being to the SEC's South Carolina 38-14. Neither team was one of the four seeds, and will face the winner of the Elon/#4 Richmond contest that is at 1:00pm today. Today's App contest will be broadcast on ESPNU. Due to NCAA regulations, we will not be doing as many updates as Jamie normally does, but will still keep you informed. Also, the Avery Vikings are playing at Mitchell today with the Lady Vikings set to tip off at 12. We will keep you informed as we get those scores also. Hope you have a great Saturday, and enjoy some excellent football. (NCAA Graphics Courtesy of NCAA.org)
11:45: It's almost game time as Kidd Brewer as the stadium is starting to fill up as both teams have returned to the locker rooms.
At the end of 1, the Mountaineers are in scoring position, but trail 3-0 after a Devon Moore fumble inside the red zone thwarted a 14 play 71 yard drive for the 'Neers. S.C. State scored on their opening drive. Halftime: App gets a field goal as time expires on the second quarter to retake a 13-10 lead. The 'Neers had been leading 10-3 with 1:34 remaining, but Armanti Edwards was intercepted by Rafael Bush who returned it 46 yards for the score. The Mountaineers benefited from two unsportsmanlike penalties on the Bulldogs as they were forced to kickoff from the 7 yard-line.
Avery Update: Avery girls won big as they take a 77-41 victory over Sullivan North at Mitchell, while the Avery boys lead 24-20 with 5:50 remaining in the first half.
End of the 3rd: The Bulldogs kicked through a field goal to tie the game at 13. The Mountaineers had a drive stalled by a Edwards fumble, and SC State looked poised to run it back, but Matt Cline forced a fumble on the return and the 'Neers took back over. Entering the final quarter, App will be going towards the scoreboard, which today is less windy then the other side. App has had a season high of four turnovers so far today.
Final: We have gone final here in Boone and the Mountaineers live to play another day as Ed Gainey broke up a SC State pass on 4th down with 16 seconds left to seal the victory. The Mountaineers broke into the end zone when a field goal attempt's snap went over the holder's head and App's Dominique McDuffie picked up and scrambled 50 yards for the touchdown. We will have more information on this contest later in the weekend as well as info on App in the next round.
Vikings Compete in Holiday Classic The Avery Vikings varsity basketball teams were in action on Friday at the Unimin Holiday Classic at Mitchell High School. On Friday both Vikings teams took on R-S Central. The Lady Vikings earned a hard fought one-point win over the Lady Hilltoppers to move to 1-1 on the young season, while the Avery boys fell to the R-S Central boys team to also fall to 1-1 overall.
On Saturday the Lady Vikings will be back in action, taking on the Lady Raiders of Sullivan North (TN) High School at noon. The Avery boys varsity team will play the Raiders following girls action.
Appalachian Begins Quest for Fourth Title in Five Seasons On Saturday at noon the Appalachian State Mountaineers look to advance in the NCAA FCS Playoffs when they meet a familiar foe in South Carolina State. The two teams met in Boone a year ago to open the playoffs, with ASU taking a 37-21 victory. Look for game updates throughout the afternoon here on the Blog.
Congratulations to Sam Burleson who won last week's online picks contest. This is the final week of the contest for this football season. This week's winner will be entered into our end-of-season prize drawings with the winners from the other contest weeks. Thank you to everyone who has participated in this season's contest!
This Week's Games:
1. Lincolnton @ Mountain Heritage 2. West Montgomery @ Hendersonville 3. Robbinsville @ Elkin 4. South Carolina State @ Appalachian State 5. FloridaState @ Florida 6. Miami (FL) @ South Florida 7. Georgia @ Georgia Tech 8. BostonCollege @ Maryland 9. WakeForest @ Duke 10. North Carolina @ N.C.State 11. Virginia Tech @ Virginia 12. Clemson @ South Carolina 13. Tennessee @ Kentucky 14. OklahomaState @ Oklahoma 15. Arkansas @ LSU
16. Notre Dame @ Stanford 17. NFL: TampaBay @ Atlanta 18. NFL: Arizona @ Tennessee 19. NFL: Carolina @ N.Y. Jets 20. NFL: Pittsburgh @ Baltimore Tie Breaker: Tennessee @ Kentucky Total # of points: ________________
With the opening dual meet at home against Freedom occurring this week, the AveryHigh School wrestling team looks to add to its impressive total through the years of conference champions as well as regional and state tournament appearances.
Avery wrestling has a rich and storied tradition. Former Avery standout Stacey Clark leads his troops into hand-to-hand combat again this season, and I had an opportunity this week to visit practice and discuss the upcoming season with the coach.
Question: Your team has been working hard for the past couple of weeks preparing for the upcoming season. How many returning wrestlers do you have coming back this season?
Coach Clark: We have seven or eight wrestlers returning this season. Some of the wrestlers who also play football have taken a little time off this week before transitioning into wrestling season, and a number of them are also helping families particularly in the Christmas tree industry. It puts us in a small bind for the first week of the season, but the subsequent matches should be fine and we’ll be better off.
Question: Brock Yackey was a state qualifier who has performed well and has continued to improve through his prep career. Will he be someone who look to in providing leadership for the team, and are there additional wrestlers who you see stepping up to provide leadership to the club?
Coach Clark: Brock is probably our most experienced wrestler, being the only wrestler to make it to the state tournament last season. He will definitely be one of our leaders this year. Nick Malgadey is back with us this year and seems to have stepped up his level of commitment both on and off of the mat.
Jacob McKinney has also looked good in practice so far. He’ll be wrestling at 112 pounds herein a week or two, and I believe he has opportunity for success in that weight class. He spent last year paying his dues behind Brock and Nick, and with those guys bumping up in weight class he will have a greater opportunity.
Lucas Lecka probably has the most experience of our upper weights. He’ll be joining us soon, and we look forward to him at least qualifying for regionals and possibly looking beyond that.
Question: Speaking of upper weights, In recent history the team has had difficulty fielding consistent wrestlers in the upper weight classes like the 189, 215, and heavyweight classes. Is that a recurring issue this season, and with that in mind, will your lighter classes again be an area of strength with your club this year?
Coach Clark: Our numbers are still higher in the lower weight classes. The majority of the kids in the high school are between 125 and 160 pounds. There are exceptions both ways and we’ve tried to get those kids out to tryout for the team. We look to be a little stronger in numbers this year in the upper weight classes as we have been. We have three of our football players out wrestling already and hope to have three or four more who we hope will come join us. Right now we’re looking to fill gaps in the 160-pound to heavyweight class range.
Question: What does it appear will be the character or personality of the team this year based on the short time the group has been together? What strengths do you anticipate this team displaying this season, and are there any areas which the group will need to improve upon?
Coach Clark: We’re still young as a team. The upperclassmen we do have do not have a lot of experience. I like the fact that the kids that we have are working hard and will do whatever you ask of them. The experience will come, and it may come at a hefty price in the early going.
We’re going to see plenty of matches and plenty of good competition this year. We’ll be at some matches where we’ll be quite honest with the team and explain to them that we’re “seeing the world” and what’s out there, but we’ve also scheduled matches that we feel our guys can compete in and have an opportunity to win. At that point it’s up to the kids to determine how hard they want it and how hard they want to work.
Question: Conference matches and postseason tournaments are always crucial, but are there any duals or tournaments during the season that you feel are important in shaping the team and gaining experience? Are there tournaments that you specifically schedule because of past experiences there or personal preference?
Coach Clark: AsheCounty is always a good early tournament. It’s a good measuring stick for some of our younger guys. We have scheduled a lot of individual tournaments this year rather than the dual team tournaments. We’re trying to promote the success of our individual wrestlers who are capable of doing a little better than we can as a team. We want to put kids like Brock, Nick, Lucas and others who have the opportunity to win some matches in positions where they can see some success, as well as get a good confidence boost through the month of December to hold our heads high going into the conference season.
Question: Coach Tom Puckett again brings his experience and leadership to help you on this year’s coaching staff. How do you work together to get the team ready from a practice-to-practice and a match-to-match basis?
Coach Clark: A lot of what we do depends on the individual wrestlers. We run a team practice, we try to base as much as we can on the individual. Coach Puckett and I will trade off, as one of us will run the practice while the other will walk around and grab individuals to work on their specific needs.
We have a huge difference in experience levels from our juniors to some of our guys who have never wrestled before, and you’re not teaching the same moves to the same kids. We go over the basics with everybody, but the more experienced wrestlers will work on the finer points of techniques than those who are new and don’t know a lot at this point.
This season we’re also thrilled to welcome Coach John Harkey to our coaching staff. Coach Harkey is a new biology teacher at the school and will serve as one of our assistant coaches. He weighs about what the kids weigh and can get in there and wrestle with them. He’s been really good in instructing the lighter weights. He was a state qualifier and state placer when he wrestled at WestLincolnHigh School. He wrestled at the high school national tournament and also wrestled at Appalachian StateUniversity for Coach John Mark Bentley, so he knows his wrestling.
Best of luck to the Avery wrestling team as it embarks on the 2009-10 high school wrestling season beginning this week’s dual match against Freedom as well as the Indian Duals on Wednesday, November 25th at Saint Stephen’s High School in Hickory.
As the fall seasons concluded last week, the Avery basketball teams have been hitting the hardwood in earnest the past couple of weeks in preparation for the 2009-10 high school basketball season.
Last week the Avery girls basketball teams engaged in a home scrimmage against a familiar foe in the Ashe County Lady Huskies. The teams took part in a two-hour long scrimmage in 20 minute intervals. Both the junior varsity and varsity girls squads took advantage of the scrimmage to work through its entire roster and focus on fundamentals against an opponent other than themselves.
“I was pleased and it gave me a chance to play everyone and see what we still needed to work on,” Avery ladies head coach Missy Lyons said of the scrimmage. “Ashe is going to be very good again this year so our competition was excellent.”
Last Saturday the Lady Vikings journeyed to McDowell for a scrimmage with perennial 4A power and current member of the new Mountain Athletic 4A/3A Conference, the McDowell Lady Titans, as well as the West Henderson Lady Falcons.
“We played much better Saturday. McDowell is exceptional as usual but we hung right with them,” Coach Lyons said. “We really played well against West. They had trouble getting the ball down against our press. I wanted the girls to know that these were some of the toughest teams on our schedule. Actually Ashe and McDowell are two of the best in their respective divisions.”
A number of Lady Vikings have been displaying great ability and leadership for the varsity in the preseason.
“I was pleased with the effort and how the girls are coming together. Lauren Avery, Hayley Pyatte, Elyse Perry and Katelynn Eudy are playing exceptionally well!” the coach added.
Over the weekend the Avery varsity boys traveled to Mountain City, Tennessee to participate in a preseason tip-off tournament at JohnsonCountyHigh School. Avery kicked off the two-day event with a close matchup against Daniel Boone (TN) High School, winning a thriller in overtime 77-76.
Avery was paced early by the scoring of junior Dustin Clarke, who poured in 15 first-half points to keep the Vikings close. The Trailblazers, despite missing four starters due to participation in the Tennessee high school football playoffs, were a stern test for the Avery team. The tandem of Jordan Gray and Gharian Carrol combined to score 50 of the team’s 76 total points in the contest.
The Vikings held a 16-11 edge after one quarter of play, and held on to a slim 28-27 edge at halftime. Avery saw a lead built to as many as seven points, but Boone managed to shave the margin with key baskets from Gray, Carrol, or by talented freshman Ryan Gaiter, who scored ten additional points for the Blazers.
Through three periods the Vikings held a 46-42 lead, but the teams would draw even in the final minutes of regulation. Avery found itself with possession trailing by a pair at 69-67 with only seconds left on the clock. Clarke drew a double-team from the DB defense and found an open teammate Joey Potter under the basket. Potter sunk the basket from inside the paint as the buzzer sounded to force a three-minute overtime session.
The teams traded shot-for-shot in the extra period as Clarke continued his hot shooting touch. Dustin finished the contest with a game-high 37 points, including seven of the Big Red’s eight points in overtime.
In the final seconds Avery led by a single point, and the defense forced a tough shot from Boone. The Trailblazers rebounded the miss and had one final tip in attempt to win the game, but the iron was unkind and the Vikings picked up the win.
“I really enjoyed the effort tonight. It was something you can’t always coach all the time. The boys never got down on themselves,” Avery head coach Bo Manis said after the game. “Even though we had some breakdowns we pulled off the win and that’s a sign of a good ball team that plays hard.”
The next evening the Vikings were not so fortunate. Avery met up with tournament host JohnsonCounty, whose height and inside play was too much as the Vikings fell by the final score of 77-57. Clarke again was the leading scorer for Avery with 26 points, with six points apiece from Joey Potter and Spencer Blackburn. Kody Hughes tallied five points, with four apiece from Thomas Dellinger and Alex Villanueva.
Jason Steele, a 6’5” center for the Longhorns, led JohnsonCounty with 25 points.
If the opening scrimmages of last week are any indication, the Avery teams will feature athleticism, hustle, and a great deal of heart.
“We haven’t seen the depth we have this season. Our football players aren’t accustomed yet to basketball condition, but they’ll get acclimated with our players who have been practicing the past three or four weeks and mix in really well,” Coach Manis said.
Avery opened regular season play this week at Cloudland (TN), and the varsity teams will compete in a tournament at MitchellCounty this weekend.
The county’s middle school squads were busy with several games over the past week to mark the beginning of the second half of the conference season.
On Monday, November 16th the Lady Panthers traveled to Bakersville to take on BowmanMiddle School. Playing with only six players, the Lady Bulldogs were no match for the Lady Panthers, as Avery defeated Bowman 30-12. Lauren Burleson, Haley Woody, and Breanna Heaton led a balanced scoring attack for the Lady Panthers with eight points apiece. In boys action, the Panthers blasted Bowman by a final score of 46-15.
Meanwhile the Lady Wildcats of Cranberry were in action the same night against East Yancey. In the girls contest, the Lady Wildcats returned to action at full strength and it showed in picking up the road upset by the final score of 38-36.
Cranberry trailed 12-7 after one quarter, but a 11-6 scoring margin in the second quarter tied the game at 18 apiece at the half.
East Yancey came out strong to start the second half and took a 29-25 edge through three periods. The Lady Wildcats stepped up in the final eight minutes, however. Teammates Amber Johnson and Katie Rigdon combined to score 11 of Cranberry’s 13 points in the final stanza which proved to be enough to pick up the narrow victory.
Rigdon led Cranberry scorers with 19 points, with seven each from Bethany Burleson and Amber Johnson.
In the nightcap, the Cranberry boys met a touch East Yancey Panthers boys team, falling by a final margin of 56-31. Chandler Austin was the only Cranberry player scoring in double figures with 11 points. Tyler Pittman added nine, with five from Stetson Stafford.
The following evening the Wildcats returned home for a non-conference matchup against West McDowell.
In ladies action, Cranberry fell to West by the final score of 43-26. West McDowell outscored Cranberry 15-3 in the first stanza and never looked back in picking up the victory. Rigdon again led the Lady Wildcats in a double-figure scoring effort with 13 points.
The boys game closed the night with a tight affair which West McDowell won by a 37-35 final score. Cranberry took an early 13-9 lead behind a pair of three-pointers from Zach Guy. The Wildcats rode the momentum through the second stanza to take an 18-14 halftime edge.
A basket and two free throws in the third period from Chandler Austin helped Cranberry maintain its slim margin at 30-27 through three quarters, but a fourth quarter rally pushed West McDowell over the top and get the two-point win. Tyler Pittman led Cranberry scorers with eight points.
On Thursday evening, both Avery and Cranberry hosted Toe River Conference contests, as the Lady Panthers hosted CaneRiver and Cranberry took on Bowman. It was a good evening for the AveryCounty squads, as both Avery and Cranberry swept their opponents in hoops action.
In Newland, AveryMiddle School’s girls team was dominant in routing the Lady Rebels from CaneRiver by a 49-31 final score. The Avery defense continued to display the lockdown ability it has possessed throughout the season, as the offense scored one of its highest outputs of the season to date. The win allowed the Lady Panthers to maintain their undefeated record in conference play and keep its vise grip on first place in the Toe River Conference.
The Avery boys team showed in the second half of the doubleheader that they will also be a team to contend with in the upcoming postseason conference tournament, remaining in the upper half of the conference standings with a 46-36 victory over the Rebels.
At the same time in Cranberry, the Lady Wildcats were extending its defensive claws against a severely undermanned Bowman girls team, upending the Lady Bulldogs in a 38-16 win.
Dressing only six players, the Lady Bulldogs were overwhelmed by the smothering press defense of the Cranberry club. Katie Rigdon paced Cranberry with nine points in the first quarter alone, while the Bowman offense was non-existent. Cranberry led 12-0 after one period and continued pitching the shutout for the remainder of the first half, leading 22-0 at the halftime break.
Much to Bowman’s credit, the Lady Bulldogs played hard despite the deficit and finally scored in the opening two minutes of the third quarter, but the Lady Wildcats led 30-7 after three quarters. Cranberry used a solid team effort to put Bowman away, however, to cruise to the win.
“Our girls have come a long way. I was really proud of them against East Yancey, and they have played hard every game,” Lady Wildcats head coach Amber Young said after the week of action. “We’ve had a couple of girls who have been out sick, but the other girls have stepped up and score some points and battle.”
Rigdon led all scorers in the win with 19 points, including a pair of three-pointers. “Katie means a lot to our team. She always scores points, but in her absence we had some players who took the challenge to score,” Coach Young added. “Our press was awesome tonight.”
In the final game of the evening, the Cranberry Wildcats boys team played a strong contest against the Bulldogs, beating Bowman by a final score of 47-25.
Cranberry raced out of the gates with a 17-2 scoring margin in the first six minutes of play, and the two teams played evenly to maintain its 15-point edge at 27-12 at halftime.
Defense was tight through the third period as both clubs could only manage to score five points in the frame. Cranberry finished strong as Zach Guy and Gabe Stanley combined to score nine points in the final quarter to pace the Wildcats to the victory.
Chandler Austin led Cranberry with 13 points and two steals, while Guy added ten points and six rebounds and Cody Clawson added six points and seven rebounds. Cranberry also received a balanced effort from guard Stetson Stafford, who pulled down five rebounds, dished out four assists, and had five steals in the Wildcats win.
“We had some turnovers, but we’re doing better at executing our plays and getting some of our younger players some playing time, so we try to improve each and every day,” Wildcats head coach Jeremiah Norman said after the week’s action. “
Tyler Pittman had one of the best games of any player in the Toe River Conference this season, as he scored 11 points, hauled down 17 rebounds, and added three assists and two steals. “Tyler is everything you can ask for on the boards. He and our big boys go hard at the boards, and we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on boxing out,” Coach Norman said. “We’ve had some missed rebound opportunities in earlier games, but tonight it paid off.
Avery and Cranberry returned to the floor with games early this week. Recaps of this week’s action can be found in next week’s edition.
High Country Soccer Association continued its advancement into the elite levels of soccer in North Carolina over the November 20th weekend with its entry into the CASL College Showcase in Raleigh.
The CASL Showcase is one of the premier events in the country attracting top level teams from 32 states and 2 countries.The Showcase is an opportunity for players to show their skills to college coaches who attend the event looking for their next group of players.Nearly 500 college coaches were in attendance representing 326 different institutions from Division 1 to Division III and below.The event attracts college coaches from as far away as New Mexico and the Mountain West Conference and ranging in size from small private schools like AlvernoCollege (Milwaukee) to large Division 1 schools like Oklahoma or WakeForest.
The ’92 Lady Avalanche (U17) were definitely an unknown underdog in each game they played.However, under the leadership of head coach and Director of Coaching, Kiki Wallace, the players had done their work ahead of time, attracting a number of college coaches to the sideline to watch their play.
On Friday, November 20, the Avalanche opened play against the Ohio Metro Futbal Club Rapids from Dayton, OH.In just the third minute of their first game, Skylar Hicks (Watauga) got a pass through to Hallie Hilliard (Caldwell), who placed it in the back of the net for the Avalanche’s first score of the day. Mary Chesnut Smith (Avery) and Kebrina Keys (Ashe), were able to connect on two corner kicks for the 2nd and 4th goals of the half. The first took place in the 10th minute and the 2nd was late in the half, in the 35th minute. In between the two corner kicks, Smith gave the ball to Christina Call (Wilkes) who took the ball deep into the field and in the process of crossing the ball out, she put enough curve on it that the ball went in the net behind the keeper. As the half wound down, the Metro were called for a foul in the box and Smith took the penalty kick.Half-time score was 5-0.
The second half was pretty evenly played with the Metro able to get on the board on a penalty kick resulting from a defensive foul in the penalty box.Final score 5 – 1 and the Avalanche had served notice that they were there to play.
On Saturday, the Avalanche knew they were in for a tough game, facing one of the top clubs in Michigan and a powerhouse in the Mid-West region – Michigan Vardar.The Avalanche played a tough game and gave Vardar quite a run but was down 3-0 by half.The second half play was much closer but the Avalanche was unable to get on the board despite some play deep into Vardar territory.The Avalanche conceded one additional goal in the half for a final score of 0-4.
On Sunday, the Avalanche went up against the Virginia Rush from Virginia Beach, VA.Again attracting a number of college coaches, the Avalanche showed up ready to play and controlled the run of play early putting some good sequences together.However, neither team was able to convert on chances and the first half finished in a scoreless draw.Ten minutes into the second half the Avalanche was able to get on the board off of a goal by Hallie Hilliard, assisted by Kebrina Keys.However, just three minutes later, the Rush were able equalize on a defensive breakdown by the Avalanche.The final score was 1-1.
Playing in the CASL Showcase were: Ashe County – sophomore Kebrina Keys; Avery County – Emily Banner and co-captain Mary Chesnut Smith, both juniors; Caldwell County – juniors Lauren Crouse, Hallie Hilliard and Miranda McCrary; Watauga County juniors Sam Byrd, Ashlyn Henson, Mary Kate Huffman, and co-captain Bethany Miller and sophomores Kendyl Baird, Skylar Hicks, Katelyn Mullenix and Jeanette Vines; and from Wilkes County, junior Christina Call and sophomore Caitlin Curley.
The Avalanche will continue to play together throughout the spring in a few select tournaments including events in Virginia and Indiana.
(courtesy Lenoir Rhyne University Sports Information) EVANSVILLE, INDIANA – Lenoir-RhyneUniversity’s Kate Griewisch earned All-American honors Saturday at the NCAA Division II Cross Country National Championships in Evansville, Ind. Griewisch finished 19th out of 184 runners in the women’s race and ran a 21:30 on the 6K course hosted by the University of Southern Indiana.
AdamsState won the 2009 NCAA Division II Women’s Cross Country National Championship while Seattle Pacific's Jessica Pixler was the top individual with a time of 20:22.
Griewisch becomes the first-ever Lenoir-Rhyne runner to earn NCAA Division II All-American honors in cross country.
The Banner Elk, N.C., native and Avery High School alumnus finished first at both the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional race two weeks ago and the 2009 South Atlantic Conference Championship in October in Newton, N.C. Griewisch also led L-R to back-to-back league titles.
For her efforts, Griewisch was named the USTFCCCA (United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association) NCAA Division II Southeast Region Women’s Athlete Of The Year and the 2009 SAC Runner Of The Year.
An outstanding student as well, Griewisch was selected as the 2009 South Atlantic Conference Women’s Cross Country Scholar-Athlete Of The Year.
Teddy Jablonski (Cross Country/ Soccer) and Jessica Waycaster ( Cross Country/Golf) are the Edward Jones Scholar Athletes of the Week. Each student currently participates in a varsity sport at AveryHigh School and maintains an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or better. The Scholar Athlete Award is given for their outstanding performance – not only on the playing field, but also in the game of life. Congratulations to this week’s winners!
BANNER ELK, N.C. -- The Lees-McRae College men's soccer team advanced to the NCAA Tournament's Final Four after Jamie Bladen's goal in the second minute lifted the Bobcats past the University of Tampa Spartans, 1-0, on a frigid Saturday night at Tate Field.
Bladen's game winner came on an assist from Jamie Price. Price beat a defender and laid the pass off the Bladen in the center of the field. Bladen was unchallenged and launched a 30-yard shot that hit the crossbar and bounced in.
"I don't look for it, but if it is a chance to shoot I am confident I can hit the target and test the keeper," Bladen said. "It is a team game. I might have scored the goal, but it is a team game. We are glad we made it to the Final Four, but our goal is to win it (the NCAA Tournament)."
"When I signed Bladen, I knew he was a special talent and he has been proving me right all season and for that I am proud of him," Lees-McRae head coach Chris Whalley said. "Playing in the NCAA Tou rnament is something I speak to recruits about, and so I am very happy that Jamie, as a freshman, could step up in such in a big game."
Tampa outshot Lees-McRae 10-9, but the Bobcats had four shots on target compare to Tampa's two. Tampa held a slight corner kick advantage, 5-4.
Sean Paradise made two saves in the match, but came off his line to knock away Spartan opportunities to earn the shutout. Ryan Thompson made three saves for the Spartans.
"It is an extremely disappointed and heart broken locker room," Tampa head coach Adrian Bush said. "I am extremely proud of our team, and to see our seniors and what they have become in four years is what all college sports is all about. Those are five great individuals that are going to leave your program."
"I give Lees-McRae a lot of credit, and I think they are a fantastic team and very well coached. I think it was a game played in the middle third and outside of Bladen's shot for the goal, I think bot h teams defended very well. I think they (Lees-McRae) will represent the South very well in the Final Four, and we have nothing to be ashamed of our side. Hopefully they will come back with a championship."
"I think it was overall our best team performance and our goal keeper was rarely tested today," Whalley said. "To get to the Final Four with this team is an indication of how hard we have worked throughout the campaign. Now we need to continue to work hard in order to achieve our team goals."
Lees-McRae improves to 18-2-1 overall and will make the school's first ever Final Four appearance in any sport when they face Lewis, Thursday, December 3rd in Tampa at Pepin Stadium, the site of the Final Four. Tampa's season ends at 17-3-1 overall.
BOONE, N.C. — For the second year in a row, Appalachian State University will open the NCAA Division I Football Championship at home versus South Carolina State. This year’s first-round matchup between Appalachian (9-2, 8-0 SoCon) and S.C. State (10-1, 8-0 MEAC) is set for Saturday, Nov. 28 at noon at ASU’s Kidd Brewer Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Last year, Appalachian defeated S.C. State, 37-21, in an opening-round matchup at Kidd Brewer Stadium. ASU was paced by Armanti Edwards' school-record 433 passing yards in the win while SCSU’s William Ford ran for 117 yards in the loss. The contest was close throughout but the Mountaineers pulled away by scoring 13 unanswered points in the final 7:21 of the ballgame.
This year, the Mountaineers enter the postseason with nine-straight victories that followed back-to-back five-point losses to East Carolina and McNeese State to open the campaign. The Bulldogs’ only loss of the season was a 38-14 setback at the hands of South Carolina on Oct. 3 in Columbia, S.C.The winner of the ASU-SCSU rematch will square off against the winner of the first-round game between No. 4-seeded Richmond and Elon in the national quarterfinals on Dec. 5. The NCAA Division I national championship game is set for Friday, Dec. 18 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Tickets for Appalachian’s opening-round matchup cost $25 for adults, $15 for youth (ages 3-12) and ASU student guests (limit two) and $5 for ASU students. Tickets can be purchased online by clicking HERE, by phone at (828) 262-2079 or in person at the ASU athletics ticket office, located in the Holmes Center. Online sales are available 24 hours a day while phone and in-person sales are available from 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Monday-Wednesday and Friday of this week.
NOTE: Saturday’s men’s basketball contest versus Morgan State will tip off at 7 p.m. at the Holmes Center. Fans can receive free admission with a ticket stub from the football game.
11:00: Good morning from beautiful Kidd Brewer Stadium on a perfect Saturday for football. Today, 16 teams start their quest for a national title with the Football Championship Play
offs. Appalachian is facing a stiff challenge as South Carolina State comes to Boone sporting a 10-1 record with their only loss being to the SEC's South Carolina 38-14. Neither team was one of the four seeds, and will face the winner of the Elon/#4 Richmond contest that is at 1:00pm today. Today's App contest will be broadcast on ESPNU. Due to NCAA regulations, we will not be doing as many updates as Jamie normally does, but will still keep you informed. Also, the Avery Vikings are playing at Mitchell today with the Lady Vikings set to tip off at 12. We will keep you informed as we get those scores also. Hope you have a great Saturday, and enjoy some excellent football. (NCAA Graphics Courtesy of NCAA.org)
