Presley became only the fourth Mountaineer to ever throw five touchdown passes in a game and the ASU defense did not surrender a completed pass for the first time in school history in the rout. ASU’s 16th victory in its last 17 meetings with The Citadel extended the Mountaineers’ Southern Conference (SoCon) winning streak to 24 games and 1,090 days, dating back to a 38-35 loss to Georgia Southern on October 20, 2007.
Presley’s touchdown passes of 65, 3, 5, 22 and 73 yards highlighted a 14-for-25, 241-yard performance for the Walter Payton Award and SoCon Offensive Player of the Year candidate. He also added 27 yards on four carries to finish with 268 yards of total offense despite sitting out the final quarter of the ballgame after helping stake top-ranked ASU (6-0, 4-0 SoCon) to the 29-point lead that would also serve as the game’s final margin.
The Citadel (2-5, 0-4 SoCon) actually drew first blood less than five minutes into the game when quarterback Matt Thompson scored on a one-yard run to cap a 22-yard drive and give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead. The short field was set up by a 40-yard return of an ASU fumble by The Citadel defensive end Erik Clanton.
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, their momentum lasted less than 20 seconds because on the first snap following their score, Presley hooked up with Brian Quick for a 65-yard touchdown pass. The Citadel blocked the extra point to maintain a one-point advantage but the touchdown was the catalyst of 29 unanswered points over the next 23 minutes that gave the Mountaineers a commanding 29-7 halftime lead. In addition to Presley’s four first-half touchdown passes, ASU benefitted from The Citadel making two errant snaps on punts that led directly to 10 of ASU’s 29 points.
After a Citadel field goal on the first series of the second half, the Mountaineers scored the final 10 points to seal the victory. Travaris Cadet capped the scoring when he took a short pass from Presley, picked up a couple of key downfield blocks and wove his way through the Bulldog secondary for a 73-yard touchdown with 1:24 remaining in the third period. Presley’s record-tying fifth touchdown pass, which came on the evening’s final snap for ASU’s offensive starters, was the longest play of both his and Cadet’s careers and ASU’s biggest gain of the season.
Quick caught two of Presley’s five touchdown passes and finished with 99 yards on three receptions. Cadet also caught three passes for 79 yards and a score while CoCo Hillary and Ben Jorden were on the receiving end of Presley’s other touchdown strikes.
Despite the offensive fireworks, the biggest story of the ballgame was ASU’s defense, which kept The Citadel’s triple-option attack in check to the tune of just 197 total yards (3.3 per play), all of which came on the ground. Five of the Bulldogs’ six pass attempts fell incomplete and the other was picked off by Mark LeGree, who moved alone into third all-time at ASU with the 21st interception of his career.
Linebacker Justin Wray highlighted the Mountaineers’ staunch defensive effort with a game-high-tying 12 tackles, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a field-goal block. Fellow linebacker D.J. Smith also notched 12 tackles and recovered a fumble.
Prior to Saturday’s dominating performance, the fewest completions and passing yards ever allowed by ASU came against Western Carolina on September 25, 1965, when the Catamounts completed just 1-of-11 passes for three yards in a 7-0 WCU win.
ASU returns to action this Saturday, October 23, when it travels to Western Carolina for the annual Battle for the Old Mountain Jug. Kickoff is set for 3:00 p.m. at WCU’s Whitmire Stadium and the game will be televised live across the Southeast on SportSouth.
