Julius Ceaser, among other things, is known for his famous saying “veni, vidi, vici” which means I came, I saw, I conquered.
On Saturday in Boone, it might as well as been Villanova’s Matt Szczur’s personal motto.
The Mountaineers were unable to counter the senior Szczur attack as he had a hand in five of Villanova’s six touchdowns as the defending national champs defeated Appalachian State 42-24 in the NCAA FCS Quarterfinals on Saturday inside Kidd Brewer Stadium. The Mountaineers had chances to pull back into the game, but were unable to do so as they saw their season end prematurely.
“They are a multi-talented team, probably as balanced as any team we’ve played in a long, long time,” ASU Coach Jerry Moore said. “We gave up a couple of big plays in the first half, and then we had opportunities that we were just not able to cash in on. We’d stick our foot in the door and then they’d slam it on us.”
For the Mountaineers, they had no answer for Szczur, who missed six games with an ankle injury during the regular season.
“He can do a lot of things, as we saw today,” said Moore. “He ran for it, threw for it, and made a lot of big plays for them. I think if you ask about a difference, he made a huge difference today.”
Szczur had three rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown and one passing touchdown. He finished the game with 207 combined yards (104 rushing, 45 receiving and 58 passing).
In the early going, it looked like the App offense was not going to have a problem with the Wildcats defense.
App took the opening kickoff, and it only took them three plays before Travaris Cadet scrambled into the end zone from 46-yards out. After Szczur ran in his first touchdown, the Mountaineers marched back down the field and scored on a 19-yard Jason Vitaris field goal. However, it would be the last points App would score until the second half, and Villanova added three scores from Szczur in the Wildcat formation to take a 28-10 lead into the locker room. Despite trailing, the Mountaineers seemed to have taken the momentum in the game as they forced three straight Villanova punts, but were unable to capitalize.
The opening of the second half saw the defenses rise to the occasion as both teams were forced to punt on consecutive possessions. App then began to try and cut the ‘Nova lead as Walter Payton Finalist DeAndre Presley hit Ben Jorden on a 14-yard pass for a score to cut the deficit to 28-17.
Villanova responded on their next possession when Szucur dived into the end one from a yard out. After the ensuing kickoff went out of bounds, the Mountaineer offense worked efficiently and quickly as Presley hit Brian Quick for a 38-yard touchdown pass. Appalachian nearly got an early Christmas present from the Wildcats as the Mountaineers recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, but was unable to convert it into points and turned the ball over on downs.
The next Wildcat drive was brief as it only took Villanova two plays to reach the endzone as quarterback Chris Whitney dove into the endzone for the game’s final score.
Presley ended the game 31-of-56 passing for 361 yards and also had 22 yards on 14 carries. The Mountaineers outgained the Wildcats 461-449.
Appalachian finishes the season with a 10-3 record overall.
