ASU Blasts Coastal, 55-14

Written by Mike Kelly

Saturday, 29 September 2012 19:33

The Appalachian State University football team closed out its non-conference schedule by blasting Coastal Carolina 55-14 at Kidd Brewer Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Steven Miller rambled for a career high 202 yards and two touchdowns in the win. The Mountaineers racked up 684 yards offensively, including 399 on the ground.

"I'd say we played well," said ASU coach Jerry Moore. "We have huge respect for Coastal. I can't tell you how hard we practiced and prepared for these guys. We had a hot hand today. I would like to say we were prepared. We had a great week."

The Mountaineers (3-2) grabbed a commanding 21-0 first-quarter lead. The Mountaineers scored on four of their first five possessions to start the game. Quarterback Jamal Jackson backboned the assault as he scored on a five-yard run and he threw a pair of touchdown passes---a 69-yard toss to Sean Price and he hooked up with Drew Bailey on a 23-yard strike. Jackson racked up 339 yards offensively. He ran for 54 yards and a touchdown, and he was 19-27 for 285 yards and three TD passes.

"When you have a balanced attack, it's hard to put the focus on one aspect of our gameplan," Jackson said. "When we're balanced like this we are going to be hard to beat."

"You have to play shifty guys, you have to play good offences, and you have to play guys that are fast," Coastal Carolina coach Joe Moglia said. "You are going to need good fundamentals to play them, and I feel that we didn't have that most of the game."

Jackson set the tone on ASU's first possession of the game. He capped off a nine-play, 64-yard drive as he scored on a five-yard run for a 7-0 lead with 11:23 left in the opening quarter. The Mountaineers dominated the game from there.

Appalachian marched up and down the field with ease on its way to the 28-0 lead. The highlight of the four-touchdown spurt came when it marched 97 yards in just two plays — a 28-yard run by Miller and a 69-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Price that gave the Mountaineers a 14-0 advantage with 4:50 to go in the first quarter. One series later, the Apps stretched the lead to 21-0 on a diving 23-yard touchdown catch by tight end Drew Bailey, and made it 28-0 one drive later when Miller ran in from three yards out for the first of his two touchdown runs on the afternoon.
ASU held the ball for nearly 35 minutes and was 7-11 on third-down conversions. The Mountaineers also scored on a 15-play, 90-yard drive in the foiurth quarter. Jackson capped it off with a nine-yard scoring pass to Price that gave ASU a commanding 48-14 advantage.

Price caught eight passes for 128 yards and two TD on the afternoon. Jeremy Kimbrough paced the defense with a team-high 11 tackles. The Mountaineers held Coastal's running game to 114 net yards, and quarterback Aramis Hillary (the younger brother of former Mountaineer CoCo Hillary) was 15-30 for 145 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Mountaineers held Coastal Carolina, the nation’s 15th-ranked passing offense coming into the contest, to nearly 100 yards below its average of 288.8 yards per game through the air.

"We knew if he had some time in the pocket, he would have some success," Kimbrough said. "So we tried to put a little pressure on him, make him move his feet, throw some different reads at him and make him uncomfortable. I think we really did well today. We just had two bad drives that we can look at on video and get corrected. Other than that we held them in check. I am very proud of our guys."

The only blemish on the day, ASU was flagged ten times for 112 yards. The Mountaineers led 34-14 at the intermission. Appalachian State, winner of two-straight for the first time since the final two games of the 2011 regular season,
returns to Southern Conference play next Saturday when Elon comes to town for Homecoming at 3:30 p.m. Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. on AM 1450, WATA.

NOTES: Appalachian moved to 3-0 all-time versus Coastal Carolina ... in their three wins over CCU, the Mountaineers have outscored the Chanticleers by a combined 95-14 in the first half and 130-45 overall ... Appalachian has won 16-straight games over current members of the Big South Conference, with the last loss coming to Liberty on Nov. 22, 1997 (25-19) ... Appalachian is 42-15-2 all-time against current Big South members ... Miller’s 75-yard touchdown run was the Mountaineers’ longest since Presley ran 89 yards for a score in the 2010 playoff win over Western Illinois ... Price tied a school record with his third-consecutive 100-yard receiving game (Brian Quick - 2011, DaVon Fowlkes - 2003 and Bob Agle - 1968 are the only other Mountaineers to ever accomplish the feat) ... Price is the only freshman in Appalachian State history with even two 100-yard games ... Appalachian, which was wearing alternate Nike Pro Combat uniforms featuring the vintage Yosef logo that adorned the Mountaineers’ uniforms from 1971-79, moved to 9-0 all-time while wearing alternate uniforms ... Nike first provided the Mountaineers with a third uniform to go along with the standard home and away duds in 2008.

TEAM NOTES

Team
• Appalachian State (3-2) set season highs with 684 total yards (prev. 419, Sept. 1 at East Carolina), 190 passing yards (prev. 300, Sept. 1 at East Carolina) and rushing yards (prev. 253, Sept 15 vs. The Citadel).

• Appalachian’s 684 yards of total offense were its most since it had 712 yards in a 52-16 win over Georgia Southern on Oct. 24, 2009. Or 743 in 79-35 win over Western Carolina on Nov. 10, 2007.

• Appalachian, which led 21-0 after one quarter and 34-14 at halftime, had 286 yards of offense in the first quarter and 405 in the first half.

• Appalachian moved to 3-0 all-time versus Coastal Carolina (2-3).

• Appalachian won its 16th-straight game over current members of the Big South Conference (last loss: vs. Liberty, 25-19, Nov. 22, 1997). Appalachian moved to 42-15-2 all-time against current Big South members.

• In its three all-time wins over CCU (previous meetings came in 2005 regular season, 2006 NCAA Division I Football Championship first round), Appalachian has outscored the Chanticleers 95-14 in the first half. Appalachian led 34-14 at halftime on Saturday.

Individual
• Appalachian State senior running back Steven Miller had a career-high 202 rushing yards on just 17 carries (11.9 avg.). The 200-yard rushing game was the first by a Mountaineer since DeAndre Presley had 264 yards vs. Western Illinois in the second round of the NCAA Division I Football Championship and the first for an Appalachian State running back since Kevin Richardson had 208 yards vs. Georgia Southern on Oct. 15, 2005.

• Redshirt freshman wide receiver Sean Price tied a school record with his third-consecutive 100-yard receiving game, catching eight passes for 128 yards. He tied the school record shared by Brian Quick (2011), DaVon Fowlkes (2004) and Bob Agle (1968). Price is the only freshman in Appalachian State history with multiple 100-yard receiving games.

Scoring 1 2 3 4 Total

Coastal 0 14 0 0 - 14

ASU 21 13 7 14 - 55

Qtr Time Scoring Play

1st

11:23 APP - Jamal Jackson 5 yd run (Drew Stewart kick), 9-64 3:37

4:50 APP - Sean Price 69 yd pass from Jamal Jackson (Drew Stewart kick), 2-97 0:35

00:14 APP - Drew Bailey 23 yd pass from Jamal Jackson (Drew Stewart kick), 4-59 1:25

2nd

12:32 APP - Steven Miller 3 yd run (Drew Stewart kick), 5-49 2:05

9:18 COASTAL - BLANKS, Tyrell 20 yd pass from HILLARY, Aramis (CATRON, Alex kick), 9-71 3:06
3:39 APP - Drew Stewart 25 yd field goal, 10-55 3:54
1:14 COASTAL - DURAN, David 2 yd pass from HILLARY, Aramis (CATRON, Alex kick), 9-75 2:19
00:00 APP - Drew Stewart 30 yd field goal, 6-50 1:02
3rd

13:56 APP - Steven Miller 75 yd run (Drew Stewart kick), 1-75 0:13
4th

13:36 APP - Sean Price 9 yd pass from Jamal Jackson (Drew Stewart kick), 15-90 7:29
2:28 APP - Michael Frazier 14 yd run (Drew Stewart kick), 7-70 4:25

Team Statistics (Final)

FIRST DOWNS: COASTAL 18, ASU 33

RUSHING YARDS: COASTAL 114, ASU 399

PASSING YARDS: COASTAL 190, ASU 285

TOTAL YARDS: COASTAL 304, ASU 684

TURNOVERS: COASTAL 1, ASU 1

PENALTY YARDS: COASTAL 5-29, ASU 10-112

TIME OF POSSESSION: COASTAL 25:10, ASU 34:50

3RD DOWN CONVERSIONS: COASTAL 3-13, ASU 7-11

4TH DOWN CONVERSIONS: COASTAL 0-0, ASU 0-0

Individual Statistics (Final)

RUSHING: