Bulldogs unable to stand the heat from Kitchens in one-sided affair

Sophomore defensive back leads dominating performance by Mountaineer defense

Ty Brueilly Sports Minor

On a family day that was supposed to be dreary and rainy, parents and grandparents, alumni and students filed into the football field at Kidd-Brewer Stadium, where the rays of the sun shone directly onto the field.

As the game began, the weather began heating up and so did Appalachian State University's defense, which was led by sophomore Steve Kitchens and senior Jimmy Freeman.

Despite stellar performances by Jimmy Watkins who ran in a 91-yard kickoff return, Jerry Beard, who rushed for 113 yards, and Troy Albea, who caught an amazing 79-yard pass from David Reaves for a touchdown, the defense was the main key for the Mountaineer victory, with a final score of 61-14.

Coach Jerry Moore said, "I think that anytime you run the ball like we did today, it's not an accident, those guys up there on the front knocking somebody off the ball, we have some of the finest defensive linemen in our league."

Coach Moore describes an example: " In a key play, [Josh] Jeffries almost loses the ball on the reverse, he gets down on his hands and knees, scrambles back and helps make a play. [Jeffries] is probably one of the underrated guys in the league because he's young and heÕs new. Jeffries and (Jamie)Lovern, all those guys ... are dominating defensive linemen and they can all run and are all strong.Ó

The defense forced The Citadel to a total of nine punts, while on the other hand, Appalachian had no punts. The defense also stepped up to make sure that the Bulldogs only had two successful third-down conversions (out of a possible twelve) and no fourth- down conversion out of one possibility.

Coach Moore said, "Generally our defense is aggressive, they run well, they run hard and they are knocking people around playing well, and thatÕs what they were doing today."

The defense also came to the rescue with two big sacks. Jimmy Freeman had one sack with a loss of five yards, and Ryan Watson had the other with a loss of three yards.

The defense also forced the Bulldogs into three fumbles in which one was picked up by Kitchens who then slid two yards into the endzone for a quick six points on the board.

Moore said, "We've got better defensive players than they have [on] offensive at this point. Our defense has pride ...an awful lot of pride."

The proof of this statement comes due to the Appalachian defense, which held the Bulldogs starting quarterback Joe Call to as many pass attempts as Appalachians backup-quarterback Joe Burchette, which was seven.

Out of the seven Call attempted, only three were completed, with the longest being eleven yards and with the total yards being 24.

The total yards from the offensive plays for the entire game for the Bulldogs was 194, compared to the 587 that the Mountaineers had.

In other words, the defense was solid in making sure that The Citadel did not score enough to win the ball game, or for that matter, even come close.

So as the defense only allowed 14 points, the families of every Appalachian State student felt proud of the school their son or daughter attends because they watched a football team play with pride.

The sun shone on the team the entire game, and it left a feeling of absolute contentment in not only the team, but also in the entire student body.

Andrea Barrows - Sports Minor

King Street was taken over by the Boone Criterium, a cycling road race. Participating in this race were 11 members of Appalachian StateÕs cycling club team Sunday afternoon.

This team has only been together for five years and has only been recognized by the university for two years, but in this short amount of time they have accomplished a great deal.

The team has traveled to nationals for the past two years, where they have displayed their talents and placed highly in several races.

The team of Matt Decanio, Paul Greer, Kelsey Oliver, and Daniel Corum placed sixth in the team time trial last year, and Matt Decanio placed sixth in the nation in a road race.

Kathleen Billington also competed well last year placing 28th out of 70 in the National road race, and 29th out of 70 in the Criterium last year.

Sunday in the Boone Criterium the 11 team members that participated made their presence known. There were five different races held, all of which ran on the same one-kilometer loop around King Street and Howard Street. Each race distance varied in the number of laps.

In the women's race that consisted of 25 laps, Kathleen Billington finished fifth. The junior category race, that was also 25 laps long, displayed Thomas Zweig finishing third. In the category four race, a 30-lap race, Justin Joyce finished fourth.

Four Appalachian cyclists competed in the 3-race, a 35 lap race, in which Thomas Zweig again finished third.

The big race of the day, the Pro 1-2, which was 45 laps long, showcased several competitors including Appalachian's Brock Helms, who finished 14th, and Paul Greer who finished 17th.

Overall the day was a success and each competitor is now more experienced for the next race. Over the year the cycling team competes in several different races and is always looking to add new members to their team of 15. Kelsey Oliver, the team's president, can be reached at: kelseyoliver@hotmail.com to answer any questions about the team.

Sept. 16 proves that hard work and lots of practice pays off big-time

compiled from GoASU.com

The menÕs cross-country team came away with their 13th victory of this young season this weekend at the Winthrop Invitational. The win gave the Mountaineers wins over Southern Conference third ranked Furman as well as SoCon foes UNCG, VMI, and Wofford. The win also marked the second win over a ACC school this season with a impressive thirty-two point win over Clemson. The women came away with fourth place overall at the Winthrop Invite.

The women move to 10-7 for the season. The women did finish ahead of fellow SoCon schools VMI and Wofford.

Leading the men was freshmen Joe Halin. Halin, from Cherokee, NJ, ran to a personal best time of 25:34 over the 8-K course (4.97 miles). The men had an outstanding race with four men under 26 minutes, and 13 men under 27 minutes. The scoring menÕs average time of 25:47 is a seasons best.

The women had a up and down weekend. There were some great performances by many of the athletes.

Sarah Primuea lead the ladies for the first time in her career. She was closely followed by Chelsea Jacobs just one second back who set a personal record by one minute. Heather Needham had a solid effort after a hard training week with a 18:57 time.

Both team had solid meets and good weeks of training. Next up for the Mountaineers is the Blue Ridge Parkway Open in Boone.

The Citadel Bulldog plays dead in 61-14 ASU romp

Chris Boyce Varsity Sports

With two full weeks to ponder what went wrong against the Troy State University Trojans, the Appalachian State University football team found some answers Saturday in a rout of the Citadel Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs had little bark or bite to give the Mountaineers, losing 61-14 and mustering only 194-yards of total offense while giving up 587-yards to Appalachian.

The Citadel came into the game fresh off a win against the Catamounts of Western Carolina University and had hoped to fair better against the seventh-ranked Mountaineers.

"The CitadelÕs not quite as strong probably as we thought, but you don't know that going into the ball game," said Appalachian State head football coach Jerry Moore. ÒWhen youÕre going into the ball game, youÕre preparing just like they're the best football team youÕre gonna play all year. I think thatÕs a credit to our team. I think thatÕs the way they prepared."

The Mountaineers once again demonstrated their depth at offense, using tailbacks Jerry Beard and Jimmy Watkins, who had only four carries in the first two games between them, to punish the Bulldogs.

"We've got a plethora of guys," said Appalachian wideout Joey Gibson about the team's offensive talent." What I think that helps is we've got a couple of transfer guys in that are really talented, talking about Jimmy and Jerry. They have good speed, but something I like about them is at the point of contact they're going forward a few more yards."

Running back Jerry Beard made the most of his opportunity, rushing for 113-yards on 16 carries with one touchdown.

Field position was key for the Mountaineers, whose first three possessions started in Citadel territory, helping Appalachian to get off to a 21-0 lead which expanded to a 30-0 deficit before the first half was over.

Moore was pleased with Appalachian special teams, more specifically the return game.

"We returned a kickoff but we didn't return a punt but we kept getting good field position on the punts," said Moore. "We were always one or two guys away from breaking a punt return."

The Mountaineers wasted no time getting up on the Bulldogs. On the first play of the game, Jimmy Watkins returned the opening kickoff 40-yards, sparking an eight-play 47-yard drive culminated by a 7-yard touchdown run by Jimmy Watkins.

Watkins running around, under and through Citadel defenders was a constant theme of the afternoon, a game in which he accumulated 142-yards off of kick returns and one touchdown, as well as 57-yards returning punts.

The play of Watkins and Beard was very important to Moore.

"I've wanted to get the ball to he (Beard) and Jimmy more than we have. Sometimes it's hard to do it, just circumstances. WeÕre very fortunate, we've got four really fine running backs," said Moore.

The Citadel was unable to get their offense on track throughout the game, not getting a first down until 2:20 was left in the first quarter and making numerous mistakes that resulted in Mountaineer points.

After the CitadelÕs Kevin Gause intercepted a David Reaves pass with 6:49 left in the first quarter, the Bulldogs' Bradley Hall fumbled the ball at the 2-yard line. The ball was scooped up by ASU defensive back Steve Kitchens who ran it in for the score, giving Appalachian an early 14-0 lead.

The rest of the first half was dominated by the Mountaineers, highlighted by a 79-yard pass from David Reaves to Troy Albea with 12:49 left in the second and a 91-yard kickoff return by Watkins with 3:30 left in the half.

The Citadel finally got on the scoreboard with 3:48 left in the first half on a 46-yard touchdown run by Maurice Murphy, making the score 30-7.

After the Watkins touchdown return, the Mountaineers headed to the locker room with a 37-7 lead on the Bulldogs.Not much changed in the second half, more Citadel punts and more Appalachian touchdowns.

A 51-yard touchdown run by Jerry Beard and a 15-yard touchdown pass from Joe Burchette to Albea put the Apps up 54-7 and signaled the mass exodus of fans from both sides.

Appalachian State finished the game with 309 rushing yards compared to the Citadel's 125-yards, a statement that boasted the work of both ASU lines, defensive and offensive.

"I think anytime you run the ball like we ran today, it's not an accident. Those guys up front are knocking somebody off the ball," said Moore. "They always do a good job on offense, and I think weÕve got some of the best defensive lineman in our league."

A problem that plagued the Mountaineers against Troy State, open field tackling, was erased Saturday against the Bulldogs as the Appalachian defense contained the CitadelÕs option offense.

"During our open week it (tackling) was stressed highly," said defensive back Steve Kitchens. "We had a couple of practices where it was just get to the ball every play. That's what Coach stressed the most; not anticipating a tackle being made but actually getting out there and doing so. I think the high emphasis on that really helped improve our tackling."

The Mountaineers improve their record to 2-1 and more importantly, 1-0 in the Southern Conference.

Appalachian will be on the road next weekend when they travel to East Tennessee State University on Sept. 30 for a 7 p.m. showdown.

ASU SID

The Appalachian State field hockey team (3-8) blanked Catawba (3-4) 5-0 this afternoon at Kidd Brewer Stadium. Seniors Meredith White (Durham, N.C.) and senior Katie Shulzitski (Harleyville, Pa.) keyed the offense. White notched two goals and a pair of assists, while Shulzitski nailed two goals and an assist.

The Mountaineers attacked early in the contest and White netted a penalty stroke in the bottom right corner of the cage to put them up 1-0 just over 10 minutes into the match. Less than 10 minutes later, White accepted a pass on a penalty corner from Shulzitski and nailed the ball past the Catawba goal keeper to make a 2-0 Apps' advantage.

Shulzitski initiated the second half scoring when she received a 25-yard cross from junior Mandi Martin (Reston, Va.) and chipped it into the cage with 21:37 left to make the lead 3-0 in favor of the host Mountaineers. Freshman Nara Brookes (Haddam, Conn.) got into the act when she pushed a goal past from 10 yards away on a penalty corner combination from White and sophomore Emma Schaufele (Louisville, Ky.) with 8:43 on the scoreboard.

With 3:52 to go in the match, Shulzitski tallied the final goal on a deflection from the left side of the cage with help from White and senior Kim Rohrs (Joppa, Md.).

Junior goalkeeper Malia Swieconek (Annapolis, Md.) recorded her first shutout and third victory of the season for Appalachian. Under light duress, Swieconek made a save in the 67th minute of the match to ensure the shutout.

The tandem of Catawba goalkeepers Krystal Griffith and Carolyn Brannon tallied 12 saves in defeat. The

Mountaineers enjoy a 12-day recess before returning to action in Louisville, Ky., October 7 for a 1:00 p.m. confrontation against Miami (Ohio). They take on Louisville the following day at noon and do not play at home again until October 14, when they face American at noon.