Appalachian’s 13-10 victory over
Furman University last Saturday was just one step the team
needed in order to climb back into the playoff race.
The Mountaineers’ next step will
be defeating their conference rival, Georgia Southern University,
Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
Both The Eagles (4-2, 2-1) and The Mountaineers
(3-3, 2-1) are in a four-way tie with The Citadel and Furman
for second place in the Southern Conference.
The Eagles have defeated the Mountaineers
four times in a row, including a playoff game in 2001, but
no team in this series has ever won five straight games before.
The Eagles bring their 320 rushing yards
per game average with them to Boone, which is top in the
Southern Conference.
But their offense will clash with a Mountaineer
defense that has improved in every game this season.
“I think the defense came out a
little shaky this season, but we’ve built on it each
week,” senior linebacker Daniel Traylor said. “We’re
not peaked out yet, we still have some more to show. But
as a whole, we’re doing pretty good.”
The Appalachian defense is coming off
their best defensive performance of the season, both as a
team and for an individual.
Defensive end K.T. Stovall recorded nine
tackles, a career best three sacks, one forced fumble and
one fumble recovery against Furman.
As a team, the Mountaineers had four sacks
and four fumble recoveries, three of them in the red zone,
and stifled the Paladin offense to 100 yards in the second
half.
“Furman is a powerhouse offensively,
and we shut down their offense in the second half,”
Traylor said.
“We know they run the option and
we did a good job of defending it, so that sort of prepares
us for [the option run by] Georgia Southern.”
Special teams captain Jon Chasteen blocked
his second punt in two games for Appalachian last week at
Furman.
“I was just going hard like I usually
do,” Chasteen said. “We were setting up for a
punt return and the guy just didn’t block me.”
Regarding Chasteen’s punt block, wide
receiver Sterling Hayward said: “that’s just
total heart and dedication. Jon’s going to go out and
give his best effort, and that says a lot about his character
and the way he plays the game.”
In GSU’s 36-20 victory last season,
the Eagles jumped out to a 24-10 lead at halftime and drew
the Mountaineers into a quick-paced shoot-out.
With Appalachian focusing on the ground
game and clock control, a shoot-out win against Southern
would be hard.
“I think if we want to put some more
points up we’ll have to throw the ball more,”
Hayward said. “But as long as we’re getting the
wins, it doesn’t really matter [if we throw or run
more]. Anytime you find something that gets you the win,
you’ve got to stick with it.”
Georgia Southern’s sophomore quarterback,
Chaz Williams, had knee surgery two weeks ago and has not
played in the team’s last two games. Williams ran for
more than 1,400 yards and had 27 touchdowns as a freshman
last season.
“Their backup [quarterback Trey Hunter]
runs just as good as Chaz,” Traylor said. “We’re
not going to undermine the quarterback position just because
Chaz might not play.”
Hunter, who had his second start of the
season in GSU’s 31-25 win against Western Carolina
University last week, totaled 312 yards of offense by himself.
He also ran for four touchdowns, including a career-long
53-yarder.
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