Georgia Southern defeats ASU 37-24 in battle for nation's top spot 

Justin Griffin, Sports Editor 

Georgia Southern saw the chance to grab the top ranking in the nation and the Southern Conference this past Saturday and took it, at the expense of Appalachian State. 

The 37-24 win propelled Southern to the top ranking in the nation and put them in the driver’s seat for the Southern Conference championship. Appalachian fell from third in the nation to seventh with the loss, and dropped their record to 5-1, while the Eagles improved to 7-0.  

Last week’s top-ranked McNeese State lost 14-10 to then eighth-ranked Northwestern. 

Georgia Southern jumped on the Mountaineers early with a 10-point lead in the first quarter and forced them to play catch-up the whole game. 

“We probably lost our composure a little bit after the first two drives,” linebacker Adam Neiheisel said. “It took us too long to get back into our game.” 

Appalachian closed the gap to 20-12 with 11:09 left on the clock in the third quarter. The eight-point deficit was the closest that ASU was able to get to GSU for the rest of the game. 

Adrian Peterson’s fumble at the Georgia Southern 42-yard line led to the drive. “I thought that gave us a chance,” Appalachian State Coach Jerry Moore said of the fumble recovered by Rocky Hunt. 

Following the touchdown, ASU’s defense held Georgia Southern to a field goal on the next possession. 

On the next drive, Arkee Thompson intercepted David Reaves at the GSU 27-yard line and returned the ball 27 yards to the App 46-yard line. Southern then scored on the ensuing drive to bring the score up to 30-12. 

Peterson’s fumble was his one miscue that day. The freshman led Georgia Southern to the win with 216 yards on the ground. The game marked his seventh straight outing with at least 100 yards. 

Eagle quarterback Greg Hill added to the total with 150 yards on the ground.  Southern finished with 407 yards rushing and 87 passing. “They were just as good as we thought they were,”  linebacker Joey Hall said. “We knew they were the best running offense we were going to face this year.” 

Southern’s rushing attack wasn’t ASU’s only problem. The Mountaineers compounded their troubles with two missed point-after kicks, a missed 25-yard field goal and another two missed two-point conversions. In all, the missed kicks and conversions accounted for nine points. “It hurts you points wise,”  Moore said of the missed opportunities. “It also takes a little bit of the wind out of your sails.” 

In the second quarter, Chuck Payne fumbled a kick-off return which Southern turned into three points with a 37-yard field goal by Chris Chambers. 

Each App quarterback had an interception. Daniel Jeremiah’s came in the first quarter on a 39-yard pass to John Overman that was intercepted by Thompson. “That didn’t hurt that much,”  Moore said of the errant pass. “It was about the equivalent of a punt.” 

Even with the 13-point margin, the game was close statistically. ASU had 25 first downs, GSU had 24. The battle for possession was a virtual stalemate. Appalachian had it for 30 minutes and 37 seconds, while Georgia Southern had it 29 minutes and 23 seconds. Georgia Southern finished the day with 494 yards of offense, while ASU had 439 yards. “Both offenses performed well,”  Moore said of the teams. “The defenses, there was just nothing much to write home about for either of us,” he added. 

The bottom line for Appalachian was the mistakes. The Mountaineers had three turnovers that all led to Eagle points. “You just can’t make mistakes against a good football team,” Moore said. “Had they done the same thing, they would have been on the losing end themselves.” 

Reeves, who finished the game with 309 yards of passing, hitting on 21 of 37 attempts, put it best when he said, “You don’t win games playing like we did today.”