HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Playing for the first time in 16 days, and just a little more than a week removed from the devastating arrival of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, Appalachian State football lost, 52-37, at Marshall on Saturday in Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Days of rains in advance of Helene’s arrival, coupled with the storm’s wide-ranging impact, led to the cancelation of a Sept. 28 home game against Liberty.
With the long recovery process starting for many in Boone, Watauga County, the western part of the state and several surrounding states, the Mountaineers hit the road for Huntington on Friday to face a longtime rival.
“Football is very important, but the most important thing is those families back in Boone who lost everything and we’ll continue to support them,” said Appalachian State head football coach Shawn Clark. “I know it’s tough on them and hopefully it’ll be a shining light for them one day. But I know our kids are excited to get back and help, but we have to make sure we do that for our football team.”
Joey Aguilar threw two touchdown passes to Dalton Stroman, who made five catches for 75 yards in his second career start, and finished 26-of-44 for 293 yards through the air. Ahmani Marshall had a pair of 2-yard touchdown runs in the final seven minutes and Kaedin Robinson totaled 94 yards on eight receptions.
App State (2-3, 0-2 Sun Belt) won the toss and elected to receive, but a three-and-out punt preceded an opening series touchdown drive from Marshall (3-2, 1-0 Sun Belt) — the fourth straight game an opponent has scored a touchdown on its first series.
“Very disappointing loss; this one hurt because we had a lot to play for. Our kids played hard, but we have almost 500 yards of total offense and the two picks hurt us and the penalties hurt us,” said Clark. “Then, we started getting some momentum back in the game and big plays on defense hurt us; so, you take away three big plays on defense and one turn of ball, it might be a different story.
The Mountaineers took a 10-7 lead thanks to a 42-yard field goal on the first career attempt from Jackson Moore, a redshirt freshman filling in for the sidelined Michael Hughes, and a 10-yard touchdown run from Kanye Roberts to open the second quarter.
Marshall regained the lead for good as running back Jordan Houston scored a 75-yard touchdown after catching a short swing pass from Braylon Braxton on the second play of the next series, and the Thundering Herd scored again 12 seconds later when a bobbled swing pass on the first play of the next possession resulted in a 13-yard interception return for a touchdown by J’Coryan Anderson.
Marshall responded to a missed App State field goal by increasing its advantage to 28-10 on a 5-yard touchdown pass with five minutes left in the first half to cap a 79-yard drive, but Aguilar’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Stroman on a fourth-and-5 throw in the final minute of the half cut the deficit to 11 points entering the break.
The Thundering Herd scored the first 10 points of the third quarter, getting a 29-yard touchdown run and kicking a 38-yard field goal after App State committed a first-play turnover. The Mountaineers did pull within 38-24 late in the third quarter on Stroman’s 27-yard, jump-ball grab of a fourth-and-19 throw from Aguilar, but Marshall gained more separation by eating up more than five minutes on a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive.
Marshall scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 6:05 remaining, and he accounted for the Mountaineers’ final points on a short touchdown run with 1:13 remaining.
App State is scheduled to return to action next Saturday at Louisiana. The game has a kickoff time of 7:30 p.m. ET, or 6:30 p.m. CT.
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