BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State University football dominated the first and fourth quarters to overcome a shaky middle two periods and defeat Chattanooga, 35-20, on Saturday afternoon at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Appalachian's victory, combined with Elon's 42-17 win at Western Carolina on Saturday, sets up a de facto Southern Conference championship game next weekend between ASU (7-2, 6-0 SoCon) and Elon (8-1, 7-0 SoCon). The winner of next Saturday's unprecedented matchup between the seventh-ranked Mountaineers and sixth-ranked Phoenix will claim at least a share of the SoCon title and the league's automatic berth in the 2009 NCAA Division I Football Championship.

In the early going on Saturday, it looked like Appalachian would cruise into next week's showdown, as it jumped out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead against Chattanooga (5-4, 3-4 SoCon).

Things couldn't have started out better for ASU, as linebacker D.J. Smith picked off a deflected pass on the third play of the game and returned it 34 yards to the UTC one yard line. Two plays later, Devon Moore dove in from a yard out to give the Mountaineers a 7-0 lead just 2:09 into the game.

Smith's first interception of the season set the tone for what would be a dominant first quarter for the Mountaineers. The Apps' defense followed up the interception on the Mocs' initial possession with another pickoff  and consecutive three-and-outs, while the offense converted the defensive stands into touchdown drives of 67 and 55 yards to take a commanding 21-0 lead with 2:01 still to play in the opening period.

However, the next 30 minutes would belong to Chattanooga. UTC's comeback began with three-straight ASU turnovers ­— a fumble by Moore and Armanti Edwards' first two interceptions since Oct. 10. Thanks to the Mountaineer defense, the Mocs only converted one of the miscues into points and the Apps took a 21-7 lead into halftime.

UTC used some trickery to make it interesting in the third quarter. The Mocs opened the second half by successfully converting an onside kick. They drove 42 yards before settling for a 30-yard field goal by Craig Camay to make it 21-10.

On the ensuing kickoff, Chattanooga surprised ASU with another onside kick and recovered once again. UTC drove all the way to the ASU five yard line and could have cut the deficit to one possession with a chip-shot field goal. However, the Mocs chose to go for it on fourth-and-one from the five and Jacque Roman and Bobby Bozzo stopped quarterback B.J. Coleman cold on a sneak to snuff out the scoring threat.

Even with the big stop, Appalachian couldn't regain the momentum. Chattanooga got the ball back quickly and put together a nine-play, 53-yard drive, capped by a two-yard touchdown pass from Coleman to Blue Cooper that cut the ASU lead to 21-17.

The Mountaineers went three-and-out on their next possession and, with the tide of the game clearly in their corner, the Mocs marched 46 yards to the ASU 20 on their next possession. But once again, the ASU defense came up with a big short-yardage play when Michael Frazier and Demery Brewer stuffed Coleman on another sneak attempt on third-and-one from the 20, which forced UTC to settle for another Camay field goal and make it 21-20 with10:43 remaining in the ballgame.

Clinging to the one-point lead, Edwards engineered a vintage nine-play, 63-yard drive, highlighted by a 12-yard completion to Brian Quick on a third-and-nine play and capped by an eight-yard touchdown run by Moore that gave Appalachian some breathing room with a 28-20 lead.

On an afternoon filled with big plays by the ASU defense, Mark LeGree made perhaps the biggest when he notched the Mountaineers' third interception of the day on the third play of UTC's ensuing possession. Three plays later, Moore iced the Mountaineers' 18th-straight SoCon victory with a 15-yard touchdown scamper that made it 35-20 with 5:38 to go.

In all, Chattanooga outgained Appalachian, 351-322, thanks in large part to running 83 plays compared to ASU's 60. The Mountaineers'  322 yards were their fewest since they managed just 246 in the season opener at East Carolina and the 35 points was their lowest scoring output since a 30-27 win at The Citadel on Oct. 3. Much of that can be attributed to the three second-quarter turnovers and the Mocs' impressive third-quarter showing, when they climbed back into the game by holding the ball for 10:59 of the period's 15 minutes and limiting Appalachian to just two yards on nine plays.

The story of the day, however, was ASU's big-play defense, which was led by Roman's game-high 11 tackles and first-quarter interception. Brewer chipped in with nine stops, a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery.

Offensively, ASU was led by Edwards, who managed 192 yards of total offense (140 passing, 52 rushing) despite Chattanooga holding a commanding 36:17-23:43 edge in time of possession.  Moore carried 12 times for 74 yards (6.2 avg.) and three scores and Matt Cline caught seven passes for 64 yards.

Coleman completed 25 of 46 passes for 246 yards and a touchdown but was plagued by his season-high three interceptions. Chris Pitchford was the game's leading receiver with nine catches for 106 yards and Chris Awuah ran 28 times for 97 yards.

NOTES: Appalachian's 18-game winning streak is the league's longest since 1959 and the fourth-longest in school history ... ASU won for the 22nd time in its last 25 meetings with Chattanooga, including 13-straight wins over UTC at home ... the Mocs haven't won at Kidd Brewer Stadium since 1983 ... next Saturday's matchup at Elon marks the latest occasion since the conference joined the NCAA Division I FCS/I-AA sub-classification in 1982 that two teams with 6-0 SoCon records or better will square off ... the only other time that two 6-0 SoCon teams have squared off since 1982 occurred when 6-0 Marshall defeated 6-0 East Tennessee State on Nov. 9, 1996 ... Edwards' first interception snapped his string of 141-consecutive pass attempts without being picked off ... Moore has scored 11 touchdowns in the past five games ... LeGree's interception was the 14th of the junior's career, which is tied for second-most among active NCAA Division I FCS players ... ASU's three interceptions were a season-high.