STATESBORO, Ga. — Appalachian State University football's red-zone struggles continued in Thursday night's 34-14 loss to Georgia Southern at Paulson Stadium.

Like in last Saturday's 21-20 loss at Southern Miss, Appalachian State (1-3, 0-1 Sun Belt) squandered several scoring opportunities in Thursday's defeat. The Mountaineers came away with points on just two of five trips into the red zone in their first-ever Sun Belt Conference game.

After a disastrous start that put it in a 17-0 hole less than three minutes into the second quarter, Appalachian regrouped with a pair of long scoring drives to cut the deficit to 24-14 at halftime.  

Making the second start of his career, redshirt-freshman quarterback Taylor Lamb engineered a 12-play, 75-yard drive and put the Mountaineers on the board with a 19-yard touchdown run that made it 17-7 midway through the second period.

Georgia Southern (3-2, 2-0 Sun Belt) stretched the lead to 24-7 with a little more than two minutes to go in the opening half but Lamb responded by marching the Mountaineers 74 yards in 1:55 to pull back within 10 points. A 27-yard pass to Malachi Jones and a 25-yard pass to Simms McElfresh headlined the eight-play drive, which was capped by a one-yard touchdown dive by Marcus Cox that sent the Mountaineers to the locker room trailing just 24-14.

The momentum carried over to the second half and Appalachian drove deep into Georgia Southern territory on the opening series after the break. However, the drive stalled when Georgia Southern defensive end Quaun Daniels made a first-down saving tackle on Lamb's quarterback keeper on fourth-and-four from the nine yard line and the Mountaineers turned the ball over on downs.

App State had another golden scoring opportunity on its very next series when Tucker Bell blocked a GS punt and the Mountaineers took over at the Eagles' 30 yard line. Once again, Appalachian moved inside the Georgia Southern 10 but, once again, it came away empty when Lamb was intercepted at the one yard line by Nick Wright.

For all intents and purposes, Georgia Southern put the game away when it milked 8:58 off the clock on its ensuing drive before settling for a 35-yard field goal by Alex Hanks that made it 27-14. One possession later, the Eagles closed the scoring on a six-yard touchdown run by quarterback Kevin Ellison.

Appalachian drove inside the Eagles' 15 yard line for the fifth time on its final possession but came away empty when it turned the ball over on downs at the GS 12.

In addition to the red-zone woes, Appalachian State allowed 408 rushing yards, possessed the ball for only 21:52 and converted just 4-of-13 third downs in the loss.

On the flip side, Lamb was impressive for the second-straight week, completing 23-of-42 passes for 256 yards while rushing eight times for 29 yards and a score. His favorite target was McElfresh, who caught seven passes for 64 yards (both game highs). Jones and Montez McGuire had four receptions apiece for 59 and 49 yards, respectively.

Defensively, linebacker John Law led Appalachian State with a career-high 16 tackles. Safety Doug Middleton also set a new career high with 10 stops and recorded his second interception of the season.

After a grueling stretch of two road games in six days, Appalachian State gets an eight-day break before it returns to action on Saturday, Oct. 4 at home versus South Alabama. Kickoff for Appalachian's inaugural Sun Belt home game is set for 6 p.m. at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

NOTES: The loss snapped Appalachian State's three-game winning streak versus longtime rival Georgia Southern and was only its fourth loss in the last 12 meetings with the Eagles ... Appalachian lost at Paulson Stadium for only the second time in the last 10 years (2010) ... over the last two games, Appalachian State has scored on just five of its 10 trips into the red zone ... with just 74 rushing yards, App State failed to run for 100 yards for the first time in six games, dating back to it managing just 32 rushing yards at Georgia on Nov. 9 of last season ... true freshman Latrell Gibbs made the first start of his career at cornerback.