AMHERST, Mass. — Logan Laurent's 36-yard field goal in the second overtime lifted UMass to a 30-27 home victory against Appalachian State in the Mountaineers' nonconference finale Saturday.
Laurent forced overtime by hitting a 45-yard field goal with five seconds left in regulation.
Marquis Young opened overtime with a 10-yard touchdown run for UMass (2-6), and App State (5-3) responded two plays later with
Taylor Lamb's 20-yard touchdown pass to
Ike Lewis.
Chandler Staton hit the game-tying extra point, and UMass recovered a fumble on the first play of the second overtime.
Tee Sims recorded three sacks for the Mountaineers, and linebacker
Eric Boggs had a productive all-around game with 15 tackles, one sack, one interception, one forced fumble and two pass breakups.
Marcus Williams Jr. rushed for 125 yards in his first career start replacing an injured
Jalin Moore, and Lamb had a hand in three touchdowns.
App State, which is 4-0 in the Sun Belt Conference, resumes its league schedule next weekend at ULM.
Staton capped the longest scoring drive of the season by making a tiebreaking, 30-yard field goal with 4:42 left in the fourth quarter, and UMass used a 12-play drive to set up the game-tying field goal.
Staton tied the game at 17-all when, on his first career attempt, he hit a 40-yard field goal with 5:06 left in the third quarter. The score was still tied when App State took over at its 20 with 12:32 remaining, and Lamb directed a 14-play, 67-yard drive that lasted 7:50.
A play after true freshman running back
Daetrich Harrington made a one-handed catch of a pitch to move close to the first-down marker, he gained 4 yards on a fourth-and-1 rush from the UMass 25. Four plays later, Staton broke the tie.
App State fell behind 10-0 while defending a pair of short fields and converted two Boggs-driven turnovers into touchdowns to trail just 17-14 at halftime.
Sims recovered a fumble at the UMass 29 after Boggs knocked the ball loose on a second-quarter run, and a 26-yard run by Williams put the Mountaineers in scoring position. A loss and penalty preceded a 15-yard touchdown run by Lamb.
A post-turnover penalty negated the touchdown on
Tae Hayes' 48-yard interception return that would have given App State a second-quarter lead, and Boggs' interception to set up an Appalachian touchdown with four seconds left in the half came at a critical time.
The Mountaineers punted following Hayes' interception, and Young rushed for a 95-yard touchdown to open the next drive. UMass intercepted a pass and moved inside the App State 40 with a chance to increase its 17-7 lead in the final minute of the half, but Boggs picked off a wide receiver pass and returned the ball 36 yards to the UMass 39.
Taking over with 25 seconds left, Lamb completed passes of 22 and 16 yards to Lewis before taking a snap at the 1 with nine seconds and no timeouts remaining. He rolled left and threw a touchdown pass to
Thomas Hennigan.
