BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State showed no signs of rust in its 2018 debut at The Rock.
The Mountaineers rolled to a 72-7 home victory against Gardner-Webb on Saturday in Kidd Brewer Stadium. Playing a week after the scheduled home opener against Southern Miss was canceled because of Hurricane Florence, App State (2-1) scored twice on special teams during a 52-point first half and posted the third-highest point total in program history.
App State put up 692 total yards during a performance that, in terms of scoring, ranks behind only a 115-0 win against Piedmont in 1936 and a 79-35 win against Western Carolina in 2007.
"Everybody had ants in their pants — we were ready," senior running back
Jalin Moore said. "We've been waiting on it since we heard the Southern Miss game was canceled."
Steven Jones tied a school record with two blocked punts, including one that he recovered in the end zone for a touchdown that followed
Zac Thomas' 64-yard scoring strike to
Dominique Heath (111 receiving yards) in the opening minute, and
Clifton Duck's 62-yard punt return for a score helped push App State ahead 42-7 with 12:42 left in the second quarter.
One of six quarterbacks to see action for Appalachian, Thomas completed 11 of his 15 pass attempts for 185 yards before sitting out the entire second half, and a career-long run of 81 yards from Moore highlighted a two-touchdown performance in which he rushed for 119 yards on his eight first-quarter carries. He was the second-leading rusher behind
D'Andre Hicks, who capped a 150-yard effort with a 73-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Gardner-Webb (1-3) scored on its second drive of the game, but App State pitched a shutout the rest of the way with a defense that got a pair of sacks from redshirt freshman
Jermaine McDaniel Jr. as well as interceptions from
Desmond Franklin and
Kaiden Smith.
"We talked about our standard of play and how we train each and every day and that the standard needs to be pretty high," App State head coach
Scott Satterfield said. "So, after the start of today, I thought our kids came out and were ready to play and really performed well. I'm even more proud of the guys that finished the game. We cleared our bench and played everybody today that was down in uniform. The great thing is that there wasn't a sloppy play when they got in. ... Man, those guys came in and were ready and prepared to play and did a great job."
App State's first-half explosion included touchdown runs from
Darrynton Evans, who scored the first non-return TD of his young career, and Thomas. The Mountaineers went into the break with a 52-7 lead and 401-89 advantage in total offense.
Heath's second touchdown catch came on a 19-yard throw from backup quarterback
Peyton Derrick, who posted the first touchdown pass of his career and finished 7 of 7 through the air for 68 yards. Derrick's 3-yard scoring run pushed the advantage to 66-7 late in the third quarter.
After completing all 14 of his passes for 295 yards at Charlotte in his last outing, Thomas ran his completions streak to 18 before misfiring on a throw. He hit a wide-open Heath for the 64-yard score on his first pass of the afternoon, and Jones sprinted free to block an end-zone punt two minutes later.
Jones chased down the loose ball and pounced on it near the right edge of the end zone for App State's first touchdown via a punt block/return since Scott Cornatzer recovered a blocked punt in the end zone against Chattanooga in 2001. When Jones blocked another punt to set up another score, he tied Dino Hackett (two blocks against East Tennessee State in 1985) and Chuck Hill (two blocks against both Liberty and Western Carolina in 1987) for the school record.
"Coach was telling us when we get there to have big eyes and shoot your hands, and that's what I did," Jones said. "I executed it all practice. I got to the game — two blocks and a TD."
