BOONE – After racing out to an early 21-0 first-quarter lead, the Appalachian State Mountaineers held on to win their fourth consecutive Sun Belt Conference championship, holding off a furious late rally by Louisiana and winning 45-38. Junior running back Darrynton Evans was named the game’s most valuable player for the second straight year after today’s three-touchdown performance.

Appalachian State is now 2-0 in Sun Belt Championship games (Photo Credit: Brian Barnes)

With the win, the Mountaineers became the first #NCCFB FBS program to post a twelve-win season. Of the ten instances of a North Carolina program winning eleven games in a season, Appalachian State is responsible for three of them (in the Mountaineers' six FBS seasons). In their conference, Appalachian State is responsible for three of the four eleven-win seasons in Sun Belt history.



The Mountaineers forced three turnovers on the day, two fumbles (recovered by EJ Scott and Desmond Franklin) and one pick-six by Josh Thomas. “When I caught it, I saw the linemen, and I just tried to run away from them as fast as I could…making plays like that, it all happened so fast, it was just a blur. It's one moment at Kidd Brewer that I needed, and it was great,” Thomas said after the game.








Notable North Carolinians

Akeem Davis-Gaither (Thomasville) – the senior linebacker, in his last home game as a Mountaineer, led the defense with ten tackles, including four solo

Noel Cook (Reidsville) – the senior linebacker, also playing his last home game in an App State uniform, had a forced fumble to go along with four tackles and two quarterback hurries

EJ Scott (Farmville Central) – the senior defensive end had seven tackles to go along with a forced fumble and recovery



Noteworthy Notes

Appalachian State is 43-7 in its 50 games against Sun Belt teams, and it improved to 8-0 in the series with Louisiana.

The Mountaineers increased their season total to sixty-nine touchdowns, tying the Sun Belt season record.



Up Next

By virtue of winning the Sun Belt championship, Appalachian State earned a berth in the New Orleans Bowl against a yet-to-be-determined opponent from Conference USA.

BOONE – It was a historic day at Kidd Brewer Stadium in Boone, North Carolina on Saturday. For the first time ever, the Sun Belt Conference held a conference championship game. By virtue of being the highest ranked team in the conference, East Division champion Appalachian State hosted the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns for the right to be the first-ever conference championship game winner and clinching a berth in the New Orleans Bowl. Led by Darrynton Evans's 215 total yards (107 rushing, 108 returning) and Zac Thomas's two rushing touchdowns, the Appalachian State Mountaineers held off the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns, 30-19, to clinch the Sun Belt Conference championship for the third year in a row.



After winning the coin toss and electing to go on offense first, the Ragin' Cajuns drove fifty-five yards down the field and scored on a 37-yard Kyle Pfau field goal to take an early lead. That lead, and the momentum from scoring first, was short-lived as Darrynton Evans returned the ensuing kickoff ninety-seven yards to the Louisiana one-yard line. Marcus Williams scored on the next play and Appalachian had the lead and managed to hold onto it for the rest of the game.



Louisiana added another Pfau field goal in the second quarter that capped an eleven-play, forty-one-yard drive. The Mountaineers responded with their own long drive, moving the ball seventy-five yards in nine plays with Sun Belt Offensive Player of the Year Zac Thomas keeping it on a twenty-five run up the middle for the second (of how many?) rushing touchdown on the day for the home team. When it looked like Louisiana was poised to get into scoring position late in the half, App State junior defensive back Josh Thomas stepped in front of a Ragin' Cajun pass for his third pick of the year and the Mountaineers went into the half leading by eight.



Appalachian State started the third quarter with pretty much the same game plan they had in the first half – feed Darrynton Evans the ball. The sophomore running back's forty-eight-yard run got App State into scoring position, but the Ragin' Cajun defense stiffed up and the Mountaineers were forced to settle for a 42-yard Chandler Staton field goal. In what was almost a reverse of how the first half started, Louisiana's Raymond Calais returned the kickoff sixty-one-yards into App State territory. Four plays later, quarterback Andre Nunez called his own number on an eight-yard run for the first touchdown of the day for the visiting Ragin' Cajuns.



In what turned out to be a [game changer/inconsequential over the course of the game], Appalachian State decided to gamble on a 4th and 1 from their own 34. The Louisiana defense stepped up and stopped the Mountaineers, giving the Ragin' Cajuns a chance to take the lead for the first time. Kidd Brewer Stadium stepped in at this point with the noise from "The Rock" causing three consecutive offensive penalties. But, the Ragin' Cajuns refused to be denied, converting the long first down and getting three points from another Pfau field goal. App State added another Chandler Staton field goal to close out the third quarter and it was only a four-point affair to begin the final stanza.





The fourth quarter started with a strong defensive possession by the Mountaineers. After Anthony Flory pressured the Louisiana quarterback, Tae Hayes came down with the pick on the altered pass and the Mountaineers were in business. Zac Thomas called his own number again on a 4th and 1 from the 35-yard line and the Mountaineers were up by eleven and the home fans could taste the conference championship. As the minutes rolled off the clock, chants of "A-S-U!" erupted from the students in attendance. When the final whistle blew, the App State faithful who braved the cold and the rain poured on to the field at Kidd Brewer Stadium and celebrated the first-ever Sun Belt Conference Championship Game win.





Of Note

Darrynton Evans surpassed the one-thousand-yard rushing mark in the first half. 2018 was the seventh straight year that the Mountaineers had a thousand-yard rusher. What made it even more impressive was the fact that Evans didn't get the starting nod until Jalin Moore went down with an injury halfway through the season.



The seven field goals (four by Louisiana's Kyle Pfau and three by Appalachian State's Chandler Staton) in the game are sure to be a Sun Belt Conference Championship Game record for a while. The cold, rainy weather surely played a part in the lack of touchdowns, but the special teams play by both teams was a highlight.

BOONE — Another second-half statement from Appalachian State's defense. Another strong rushing performance from Darrynton Evans.



It added up to another Sun Belt Conference victory for the Mountaineers.



Evans rushed for a career-high 183 yards on 26 carries and scored two touchdowns, including a tiebreaking one on a 20-yard reception late in the first half, as App State remained unbeaten in league play with a 27-17 home win against Louisiana on Saturday at Kidd Brewer Stadium.




The Mountaineers (5-1, 3-0) were close to pitching a second-half shutout for the fifth straight game, but the Ragin' Cajuns (3-4, 1-2) cut into a 27-10 deficit by scoring with 1:03 remaining. Akeem Davis-Gaither recorded a career-high 15 tackles while contributing to a pair of sacks, Noel Cook had a sack in his 13-tackle performance and App State limited the productive rushing attack from Louisiana (3-4, 1-2) to 140 yards on 41 attempts.



The victory sets the stage for a first-place showdown Thursday at rival Georgia Southern, which is 3-0 in the Sun Belt as an East Division co-leader.



"When you're teaching off of this kind of film and kind of game, you love for it to be a win, and that's what it was," App State head coach Scott Satterfield said. "We're setting ourselves up there at 3-0 in the league, right where we need to be in Sun Belt league play with a short week coming up. We're already gearing up for Georgia Southern (on Thursday), and that's on everybody's mind right now as we head toward this week."



Offensively, quarterback Zac Thomas threw for 106 yards and rushed for 43 more, contributing to the 266 yards on the ground from the Mountaineers. They forced defensive three-and-outs on six of the first nine drives by Louisiana, with Caleb Spurlin, Demetrius Taylor and Okon Godwin also contributing in the sack category, and Jordan Fehr's fumble recovery set up App State's first touchdown.



Evans broke a 10-10 tie with 2:11 remaining in the first half on his catch of a perfectly thrown pass from Thomas, who absorbed a hit on the throw, and Evans' 65-yard run to the Louisiana 6 on the second play of the third quarter set up another touchdown for a 24-10 lead.



On those two possessions, Evans had touches on nine of App State's 13 plays.



"The O-line was opening it up," Evans said. "I'm saying, 'If it's going to be like this, we might as well just keep running it and keep running the same plays.' The coaches, they had a good beat on the defense and were making great calls, and the O-line was moving people around."



Marcus Williams Jr. powered his way into the end zone from the 6 immediately after the career-long run from Evans, who cut between blocks from left guard Ryan Neuzil and center Noah Hannon in the middle of the field.



Evans rushed for his previous high of 115 yards on his 16 carries in App State's previous game at Arkansas State, where star running back Jalin Moore suffered a season-ending ankle injury. Evans made just his second career start Saturday.



"It's always nice knowing if you do your job, the person behind you is going to do theirs. That's kind of our motto on offense. We're DYJ – we do our job. Especially as an offensive line, you can't really control anything else. We just try to do our best at doing our job, and we've got some special backs in the backfield."



Evans said Moore's appearance and words on the pregame intro video that played on the Kidd Brewer Stadium videoboard had an inspirational effect, and Moore interacted with his teammates in a jubilant postgame locker room only a few days removed from surgery.



"Seeing him today just made us glow up," Evans said. "Even our motivational video, they had his voice on there, and everybody just got pumped."



The Mountaineers maintained a two-touchdown lead thanks to a defensive stand after Louisiana started a drive at the App State 32 late in the third quarter. Facing a third-and-2 situation from the App State 12 to open the fourth quarter, Desmond Franklin and Fehr stopped 221-pound back Elijah Mitchell for no gain.



When Mitchell took a handoff on the fourth-down play, true freshman linebacker Trey Cobb and Franklin again tackled him for no gain.



"I always call Trey my son," senior linebacker Anthony Flory said with a laugh about his much-younger teammate, "and whenever I see him, I say, 'Son!' Just to see him make that play felt good. It was just fun and good to see."



App State flipped the field by advancing to its 46-yard line before Clayton Howell drilled a 53-yard punt that rolled to a stop in Steven Jones' hands at the 1. Demetrius Taylor batted down a third-down throw to force a punt that enabled the Mountaineers to drive for a 29-yard, game-clinching field goal from Chandler Staton with 2:46 left.



"The defensive line did their part today," Davis-Gaither said. "They played extremely hard like they always do. They cleared the way for us to play fast and read our keys and make the plays we're supposed to."



App State took a first-quarter lead on a 2-yard touchdown run from Evans, whose score came five plays after Fehr's fumble recovery at the Louisiana 25, and the Ragin' Cajuns responded with an eight-play scoring drive that ended with Levi Lewis' 38-yard touchdown pass to Mitchell.



There was another tie early in the second quarter as a 40-yard field goal from Staton preceded a 43-yard field goal by Louisiana's Kyle Pfau. Evans put the Mountaineers ahead for good on the first touchdown catch of his young career.



Next up is the trip to Statesboro, Ga., for the ESPNU game with Georgia Southern on Thursday night.



"You have to put this one to bed really quickly and move forward because on Wednesday we'll be heading to Georgia," Satterfield said. "I'm proud of our guys and the way they fought and the way they continued to play and come up with enough plays to get the win."

BOONE – Saturday's Sun Belt game between Appalachian State and Louisiana at Kidd Brewer Stadium had serious implications for both of the teams involved. A win for the Mountaineers on Senior Day would mean a second-straight Sun Belt crown in only their fourth season in the conference. A victorious Louisiana would find itself bowl-eligible sixth time in seven years. As the weather turned colder throughout the afternoon, so did the Ragin' Cajuns' bowl hopes as the Mountaineers scored 56 unanswered points on the way to a 63-14 win.






Louisiana came out quickly on the first drive of the game, going 75 yards in only three plays with Jordan Davis finding Devin Scott for a 29-yard score less than a minute into the game. That was about all that went right for the Ragin' Cajuns in the game, though. After getting stopped on downs on their first drive, Appalachian State scored touchdowns on four of their remaining five drives in the first half and their first five drives of the second half.



The Taylor Lamb to Thomas Hennigan duo was strong throughout the game. The two connected for three scores in the second quarter (9, 33, 12) and a 42-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Lamb finished the day 17 of 22 passing for 242 yards. The running game was strong for Appalachian State as well, rushing for over 300 yards, including two 100-yard rushers. Daetrich Harrington led the way with 117 yards and a third-quarter touchdown and Jalin Moore added two scores.

Worth Noting

The 63 points are the most scored by Appalachian State in Sun Belt play since joining the conference.

Walk-on QB Curtis Fitch scored on a 1yd run late in the fourth quarter. App State was flagged for excessive celebration as almost the entire bench ran to the end zone to congratulate him.

Notable North Carolinians

Thomas Hennigan (Fr., Northwest Guilford) had four touchdowns, tying a program record for receiving touchdowns in a game.

Jalin Moore (Jr., Crest) ran for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Edward Davis (So., Farmville Central) had six tackles, including three for loss.

Clifton Duck (So., Butler) had an interception to go along with five tackles.

Next Week

Louisiana's season is complete while Appalachian State will begin preparing for the Dollar General Bowl where the Mountaineers will take on MAC champion Toledo on December 23rd at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama.