Game Day Preview: Mountaineers Play Midweek ESPN Game at Coastal

On By Littum


Joshua Donald

Taylor Newton



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BOONE, NC — With back-to-back home wins against a pair of Sun Belt East Division foes in hand, App State Football will look to win its 100th game as an FBS program when it travels to face another division opponent in Coastal Carolina on Thursday night .

The midweek ESPN game between the Mountaineers (4-4, 2-3 Sun Belt) and the Chanticleers (4-4, 1-3) starts at 20:00 at Brooks Stadium.

Georgia Southern leads the East Division with a 4-1 mark, followed by Marshall at 3-1, and App State needs to continue its winning streak to make some noise in the league race. It is 2-1 in its division with games remaining against Coastal, James Madison and Georgia Southern.

The Mountaineers trailed 26-25 against Georgia State before scoring a touchdown with 1:51 left to prevent the Panthers from securing a first down on their final drive. Last week, a touchdown with 2:29 left pushed App State’s lead to 28-20 over Old Dominion, and a fourth-down interception by Zyeir Gamble sealed the victory.

The Mountaineers improved to 99-39 since moving up to the FBS level in 2014, including 65-20 in regular-season Sun Belt games. They have a 29-13 record in Sun Belt regular-season road games, but are 0-2 this season with losses at Marshall and Louisiana.

The last two trips to Conway, SC have resulted in close losses, while Coastal won a nail biter in Boone last season with Tim Beck in his first season as the Chanticleers’ head coach and Grayson McCall in his final season as the Chanticleers’ quarterback.

Coastal has dropped consecutive league games against JMU (39-7 on the road), Louisiana (34-24 at home) and Troy (38-24 on the road) since beating ODU 45-38 to open Sun Belt play. Ethan Vasko has started every game at quarterback, highlighted by a 367-yard passing performance against ODU, but Michigan State transfer Noah Kim replaced Vasko late in the JMU loss and in the second quarter of the loss at Louisiana.

Vasko went the distance against Troy, throwing for 206 yards as the Trojans built a 28-7 halftime lead and limited Coastal to 107 rushing yards on 27 attempts. Coastal has two backs with more than 300 rushing yards this season as Braydon Bennett (132 yards vs. Louisiana) and Christian Washington (100 yards vs. William & Mary) have both been productive on the ground.

Producing four takeaways and a turnover on downs were keys to App State’s comeback win against ODU last weekend, the first time this season the Mountaineers have won the turnover game after being tied in the opener and losing the next six games. They also held ODU to 24 rushing yards in the second half on 14 attempts to create difficult passing situations, opening the door for them Joshua Donalddefensive end Michael Fletcher and defensive end Shawn Collins to combine for 4.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.

Offensively, App State’s line has helped the running game make strides in the last four games, with the Mountaineers averaging 174.8 yards on the ground in that stretch after averaging 130.8 in the first four games. The season’s top three rushing totals have occurred in the last four games, with Ahmani Marshall being responsible for 120 of the team’s season-high 184 yards against ODU.

Joey Aguilar has bounced back from a four-interception game at Louisiana to total 511 passing yards with seven touchdown passes and an interception in the last two games. Kaedin Robinson continues to shine, scoring a touchdown last weekend while leading the team in receiving yards for the eighth straight game. Dalton Stroman scored for the fifth time in the past five games while young tight ends Hamlet the dog and Max Drag both scored in their first career starts.