CHARLESTON, S.C. — If Appalachian State’s 45-24 victory over The Citadel was a movie, Mountaineer fans would be yelling “Run, Armanti, run.”

Armanti Edwards, Appalachian State’s quarterback, ran himself into the Mountaineers’ record books with 291 yards rushing. Not only did Edwards break the ASU record for most career yards gained on the ground by a quarterback (1,889), he set the school mark for most yards gained by any Mountaineer on the ground.

“I tell you, Armanti deserves the rest of the day off,” joked Mountaineers coach Jerry Moore. “We’re going to tell him he doesn’t have to show up until Monday.”

Edwards helped the Mountaineers (7-2, 3-2 SoCon) stay close to first place in the Southern Conference. The Citadel (5-4, 3-3) fell back into third place behind ASU and first-place Georgia Southern (7-2, 4-2), Wofford (7-3, 4-2), and Elon (6-3, 4-2).

Appalachian State has two home games remaining, this Saturday against rival Western Carolina (1-8, 0-5) and the following Saturday against Chattanooga (2-7, 2-3). Should the Mountaineers win both games, they could do no worse than a tie for the Southern Conference championship.

But that’s still a long way into the future.

“In our league, right now, everybody in here can beat anybody,” Moore said. “There’s no question about that. We’ve got those last two ballgames at home. This was a big ballgame because it let us stay in the championship race.”

Having a record-setting performance from Moore’s quarterback certainly did not hurt. The old Appalachian State single game rushing record used to belong to Ritchie Melchor, who gained 261 yards on 36 carries against Chattanooga in 1989. Scott Satterfield, the current Appalachian State quarterbacks coach, held the old career quarterbacks rushing record, 1,621, he set from 1992-95.

Edwards, a sophomore making his third straight start after sitting four games out because of a shoulder injury, scored touchdown runs of 80 and 25 yards. He was 10 yards shy of the Southern Conference regular season single game rushing mark of 301 yards set by Furman’s Louis Ivory in 2000 before he was pulled with 5:17 left in the fourth quarter after a 29-yard gain on a third-and-15.

Georgia Southern’s Adrian Peterson rushed for 333 yards against Youngstown State in a 1999 playoff game.
Edwards gained his yards on just 21 carries, leaving him an average of 13.9 yards per carry. Had Edwards not been sacked twice for 16 yards that count against his rushing total, he would have finished with 307 yards on the ground.

“We saw them on film against Furman and (the Paladins) had a pretty good rushing game on them,” Edwards said. “We felt like that if we could get it to the secondary, we could get them.”

But running the ball was not the only way Edwards hurt The Citadel. Edwards also hit 10-of-20 passes for 148 yards, including a 6-yard touchdown to Josh Johnson and a 45-yard scoring pass to Dexter Jackson, both in the second quarter. Jackson’s catch gave the Mountaineers a 31-7 second quarter lead.

Jackson, running a post route, had plenty of time to run under Edwards’ high-arching pass that Jackson caught just before he ran into the end zone.

“It was right on the money,” Jackson said of Edwards’ throw. “I was just trying to make a big play.”

The Citadel cut that lead to 31-14 halftime lead on a Terrence Reese 1-yard run. Reese, who wears jersey number 99, is listed as a 6-foot-0, 294-pound nose tackle. The Citadel scored 10 more in the third on a Mike Adams 24-yard field goal and a 9-yard run by freshman quarterback Bart Blanchard, who made his first college start for the injured Duran Lawson.

Blanchard completed 20-of-36 passes for 197 yards and a touchdown, but was sacked five times. He also threw an interception to Appalachian State linebacker D.J. Smith, who returned it 23 yards for a second-quarter touchdown, giving the Mountaineers a 17-7 lead.

Appalachian State probably had too much offense for the Bulldogs even if Lawson had played. The Mountaineers rolled up 587 yards in total offense, compared to 323 for the Bulldogs. Kevin Richardson gained 68 yards on 14 carries to help the Mountaineers gain 439 yards rushing.

“I was proud of our football team at the middle of the third quarter,” Moore said. “It was a long football game and they were beginning to get a little momentum and our offense was three and out twice in a row and our defense had to go back on the field. They just bowed up and played when they had to.”