FCS playoffs: Next, E. Washington at ASU Saturday at noon
Close call: Mountaineers outlast Dukes in first round of playoffs
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Appalachian State gets one more week to defend its back-to-back national championships — just barely.

The Mountaineers needed a late touchdown from quarterback Armanti Edwards and then a fumble during a heart-stopping finish in their 28-27 victory over a James Madison in the first round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

The majority of the final numbers favored James Madison. The Dukes (8-4), which play in the competitive Colonial Athletic Association, ran 84 plays for 436 yards in total offense, compared to 57 plays and 330 yards for the Mountaineers (10-2). James Madison held the ball for 40 minutes, 27 seconds compared to 19:33 for the Mountaineers, and the Dukes held Appalachian State, which averaged 43 points per game going into Saturday, to 28 points. James Madison rolled up 312 yards rushing and converted 11-of-19 third downs, allowing them to pile up 25 first downs. Appalachian State settled for 15 first downs.

“I’m glad it was not a statistical game,” Mountaineers coach Jerry Moore said. “I’m glad it’s a game that you go by what the scoreboard says. How could you be more proud of a group of men when you have the adversity and to hang in and win under pretty tough conditions? It speaks volumes about them and the effort they put forth.”

So, it will be the Mountaineers who will host Eastern Washington this Saturday at noon in the second round, mostly because the Dukes lost a key stat — turnovers. James Madison turned the ball over to Appalachian State three times — two fumbles and an interception — compared to the Mountaineers giving the ball back to the Dukes twice — once on a fumble and on an interception.

Of course, the turnover that most of the 14,040 in attendance will remember is the fumble Dukes running back Jamal Sullivan coughed up that Appalachian State linebacker Pierre Banks recovered.

Sullivan fumbled at the Appalachian State 9-yard line, with 22 seconds left and with the Dukes trailing 28-27.

The Dukes were about to kick a possible game-winning field goal and gave the ball to Sullivan to move the ball in the center of the field.

But Appalachian State defensive end Gary Tharrington slapped the ball out of Sullivan’s hands and Banks beat James Madison tight end Mike Caussin to the ball at the 5-yard line.

“He played great,” James Madison coach Mickey Matthews said of Sullivan, a redshirt freshman. “He’s a child; that’s not fair. It never should have come to that. I don’t want anybody thinking that he lost the game. I’m the one who lost the game. We should have — with 30 seconds left in the game, I know better.”

Appalachian State’s lack of ability to stop the run allowed them to make a vital play in the fourth quarter.

James Madison faced a fourth-and-two from its own 31-yard line with 2:35 left in the game. Dukes quarterback Rodney Landers was stopped for no gain and Appalachian State took over.

Matthews said he thought the Mountaineers could drive the ball and score if the Dukes punted, adding that because of the success of his team’s running game, they had a decent chance of getting the first down and running out the clock.

“I thought they’d score,” Matthews said. “If I thought that we were not going to make it, I wouldn’t have gone for it. It was a very good defensive play by them.”

Five plays later, quarterback Armanti Edwards scored from 5-yards out, giving the Mountaineers a 28-27 lead with 1:10 left in the game. Just one play earlier, Edwards hit running back Devon Moore with a critical 15-yard pass on a fourth-and-3 from the 25 yards line. Moore had to come back and dive for the underthrown pass.

“It was a fake screen,” Edwards said. “We had run the screen a lot in the second half. We hadn’t even run it in practice, so that’s how much faith the coaches have in us to run it in the game.”

Unfazed, the Dukes struck right back with a 36-yard pass from Landers to Bosco Williams, giving them a first down at the Appalachian State 35. Two more plays, including a 17-yard run by Sullivan, gave the Dukes a first-and-goal from the 9-yard line.

Two plays later, Sullivan fumbled and the Mountaineers recovered.

“I saw that one big guy going for it for them and one of ours on each side of him and I kept hoping that if one of ours didn’t recover it, that he would make a play on it and the other guy could recover it,” Moore said.

“I didn’t want him to knock it out of bounds, but if he could get his hands on it, the next one would get the ball.”

James Madison dominated much of the first half, yet trailed 19-14 by halftime. The Mountaineers took advantage of two turnovers, turning both into touchdowns. Jacque Roman’s 77-yard return of a Caussin fumble put the Mountaineers at the Dukes’ 1-yard line. Three plays later, Edwards scored from 4-yards out, tying the game at 7-7.

The Dukes struck back with a 5-yard Griff Yancy touchdown run, his second of the game. Appalachian State drove 80 yards in eight plays on a drive capped by a Kevin Richardson 1-yard touchdown run. The extra point was blocked, so James Madison kept a 14-13 lead.

However, the Dukes turned the ball over on a Tony Robinson interception that was batted into the air on a collision by James Madison receiver Rockeed McCarter and Appalachian State cornerback Justin Woazeah.

Edwards capped ASU’s 27-yard, five-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown keeper.

But once again, Appalachian State missed the extra point when a facemask penalty on the Mountaineers pushed Julian Rauch’s attempt back 15 yards.

“We were really upset at the half,” Matthews said. “We thought we fairly dominated the first half. It was a 14-point swing when they caused our tight end to fumble.”

ASU 28, James Madison 27
James Madison 7 7 6 7 — 27
Appalachian State 0 13 6 9 — 28
Scoring summary
First Quarter
JMU—Yancey 10 pass from Landers (Stannard kick), 10:12.
Second Quarter
ASU—Edwards 4 run (Rauch kick), 12:14.
JMU—Yancey 5 run (Stannard kick), 8:55.
ASU—Richardson 1 run (kick blocked), 5:47.
Third Quarter
JMU—Stannard 7 run (kick failed), 4:29.
ASU—Edwards 1 run (kick failed), 3:09.
Fourth Quarter
JMU—Sullivan 2 run (Stannard kick), 7:37.
ASU—FG Rauch 44, 4:51.
ASU—Edwards 5 run (pass failed), 1:10.
A—14,040.

JMU ASU
First downs 25 15
Rushes-yards 67-312 40-204
Passing 124 126
Comp-Att-Int 10-17-1 12-17-0
Return Yards 3 88
Punts-Avg. 2-38.0 2-40.0
Fumbles-Lost 2-2 5-2
Penalties-Yards 2-10 4-30
Time of Poss 40:27 19:33
Individuals
Rushing: JMU—Landers 29-129, Yancey 17-73, Sullivan 12-67, Bolton 6-24, Baker 2-12, Stannard 1-7; ASU—Edwards 20-132, Richardson 14-55, Hill 3-11, Moore 1-4, D.Jackson 1-3, Team 1-(minus 1).
Passing: JMU—Landers 10-15-1-124, Baker 0-1-0-0, Team 0-1-0-0; ASU—Edwards 12-17-0-126.
Receiving: JMU—Baker 4-43, B.Williams 2-43, Bolton 1-26, Yancey 1-10, Caussin 1-2, Newman 1-0; ASU—D.Jackson 4-47, Batichon 2-28, Jo.Johnson 2-23, Moore 2-22, Courman 1-3, Richardson 1-3