By David Rogers. ATLANTA, Ga. — Dominating Georgia State has become an autumn tradition for Appalachian State football. On Nov. 11, the Mountaineers upheld the tradition with conviction, 42-14 — and the game wasn’t even that close.
App State has five running backs on the team’s depth chart and all of them saw action against the Panthers. Three scored touchdowns, including Nate Noel, Kanye Roberts and Watauga High School alum Anderson Castle, who showed no signs of the pre-season foot injury that kept him off the field for the first several weeks of the 2023 campaign.
Noel is also rounding into form after being sidelined midseason. On a 61-yard romp through perimeter defenders then racing down the left sideline, the junior from Miami, Fla. looked a lot like the running back who was among the nation’s leading rushers through the first few weeks of the 2023 season.
Inserted in the third quarter, Castle punched a path through the line of scrimmage for a 9-yard TD run, twisting to break a tackle before surging into the end zone.
Roberts accounted for the Mountaineers’ final scoring with a 20-yard rush to paydirt early in the fourth quarter.
Meanwhile, “Joey California” (quarterback Joey Aguilar) was having his way with the Panthers’ defense. He threw for two TDs in the first half, a 44-yard sizzler to Makai Jackson at the beginning of the second quarter, and then a 3-yarder to Kaedin Robinson midway through the second stanza.
With App State getting the ball to start the second half, the Aguilar and the Mountaineers wasted no time. Aguilar threw a perfect strike to wide receiver Dalton Stroman crossing from left to right over the middle, the big redshirt sophomore from Rockingham breaking free from a would-be tackler before sprinting to the end zone for what went into the history books as a 77-yard passing TD. And it came on the first play from scrimmage to open the second half.
Aguilar finished the day having completed 14 of 21 pass attempts, including three TDs vs. just one interception. Yet again the Mountaineers rolled up more than 500 yards of total offense (509), perfectly balanced between rushing (254 yards) and passing (255).
As good as the Mountaineer offense was, perhaps the real stars of this game were members of the defensive unit, which held the Panthers to just 260 yards of total offense. Most of that came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of hand. App State linebacker Andrew Parker had a big day with 14 total tackles, including 2 tackles for loss and a quarterback hurry. Defensive back T. Alan Yowe hauled in an interception.
Early in the game, Georgia State appeared to be in control when the Panthers manufactured a 20-play drive that advanced the ball from their own 35 yard line to the Mountaineer 4-yard line, but the scoring effort was foiled when GSU quarterback Darren Grainger looked to run left on a keeper, but lost control on a forced fumble credited to APP’s Trevor Moffitt and the ball was recovered by Parker at the 8-yard line.
Georgia State never again really threatened until its two fourth quarter TDs when the game was already out of reach.
“Our guys came out ready to go,” starting center and team captain Isaiah Helms said afterwards. “We brought the energy and played complementary football all the way around (offense, defense, and special teams).”
With its sixth win of the season, App State is now bowl-eligible. There is still a small probability that the Mountaineers can represent the Sun Belt Conference’s East Division in the conference’s Championship game. It would require them to defeat both James Madison and Georgia Southern in the final two regular season games and, in all probability, see Coastal Carolina to lose its game against James Madison in those teams’ regular season finale.
James Madison is so far undefeated, but remains ineligible to play in the conference championship game per the requirements of its joining the conference two years ago.
SUN BELT CONFERENCE SCORES ON THE WEEKEND
- Appalachian State 42, @Georgia State 14
- @Liberty 38, Old Dominion 10
- @James Madison 44, UConn 6
- Troy 45, @Louisiana-Monroe 14
- @Coastal Carolina 31, Texas State 23
- @South Alabama 21, Arkansas State 14
- @Marshall 38, Georgia Southern 33
POSTGAME NOTES from App State Sports
- App State won its third straight game to move to 6-4 and earn bowl eligibility. It’s the eighth time in nine years that the Mountaineers have been bowl eligible since transitioning to the FBS level.
- The 28-point margin of victory is the largest against a Sun Belt opponent since a 45-7 win at Troy in 2021. The Mountaineers have won their last three games by an average margin of 20 points. In the team’s four losses this season, the average margin of defeat was 4.8 points.
- Interestingly enough, App State scored a touchdown on the first offensive play of the second, third and fourth quarters.
- The Mountaineers defeated the Panthers for the 10th time in 10 tries since they became conference opponents in 2014.
- App State improved its road record to 2-3 this season. The Mountaineers’ 34 road victories since 2014 are tied with Oklahoma for fifth-most in the FBS over that span. Only Ohio State, Boise State, Clemson and Alabama have more.
- App State and Georgia State tied with two turnovers apiece. Under head coach Shawn Clark, the Mountaineers are 17-1 when winning the turnover battle, 6-11 when losing, and 9-4 when they have the same number of turnovers as the opponent.
- App State’s 85 wins since 2015 are sixth-most in the FBS behind Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State and Oklahoma.
- Earning his first career start was defensive end Kevin Abrams-Verwayne, while DL Jason Hertz, QB David Hernandez and OL Danny Stevens made their Mountaineer debuts.
OFFENSE
- App State eclipsed 30 points for the third straight game and the seventh time this season.
- The Mountaineers piled up 509 total yards – 254 on the ground and 255 in the air.
- Joey Aguilar completed 14 of 21 passes for 255 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. He increased his Sun Belt lead to 26 passing touchdowns, which also ranks top 10 in the country.
- Back to 100 percent health, Nate Noel rushed 10 times for 86 yards, including a 61-yard touchdown four plays after the Mountaineer defense ended Georgia State’s 20-play drive with a forced fumble inside the 5-yard line.
- During the game, Noel became the eighth player in school history to eclipse 3,000 career rushing yards.
- Kanye Roberts tacked on 77 rushing yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown.
- After missing the first eight games of the season due to a fall camp injury, in his second game back on the field, Anderson Castle rushed for 26 yards and his first touchdown of the season on a 9-yard burst to open the fourth quarter.
- Makai Jackson caught three passes for a season-high 98 yards. His 44-yard touchdown from Aguilar on the first play of the second quarter made it the second straight game Jackson found the end zone.
- On the first play of the third quarter, Dalton Stroman hauled in a deep crossing route, made a man miss, and scored a 77-yard touchdown, the longest touchdown catch by a Mountaineer since Christan Horn’s 80-yard reception last year against The Citadel. Stroman finished with three catches for a season-high 93 yards.
- Kaedin Robinson had four catches for 29 yards and his team-leading sixth touchdown grab of the season.
DEFENSE
- The Mountaineer defense held Georgia State to 260 total yards. The Panthers entered the game averaging 394 per game.
- App State pitched a shutout until the Panthers first scored with 11:57 left in the fourth quarter.
- App State’s defense forced eight 3-and-outs and nine Panther punts.
- GSU quarterback Darren Grainger entered the game averaging 269.1 yards of total offense (seventh-most among Sun Belt quarterbacks). App State held him to 133 (115 passing, 18 rushing).
- Andrew Parker Jr. led the way with a career-high 14 tackles (10 solo), with 2.0 TFLs and a fumble recovery. It was his fifth double-digit tackle game of the season.
- Trenton Alan Yowe snagged his first App State interception, while also posting a season-high five tackles, a tackle for loss and two pass breakups.
- Trevor Moffit forced a fumble that was recovered by Parker and ended Georgia State’s 20-play first-quarter drive with the Panthers within 5 yards of a touchdown.
