Appalachian ran crazy against Presbyterian

Musings on Appalachian's 48-14 blowout of Presbyterian Saturday night in Boone:

*ASU rushed for 349 yards -- in the second half. The school doesn't keep records of such things, but I have to believe that 349 in a half (their game total was a non-record 409) has got to be the most-ever for the team. And they keep turning up remarkable running backs. When starter Devon Moore was lost to injury at James Madison, Robert Welton ably replaced him. He was sharing time with Devin Radford, though, and Radford wound up getting most of the work because the Blue Hose couldn't seem to catch him. He finished with 179 rushing yards on 17 carries, and also caught a 72-yard TD pass. And there's more where he came from; freshman Cedric Baker is highly thought-of as well.

*Presbyterian has a decent offense sparked by a savvy QB in Tim Webb, and trailed by just 17-14 at the half. Appalachian, though, wore the less-talented Blue Hose down. Webb eventually completed 31 of 57 passes but threw four interceptions, three in the second half.
"I was like, 'wow,' I didn't they were going to throw that many times," said ASU cornerback Cortez Gilbert, who had two of the picks.
"But it was pretty cool."
Then he laughed. "Pretty cool for us, because we got four interceptions."

*Appalachian has now won 37 of its past 38 home games. Things will get tougher this weekend, when The Citadel comes to town to open the Southern Conference season. By the way, the Mountaineers haven't lost two games in a row anywhere since the first two games of the 2003 season, when they fell to Hawaii and Eastern Kentucky. They've played
69 games since then.

-- Stan Olson