The ETSU Buccaneers hit a brick wall Saturday evening at the Memorial Center. The brick wall from Appalachian State virtually eliminated an offensive threat and overpowered the Bucs with a 29-10 victory.
The win was the 111th career victory for Appalachian State’s head coach Jerry Moore. Moore now has the most wins as a coach in the Southern Conference.
Moore’s record at ASU is now 111-52.
Duke University’s Wallace Wade held on to the record for over 50 years, earning 110 victories there from 1931-41 and 1946-50.
“We played like I wanted them to play in the second half,” Moore said. “It’s been a privilege to coach this team. This win was for the conference race and it was very important, these guys all need a game ball.”
ETSU head coach Paul Hamilton said, “We’ve got to pick ourselves back up and move ahead. They are a fine, good defensive football team. They’ve got great speed and a lot of real football players. Nobody in this league can play with them and give them the opportunities we did.”
Appalachian and ETSU began their contest swapping several possessions before Cecil Moore fumbled a punt to the Mountaineers’ Scott Cornatzer.
The boys from Boone capitalized and quickly scored with a one-yarder from Jerry Beard. A Matt Wright kick gave Appalachian the 7-0 lead.
As soon as ETSU made some questionable calls on offense, Appalachian State’s quarterback Joe Burchette tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Beard, with a Wright kick to put his team up 14-0 on the Bucs.
The Bucs battled back and worked their way downfield to set up a 40-yard field goal, which was missed by Wes Sands.
It came back to hurt ETSU, as Appy bounced back three drives later with an 11-yard touchdown run from Beard to take the 20-0 lead going into the locker room.
The Bucs came out into the second half looking for blood and opened up strong on the defense forcing a fumble by DaVon Fowlkes. Allen Davis recovered the fumble and the Bucs ended up at the Appy 12-yard line.
But the ship got sunk again for ETSU as they made a valiant effort at gaining six points, but had to settle for a 30-yard field goal from Jon Godfrey to come within 17 on the Mountaineers.
Appalachian got fired up and returned the favor with a 55-yard touchdown strike from Burchette to Jermaine Little with a missed conversion giving the Mountaineers a 26-3 advantage.
Both teams would remain scoreless until the fourth quarter when Jatavis Sanders tossed Cecil Moore a 68-yard touchdown pass with a Godfrey kick pulling the Bucs within a 26-10 margin.
Appalachian got the final score of the night with a Wright field goal to give the fourth ranked Mountaineers the 29-10 victory over the home team.
“It’s hard, but we’ve still got to play next week,” Cecil Moore said. “We’ve got six weeks left and we’ve got to prepare hard for the Citadel.”
“They had some big plays out there and it helped them out,” Sanders said. “It helped them to get us down early, but I’ve got to work on getting the ball in my receivers’ hands.”
Appalachian gained 373 yards compared to the Bucs’ 177. Joe Burchette led the Mountaineers with a 13 of 23 effort with 157 yards and two scores.

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