Last Updated on November 30, 2019 9:57 am
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Forty-four years after he helped App State improbably beat South Carolina for the first time, Tommy Sofield stood in Williams-Brice Stadium and called out for the Mountaineers to force a Gamecock turnover.
Moments later, true freshman Nicholas Ross returned a second-quarter interception for a tiebreaking touchdown.
Make
that two dramatic wins against the SEC program. And a locker room
celebration that included Sofield holding a commemorative game ball.
Becoming
just the seventh Group of Five team since the Sun Belt was formed in
2001 to post two Power Five road wins in the same season, App State
escaped Columbia with a 20-15 victory in front of 80,849 fans and an
ESPN2 audience Saturday night.
“I'm just proud of the focus and
effort our guys played with,” first-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said
“I'm proud of the way they battled all game. They never flinched.”
After
cutting into a 20-9 deficit on a touchdown with 2:58 left, South
Carolina regained possession and faced a fourth-and-15 from the App
State 35 with 19 seconds left. Ryan Hilinski completed a pass for 26
yards to the 9 before spiking the ball with nine seconds remaining.
Nick
Hampton forced a holding penalty on a pass rush as George Blackstock
batted down the throw, leading to a snap from the 19 with six seconds
left. The Gamecocks committed holding on a pass that didn't connect at
the back of the end zone, leading to a frenzied celebration from the
Mountaineers.
“You have a big crowd that's counting on us,
different people that are counting on us, coaches that are counting on
us, and we're counting on ourselves, too,” senior linebacker Akeem
Davis-Gaither said. “We knew we were going to have to fight for 60
minutes, and that's what we did.”
App State's 34-31 win at North
Carolina earlier this year was the Mountaineers' first victory against a
Power Five team since the historic 2007 upset of Michigan, and now they
have back-to-back wins against P5 teams. Most importantly, they will
head to Georgia State next weekend at 8-1 overall and a league-leading
4-1 in the Sun Belt, with one fewer conference loss than the Panthers
and fellow East Division foe Georgia Southern.
Jordan Fehr
(team-high 12 tackles), Nick Hampton and Davis-Gaither had important
sacks to lead a defense that forced five punts, one interception and one
turnover on downs in a nine-possession stretch leading up to South
Carolina's closing push. Josh Thomas added 10 tackles, and fellow safety
Desmond Franklin accounted for three of App State's 11 pass breakups.
Offensively, Darrynton Evans' 85 rushing yards were part of his 158 all-purpose yards.
The
teams traded two field goals apiece in the first 23 minutes, with
Chandler Staton converting game-tying kicks from 40 and a season-long 47
yards, before Ross' 20-yard interception return of a tipped pass gave
App State its first lead of the night with 1:51 remaining in the half.
The
Mountaineers' defense held tight after a turnover early in the third
quarter, forcing South Carolina to kick a 50-yard field goal, and Jalen
Virgil's 57-yard kickoff return to the Gamecocks' 39 put App State in
position to add to a 13-9 lead. Corey Sutton's 23-yard gain to the 3 set
up Zac Thomas' 1-yard keeper for a touchdown midway through the third
quarter.
One offensive touchdown proved to be enough for App
State thanks to the third defensive touchdown of the season from the
Mountaineers. Demetrius Taylor scored one in the road win at UNC, and
Ross came up his interception in the middle of the field before heading
toward the left sideline and following blocks from D'Marco Jackson and
Fehr to reach the end zone.
“That was an amazing feeling just
knowing it's a next-man-up mentality on the team,” Davis-Gaither said.
“Whoever is in the game, we expect them to play at the highest level.
Him coming up and making that play, that was awesome.”
With the
Gamecocks looking to rally early in the fourth quarter, Fehr sacked
Hilinski for a 10-yard loss, and South Carolina advanced to the App
State 35 before Davis-Gaither produced a sack for a 10-yard loss on
fourth down.
A fourth-down false start prevented South Carolina
from attempting a 51-yard field goal while trailing by 11 in the closing
minutes, but the Gamecocks completed a fourth-and-15 pass for 16 yards
and then scored on Bryan Edwards' 23-yard reception with 2:58 remaining.
Franklin
picked off the pass on the two-point try, and App State began its next
drive at its own 4-yard line. South Carolina took over at its 45-yard
line after a punt with 1:50 left, and Hampton's forced fumble on a sack
contributed to the Gamecocks facing a fourth-and-18 from midfield.
A
20-yard completion prolonged the drive, and another fourth-down
conversion put South Carolina inside the 10, but App State held to cap
another memorable road win.
“It makes you know all that hard
work in the offseason is paying off, so I'm super excited for these
guys,” Thomas said. “These seniors deserve it. They've been through some
ups and downs in different seasons, and we got them two this year.”
Added senior tight end Collin Reed, “Everything you do is so much more important because you know it's the last ride. It meant a lot to me what this team did, going out there and getting that W. You just try to soak everything up and embrace every single person that I see and let them know how much I love them. This team is something special. It's something we've been doing for a long time, and we just have to keep moving forward.”
