RALEIGH \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The defending 1-AA National Champions were no match for the defending Meineke Car Care Bowl champions Monday night in the 2006 season-opener.\u00c2\u00a0 The Wolfpack dismissed the Mountaineers 70-0 in front of a sellout crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium, most of who were much too drunk and sweaty to notice, or even care.<\/p>\n
With Appalachian State returning 17 starters from their 2005 championship team, many Wolfpack fans had worried this would be a close game.\u00c2\u00a0 But Darrell Blackman and Andre Brown, along with the penetrating NC State defense, put those worries to rest early in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They were knocking the hell out of me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said ASU junior Trey Elder, who split time at quarterback with All-Everything Richie Williams last season.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This definitely wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Western Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defense.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Elder was sacked for six and eight yard losses, respectively, on the first two plays, and then hurriedly threw an interception to Garland Heath.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mountaineers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first first-down was at the 0:03 mark of the first quarter when A.J. Davis inexplicably \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dove\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the open field while sliding over to cover the pass.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what happened on that play,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Davis joked after the game.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was like someone else was controlling my movements out there at times.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Elder was sacked a total of 10 times and hurried 14 times.\u00c2\u00a0 The Appalachian State offense managed just 95 total yards for the game, almost all of it coming in the second half after State coach Quack Amato substituted both his second-string offense and defense into the game.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, NC State was cruising.\u00c2\u00a0 Andre Brown got the Pack on the board first at the 2:44 mark with an eight-yard scoring run.\u00c2\u00a0 After a three-and-out for the Mountaineers, Brown followed on the first play of the second drive with a 43-yard touchdown run, untouched.\u00c2\u00a0 State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s D held again, and Darrell Blackman returned the ensuing punt 58 yards for his first touchdown to end the first quarter, untouched.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown added touchdown runs of 90 yards and four yards in the second quarter, and Blackman returned his second punt 54 yards for another touchdown.\u00c2\u00a0 Marcus Stone was an impressive 4-for-5 for 71 yards, completing two passes each to John Dunlap and Lamart Barrett, who both complained after the game about not getting enough touches.\u00c2\u00a0 State led 42-0 at the half.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amato took the entire first string offense and defense out to give the backups some reps, but the dominance continued.\u00c2\u00a0 The Wolfpack began the second half with a 78-yard, 3:45 drive, all rushing plays, ending with a 2-yard touchdown run by Toney Baker.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Blackman returned two more punts for touchdowns in the second half, and Baker added another rushing touchdown to push the score to 70-0.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They stomped us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jerry Moore said after the game.\u00c2\u00a0 There had been upset hopes for this team; the Mountaineers went to Baton Rouge to open the 2005 season and left with a moral victory, losing 20-0 and playing LSU as hard as anyone in the SEC did all season.\u00c2\u00a0 But there were no moral victories to be had in this game.<\/p>\n
The Wolfpack totaled 604 yards altogether, but only ran 26 offensive plays.\u00c2\u00a0 Brown rushed for 179 yards on nine carries and had four touchdowns; Baker rushed for 113 yards on 13 carries and added two touchdowns.\u00c2\u00a0 Darrell Blackman perhaps began a Heisman campaign with 223 punt return yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I was like Forrest Gump out there tonight,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Blackman added.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I even fair-caught two just so the offense could get on the field and burn clock.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I found out this game wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even televised; I wasted all that effort for jack shit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
On defense, the Pack dominated the Appalachian O-line and controlled the tempo of the game, never allowing Elder any comfort to pass.\u00c2\u00a0 DeMario Pressley and Willie Young each had three sacks, Littleton Wright added two, and DeMarcus Tyler and Garland Heath added one each.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young, starting as a redshirt freshman after spending a year improving his academics at Hargrave Military Academy, also had five tackles for loss.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how we roll in the WP, bitches,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added, apparently referring to his hometown of West Palm Beach, FL.<\/p>\n
ASU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s A.D., Charlie Cobb, who played for Dick Sheridan and spent time as the Assistant A.D. at State, had mixed emotions.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We got pounded, sure.\u00c2\u00a0 But that $200,000 check they gave us is my moral victory.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RALEIGH \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The defending 1-AA National Champions were no match for the defending Meineke Car Care Bowl champions Monday night in the 2006 season-opener.\u00c2\u00a0 The Wolfpack dismissed the Mountaineers 70-0 in front of a sellout crowd at Carter-Finley Stadium, most of who were much too drunk and sweaty to notice, or even care. With Appalachian … Continue reading Pack Stomps Defending Champs in Season Opener<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/section30.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}