Appalachian Soccer 1, East Tennessee State 0

Appalachian got on the board early in the match at the 13th minute mark. A quick offensive push led to a throw in for the Mountaineers to the left of the Buccaneer defense. The ball was played into the box and swiftly played to Matthew Melton on the touch. Melton found a cutting David Dodge who buried the ball into the back of the net. The play was drawn up and executed perfectly. For the remainder of the first half, Appalachian maintained possession and kept the ball in the middle third of the field.

The second half was all about the Mountaineer defense. Appalachian (1-0) had a couple of runs early in the second, but mainly packed the defense in for the final thirty minutes. East Tennessee State (0-1) could only get off eight shots for the game, with none of the shots getting on frame. The win was the first for the Mountaineers in their home opener and gives them their first of what will most likely be many clean sheets on the season. The next home match for the Mountaineers is Sunday, September 2nd at 3pm against UNC-Wilmington.

Appalachian Soccer 4, VMI 0, (Preseason)

Appalachian concluded their preseason slate with a home win over VMI on Monday afternoon. The weather was great for the 1pm kickoff and so was the Mountaineer defense. Although VMI was able to get nine shots off, only one attempt was on frame. Appalachian was also solid in the midfield with decent possession and the passing was crisp. Appalachian totaled fifteen shots with nine on goal, resulting in four finding the back of the net. David Dodge was the man of the match, scoring goals on his only two shots and adding an assist. Appalachian put three goals in the net in a fifteen minute stretch in the second half and cruised with solid defense in the final twenty minutes. Appalachian hosts East Tennessee State Friday, August 24th with kickoff slated for 7pm.

@GoASU Memorable Games 18-19

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 19: Men’s Basketball 93, College of Charleston 81

This game winds up being our second close call in the countdown. We had ranked this game 20th, and hopefully we made up ground on the other competitors. This truly was a great game, as the Men’s Basketball suffered many ups and downs during the season, but defeating a heavily favored Charleston team in the tournament was truly a bright spot. Seniors Ike Butts, Andre Williamson and Omar Carter all had great games in what would become their last win in the black and gold. This game allowed us to move to 5/12 in the challenge.

Game 18: Men’s Soccer 2, Davidson 0

Appalachian got revenge from 3-0 loss eight days later at home in the SoCon Tourney. Two games previous to the Davidson loss in the regular season, Appalachian was sitting atop the SoCon standings with two games to play. A very unfortunate home loss to Wofford and the loss to Davidson knocked Appalachian out of contention and dropped the Mountaineers all the way down to the 5th seed entering the tournament. Knocking Davidson out the tournament in their own backyard was sweet revenge for the loss from only eight days earlier. We did not correctly pick this game in the challenge and we now fall to 5/13.

@GoASU Memorable Games 22-24

Catching up with the GoASU memorable games countdown starting on July 4th.

Game 24: Men’s Soccer 1, Coastal Carolina 0

Without a doubt, this was our best guess of the countdown. We had this game ranked #23. Coastal was not ranked, but had just beaten a ranked team. Shutouts were the key to Appalachian’s season as they totaled ten shutouts on the season. This gives a much needed victory and moves us to 3/7 on the countdown.

Game 23: Softball 7, Western Carolina 3

This was an absolute whiff on our part. How could we forget a walkoff grand slam against Western Carolina? We chose the 3-2 win over Georgia Southern, who was one of the best teams in the conference, at #30 on our countdown. This drops us to 3/8 for the challenge.

Game 22: Men’s Tennis 5, Charleston 2

This was a rather easy game to pick despite us ranking this game at the #29 spot. Charleston has been a leader in SoCon Tennis for years and this was a big win for the Mountaineers.

Almost one third of the way through the challenge, we sit 4/9, which is respectable, as the countdown should get easier the rest of the way. At this point we have appearances from both Tennis, Cross Country and Soccer teams. Field Hockey,Volleyball and Softball have also been represented.