Snow time: Mountaineers make most of challenging conditions
Appalachian State had a blast in Saturday’s wintry blast, coming away with a 42-14 victory over Western Illinois in the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Quarterback DeAndre Presley said that he liked playing in the snow, but didn’t say it was easy. The FieldTurf at Kidd Brewer Stadium was covered with a dusting by game time, and it didn’t get any better.
“It’s hard,” Presley said. “Running wise, you’ve got so much snow packed up under your cleats that you can’t really dig into the turf the way you want to. Passing-wise, it was a little difficult, too, but the (interceptions) I threw were just me trying to put it on a line instead of putting more air under it. But it is a lot different than playing when it’s not snowing.”
Presley did make it look easy. He ran for a career-high 264 yards, and the running game turned out to be the preferred method of travel in the slippery conditions
“We all said on the sideline, ‘If it’s going to take running the ball to win the game, we’re going to do it,’” Presley said.
Western Illinois, a team more reliant on passing, struggled. The Mountaineers kept the heat on quarterback Matt Barr, but defensive end Jabari Fletcher said that wasn’t as easy as it might have looked, either.
“When you dig your feet into the ground and get into the three-point stance and get your hand down, you kind of worry about being able to push off and get a good jump off the ball,” Fletcher said. “You know that you may slip. I had to wipe the snow away and kick my shoes a lot. But it was a challenge for everyone, the offensive guys, too.”
Cornerback Demetrius McCray, who had an interception and two breakups in his second start at cornerback, said that snow did help throw off Western Illinois’ timing.
“Conditions helped us out, too, because (their receivers) couldn’t really cut,” McCray said.