The college football masses descended upon Bank of America Stadium for the Duke’s Mayo Classic on Thursday night, bearing witness to a decisive victory as Appalachian State took East Carolina to the woodshed early and coasted late, 33-19.
Both squads came out and exhibited some expected debut jitters before getting into a groove fairly quickly. Pirates QB Holton Ahlers found his freshman tailback Keaton Mitchell on a 63-yard screen pass where he simply outran the defense into the endzone, before Appalachian’s newly acquired gunslinger Chase Brice found veteran target Thomas Hennigan on a 34-yard dime on the next possession to take a 7-6 lead, thanks to ECU’s missed PAT.