BOONE, N.C. – For most of the first quarter, the 2019 Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game looked like a romp for the home team.
 
Appalachian State's 21st-ranked Mountaineers didn't have to breathe hard in scoring three early touchdowns in a span of just over 13 minutes. Not that much later, App State had a 35-14 lead late in the second quarter and had scored touchdowns on five straight possessions against Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns.
 
"It was 21-0 before you could look around," said Louisiana head coach Billy Napier.
 
Two quarters later, the host Mountaineers were fighting for their lives and had to survive an onside kick attempt in the final 80 seconds to hold on for a 45-38 victory in the win in the league's second Football Championship Game.
 
Seven-point underdog Louisiana was down 42-17 with less than six minutes left in the third quarter and 45-24 with 8:12 remaining, before the Ragin' Cajuns scored two touchdowns in less than three minutes down the stretch.
 
Louisiana junior quarterback Levi Lewis threw the fourth of his career-high four touchdown passes with 1:19 left, finding freshman Peter LeBlanc over the middle to make it a one-score game for the first time since the opening five minutes. But a following onside kick went out of bounds and the Mountaineers were able to kneel on the ball and wrap up the Sun Belt's first-ever 12-win season.
 
"Tip of the hat to Louisiana," said first-year App State head coach Eliah Drinkwitz. "They kept fighting and made it a game at the end."
 
"We just dug too deep a hole," Napier said. "After it was 21-0, I was proud from that point forward."
 
The Mountaineers (12-1, 7-1 Sun Belt) held that three-touchdown lead with 4:13 left in the first half thanks to two touchdown passes from quarterback Zac Thomas to running back and championship game Most Valuable Player Darrynton Evans, and scoring runs from Evans, Marcus Williams and Daetrich Harrington.
 
From that point on, App State managed only a defensive touchdown on Josh Thomas' interception return midway through the third quarter, and a 35-yard field goal from Chandler Staton with 8:12 left.
"Offensively, we didn't do too much in the second half," said Drinkwitz, whose team had only 22 offensive yards in the third quarter. "So for us to get those seven points on the board with Josh was awesome. He's been a great player all year long, and for him to get that pick six was special for our football team."
 
The visiting Ragin' Cajuns (10-3, 7-1) rallied back on the arm of Lewis, who threw for a career-high 354 yards and the four scores. The early deficit put pressure on Louisiana's throwing game, after the Cajuns entered the game ranked sixth nationally in team rushing.
 
"It was just the fact that we wanted to start off fast and we didn't," Lewis said. "We can't leave the defense out there that much. We have to capitalize, and we just weren't at our best when it mattered early. It bit us in the butt when it came down to it."
 
Appalachian State, which had taken a 30-19 win over Louisiana in last year's inaugural title game also played at Kidd Brewer Stadium, has won all eight games in the all-time series with the Ragin' Cajuns. The Mountaineers took a 17-7 win over UL on Oct. 9 in Lafayette in handing the Cajuns their only conference loss – a win which eventually gave App State the tiebreaker in hosting the title game.
 
"The first time we played them we were a few seconds away from hitting many big plays," said redshirt senior quarterback Zac Thomas, who finished with 149 throwing yards and the two scores to Evans. "We weren't maintaining blocks for literally a second. That was our main focus as we went on through the week. We knew if we maintained the blocks, something was going to hit regardless. Our O-line did a heck of a job."
 
Evans, named the game's Most Valuable Player for the second-straight year, provided the game's first three scores, all in the first 14 minutes. He caught a pass in the flat on a third-and-15 and took it 58 yards for a touchdown only 1:58 into the game, capping the Mountaineers' six-play drive with the opening kickoff.
 
Lewis fumbled on Louisiana's third play from scrimmage when defensive tackle E. J. Scott forced and recovered the fumble at the Cajun 47, and the Mountaineers made it 14-0 five plays later on Evans' eight-yard burst over right tackle. Then, after forcing a Cajun punt, App State went on a 14-play, 76-yard drive that Thomas capped with a five-yard scrambling pass to Evans with 1:43 left in the first period to make it 21-0.
 
"I knew before the game that it was probably the shortest and best pregame speech I've ever given," Drinkwitz said. "These guys were raring to go, and they knew what it was going to take. They started fast."
 
The Mountaineers got a 29-yard scoring burst from Williams and a 25-yard touchdown run from Harrington in the second quarter, and had 348 yards on those five offensive drives.
 
"We didn't fit the run very well in the first half," Napier said of his team's defense, which entered the title game ranked 11th nationally in scoring defense (17.8 points per game). "It wasn't necessarily big play passes, it was more normal run fits where one player makes a mistake. They (App State) challenge your gap integrity with the stretch play and the zone play, and we didn't fit it well. The ball got to the second level quite a bit."
 
Lewis got Louisiana on the board with a 37-yard touchdown pass to LeBlanc 25 seconds before the end of the first period, and then hit Elijah Mitchell for the first of his two touchdowns on a one-yard scoring pass with 8:13 left in the half that made it 28-14. After Harrington's scoring run, Louisiana's Stevie Artigue hit a career-long 53-yard field goal on the next-to-last play of the first half to cut the difference to 35-17.
 
Louisiana outgained the Mountaineers 225-63 in the second half, but App State got the biggest defensive play when Thomas picked off Lewis' over-the-middle pass and returned it 16 yards to provide a seemingly safe 42-17 advantage with 5:57 left in the third quarter.
 
"I was over-aggressive to just try and get us back in the game," Lewis said. "I should have put it behind or a bit more over the top."
 
Lewis did come back to lead an eight-play drive that resulted in a two-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Marcus Bradley just over three-minutes later, and after Staton's field goal the Ragin' Cajuns made it interesting for the 18,618 mostly App State fans in attendance.
 
Lewis threw for 66 yards in a 76-yard march that set up Mitchell's one-yard touchdown burst with 4:18 left, and after Thomas threw incomplete on fourth down in Cajun territory with 2:28 left, UL went 64 yards on six plays and Lewis hit LeBlanc on a crossing pattern with 1:19 left to make it a one-score game.
 
The Cajuns outgained the Mountaineers 513-416, their fourth 500-yard offensive effort in their last five games, and had 31 first downs to App State's 20. But Louisiana hurt itself with three turnovers including two in the second half including the touchdown return. Appalachian State's only turnover came late in the third quarter when Thomas was hit and fumbled and the Cajuns got possession at the Mountaineer 10. However, an intentional grounding penalty moved the Cajuns back and Artigue was short on a 52-yard field goal attempt with 1:01 left in the third period.
 
"It all comes down to situational football, winning third downs and executing well under pressure," said Drinkwitz, whose team was 5-of-13 on third down and 2-of-3 on fourth down. "On each of those early drives we had long third down conversions. Darrynton's first touchdown was a third-and-15. Then we did a great job in the red zone. Those situations show up in the game, and that's why we won."
 
The win gave App State a Sun Belt title for the fourth straight year (regular-season in 2016-17 before the league inaugurated the championship game last season. Only one team in the country in the FBS is Clemson, which won a fifth straight ACC title Saturday against Virginia.
 
"Championships never go on sale," Drinkwitz said. "If we were going to repeat as champions, we had to put in the same amount of work, same amount of effort that we had in the past. We had some times where we absolutely stunk, but they stayed the course. This is as special a team as I've ever been associated with, and I've been a part of some special football teams."


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