Appalachian State defeated Wake Forest 40-11 on Saturday in Charlotte, knocking the Demon Deacons to third place in the conference and leaving them out of the South playoffs for the first time in four years.
Appalachian State started the match by capitalizing on two key miscues by Wake, a knock-on from the opening kickoff and a ball kicked directly into touch from the base of a scrum. The Mountaineers turned both mistakes into converted tries and ten minutes in they led 14-0. Wake settled down and the remainder of the first half was played in ASU's end of the field. But impressive defense from the Mountaineers loose forwards and centers kept Wake out of the tryzone and limited the Demon Deaocns to two penaly goals from wing Perry Salvagne. Trailing 14-6 at the half, the momentum was clearly with Wake Forest.
The second half started the same as the first, with Appalachian jumping on untimely Wake errors and running in two more quick tries to extend their lead to 26-6. Wake Forest regrouped and a nice run of play resulted in a try by Kenton Forte to cut the lead to 26-11 with 15 minutes to play. But Appalachian State continued the pressure and ran in two more converted tries to finish out the game and clinch the #1 seed from the conference to the South playoffs.
Meanwhile, in Raleigh, East Carolina rebounded from their loss to ASU last week with a convincing 53-0 win over North Carolina State to secure the #2 seed to the playoffs.
Wake Forest will be in action next weekend against UNC-Greensboro. The match will be the featured game during the Wake Forest High School Rugby Showcase and Wake Forest will be honoring its departing seniors prior to the match. Kickoff will be at 1pm.
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