Troy Drops Heartbreaker on Hail Mary at App State

Saturday, September 17

Boone, N.C.

2:30 p.m.

Troy University

1-2 , 0-1

App State

2-1 , 1-0

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Troy

App State

Troy Drops Heartbreaker on Hail Mary at App State

9/17/2022 7:20:00 PM | Football

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

BOONE, N.C. – Christian Horn caught a tipped ball at the 5-yard line and scored on a Hail Mary 53-yard touchdown pass from Chase Brice as App State stunned Troy, 32-28, in front of a sold-out crowd at Kidd-Brewer Stadium Saturday in the Sun Belt opener for both teams.

Leading 28-24, Troy (1-2, 0-1 SBC) forced App (2-1, 1-0) to turn the ball over on downs with 1:44 to play in the ball game on the Trojan 2-yard line. Armed with two timeouts, App State forced Troy into a 4th-and-1 spot with 25 seconds remaining. The Trojans elected to take the safety and free kick to the Mountaineers with 20 seconds remaining.

Brice's first three attempts fell incomplete before his miracle heavy with two seconds remaining in the game. The victory comes one week after App State knocked off No. 6 Texas A&M and hours after the campus hosted College GameDay.

Kimani Vidal put the Trojans in front, 28-24, with 10:10 to play in the game as he capped a 12-play, 79-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown run, his first of the season and Troy's fourth rushing score of the game.

App's ensuing drive lasted 17 plays and covered 73 yards and 8:57 before Reddy Steward broke up Brice's attempt in the end zone.

Gunnar Watson completed 23-of-37 passes for 302 yards and rushed for a pair of scores as well. DK Billingsley put the Trojans on the board with a 19-yard touchdown midway through the first quarter; it was his first touchdown since 2020.

Troy took a 21-14 lead into the half after Troy head coach Jon Sumrall threw his cards on the table and went for it from the 1-yard line with just three seconds to play. Watson cashed in on the decision with the second of his two scores.

App scored all 10 points in the third quarter to grab a 24-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter before Vidal's go-ahead score.

Up Next
The road doesn't get any easier for Troy as it plays host to Marshall next Saturday in The Vet; the Thundering Herd are fresh off a win at No. 8 Notre Dame last weekend. The game will be televised on NFL Network.

Quotable – Head Coach Jon Sumrall
"I'm hurt for our guys. They battled, they competed, they've come a long way, they did everything we asked them to do. I'm hurt for them, I wish there was something I could do for them right now. We have to pick ourselves off the mat. We gave them everything we had, and we came up short. We could have executed better at the end, but that's on me."

Notable
• Left tackle Austin Stidham started his team-leading 51st career game, while linebacker Carlton Martial saw his team-leading 42-game consecutive start streak snapped; he did not play in the game. It was Martial's first missed game since Oct. 4, 2018, against Georgia State.

• Troy's extended its non-shutout streak to 97 games and 192 games against Non-Power Five teams; the last time Troy was shutout was a 66-0 loss at Georgia in 2014.

• Gunnar Watson is the first Troy quarterback since Kaleb Barker against ULM on Sept. 22, 2018, to rush for two touchdowns in a game.

• Gunnar Watson moved into seventh place all-time in Troy history with 4,816 career passing yards.

• Mike Rivers averaged 50 yards on his two punts; he entered the weekend ranked 11th nationally, averaging 46.2 yards per attempt.