Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell / Photo Gallery

CHATTANOOGA, TN -- The University of Delaware football team ended its magical playoff run with a tough 49-21 loss to No. 5 Appalachian State as the Mountaineers captured their unprecedented third straight NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision title at Finley Stadium on Friday night.

Senior quarterback Joe Flacco (at right) finished the game with 336 yards and one touchdown while Omar Cuff added 83 yards and a score on the ground, but it was not enough to overcome the potent Appalachian State offense, which racked up 556 yards of total offense on the way to its eighth straight victory.

No. 13 Delaware, one of five Colonial Athletic Association teams to advance to the NCAA Tournament, ended a storybook season that saw the Hens fall behind 10-0 in the first quarter in their previous two playoff games, only to rally for road wins over top five ranked teams.

The Blue Hens ended the season with a record of 11-4, marking the eighth time in school history that the team had won that many games. Delaware was also making its second championship game appearance in the last five seasons, having defeated Colgate 40-0 in the 2003 title game.

“We lost to a great football team today,” said Delaware head coach K.C. Keeler, who lost for just the second time in 10 NCAA post-season appearances since taking over the helm of the Blue Hens in 2002. “We didn’t make some plays early and that put us behind, and things just steamrolled from there. Whatever went wrong for us tonight was because of Appalachian State. Give them all the credit, they are a deserving national champion. I’m disappointed we didn’t convert early but so much was about how they played.”

“We weren’t so fortunate early on,” said Flacco. “They jumped ahead pretty quickly. They are good. Things didn’t go well early. It was tough to fight back from that and they wouldn’t let it happen.”

Appalachian State, which opened its season with a victory at Michigan that shocked the college football world, became the first team in FCS history to win three straight national titles. The Mountaineers, the Southern Conference co-champions, improved to 13-2. Sophomore quarterback Armanti Edwards threw for 198 yards and three touchdowns and added 89 more yards on the ground and senior running back Kevin Richardson also had 118 yards rushing and scored three touchdowns on the night.

The game was played before a sellout crowd of 23,010, which also set a new Finley Stadium record, breaking the previous mark of 22,808 set in last year’s championship game when the Mountaineers knocked off Delaware’s CAA rival Massachusetts.

Delaware won each of its previous two playoff games after falling behind 10-0 in the first quarter, rallying for a 39-27 win over top-ranked Northern Iowa in the quarterfinals Dec. 1 and for a 20-17 win over No. 5 Southern Illinois in Carbondale last Saturday.

This time there would be no big comebacks for the Hens as Appalachian State jumped out to a 21-0 lead and never looked back as Delaware never got closer than two touchdowns the rest of the way.

Edwards hit Richardson on a 19-yard scoring pass on a screen play just four minutes into the contest, Devon Moore broke loose on a 46-yard scoring jaunt up the middle late in the opening stanza, and Daniel Kilgore fell on a Richardson fumble in the end zone for a touchdown early in the second half to give ASU the 21-0 advantage.

Delaware suffered a big setback on its second possession of the game as the Hens drove 70 yards to the ASU one-yard line and appeared to have tied the game when Cuff scored on a one-yard dive with 5:41 left in the first quarter. But the call was reversed by officials after video review. Cuff was then stopped for no gain and Flacco’s fourth down pass went incomplete, giving the ball back to Mountaineers. ASU then drove 99 yards for its third touchdowns.

The Hens finally got on the board when Flacco hit Mark Duncan on a nifty 39-yard scoring pass with 1:10 left in the half. Duncan caught the ball in traffic and barely got one foot inbounds for the touchdown.

But the momentum was short-lived for the Blue Hens as Appalachian State came right back to take a 28-7 lead into the break as the Mountaineers went 72 yards on just two plays as Edwards hooked up with Dexter Jackson on a 60-yard scoring bomb. Jackson got open when Delaware backup cornerback Marvin McKinnie stumbled just before the ball arrived to Jackson.

With just 39 seconds remaining in the first half, Delaware drove 45 yards down to the Appalachian 28-yard line but were unable to put any points on the board as Flacco’s final pass of the half to Aaron Love fell incomplete at the goal-line.

Appalachian State upped the lead to 35-7 late in the third quarter when Richardson scored his third touchdown of the game on an eight-yard toss from Edwards, but the Hens came back with a one-yard dive by Cuff with 54 seconds left to cut the lead to 35-14.

Cuff, who was held under 100 yards for the first time in six career post-season games, scored his 39th touchdown of the season, tying the all-time NCAA Division I mark for total touchdowns in a season set by Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State in 1998.

Cuff finished the season with UD single season records of 1,945 yards, 35 rushing touchdowns, and 39 total touchdowns. He also set UD career records for touchdowns in a career (73) and rushing touchdowns in a career (65) and his 4,364 rushing yards ranks No. 2 all-time at Delaware.

The Mountaineers then put things away as Richardson scored on a six-yard dive with 6:02 left for a 42-14 lead and backup quarterback Trey Elder raced 53 yards for another touchdown with 3:29 remaining for a 49-14 advantage.

Delaware wrapped up the scoring when Mark Duncan returned the ensuing kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown, marking the first kickoff return for a touchdown by the Blue Hens since Sidney Haugabrook returned one vs. Villanova in 2004.

Flacco, a strong National Football League prospect who is expected to be selected in the first three round of the draft next spring, capped a brilliant season and career for the Blue Hens. He ended the season by completing 331 of 521 passes for a school-record 4,263 yards and 23 touchdowns. He also established school career records with 595 completions and 11 300-yard passing games. He threw for over 200 yards 13 times during the 2007 campaign.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Keeler of a season that ended in a berth in the national championship game after going 5-6 the year before. “This loss doesn’t change the way I feel about this team and these guys. It was a great season. We overcame a lot of obstacles to get here and it was a great season.”

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