Coastal Carolina achieved a solid 38-24 victory over Appalachian State in a Thursday night football game, driven by Braydon Bennett’s impressive performance of three rushing touchdowns, alongside Ethan Vasko, who contributed two touchdowns of his own.

Bennett’s pivotal 2-yard touchdown run concluded a comprehensive 17-play drive covering 87 yards, which consumed 8:42 on the clock during the third quarter. Shortly after, AJ Williams intercepted a pass from Joey Aguilar, returning it 35 yards to set up a scoring opportunity at the 1-yard line of Appalachian State. Just two plays later, Vasko powered through to extend Coastal Carolina’s lead to 31-10.

In terms of statistics, Bennett led the team with 88 rushing yards on nine carries, scoring earlier in the game on runs of 12 and 37 yards. Vasko completed the match with 150 passing yards and 52 rushing yards, including a final 6-yard touchdown pass to Jameson Tucker with only 2:26 remaining on the clock.

On the other side, Ahmani Marshall stood out for Appalachian State, rushing for 124 yards on 28 carries, and he found the end zone twice. Quarterback Joey Aguilar had a mixed performance, completing 17 of his 31 passes for a total of 226 yards, but also tossed two interceptions along with a successful 25-yard touchdown pass to Kaedin Robinson with just 1:40 left in the game.

Overall, Coastal Carolina improved its record to 5-4 with a 2-3 standing in the Sun Belt Conference, while Appalachian State fell to 4-5, holding a 2-4 record in conference play.