French threw for a season-high 352 yards, Georgia Southern holds off Appalachian State 25-23

BOONE, N.C. (AP) — JC French IV threw for a season-high 352 yards and Georgia Southern held off Appalachian State 25-23 on Thursday night.

Appalachian State trailed 22-3 midway through the third quarter before AJ Swan threw a short-yardage TD pass, and then Jaquari Lewis broke loose on a 27-yard touchdown run early in the fourth that made it 22-16.

Swan's 16-yard touchdown pass to Jaden Barnes capped an 11-play, 66-yard drive that ended the scoring with 1:56 remaining. The Eagles later converted on second-and-6 to help run out the clock.

French was 25-of-37 passing and surpassed 2,000 yards for the season. He threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Sanders Jr. on the third play from scrimmage and scored on a 3-yard run that gave the Eagles a 16-0 lead midway through the second quarter. Sanders finished with six catches for 127 yards.

OJ Arnold had 105 yards rushing on 20 carries for Georgia Southern (4-5, 2-3 Sun Belt Conference). Camden Brown had six receptions for 97 yards. Tripp Bryant made a career-high 4 of 5 field goals for the Eagles.

Swann completed 34 of 51 passes for 348 yards and threw an interception for Appalachian State (4-5, 1-4). Barnes caught 13 passes for 160 yards.

_

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football