As Troy and Appalachian State prepare to meet for the Sun Belt Conference championship on Saturday at Troy’s Veterans Memorial Stadium, the last meeting between the two teams does not conjure up pleasant memories for anyone around the Trojans program.

The Mountaineers claimed a 32-28 victory on Sept. 17, 2022, in Boone, N.C., a game that ended in particularly gut-wrenching fashion for Troy. App State won on a 53-yard Hail Mary pass from Chase Brice to Christan Horn on the final play in what was Jon Sumrall’s third game as Trojans head coach.

“Yeah, it sucked,” Sumrall said Monday. “I was hurt for our kids, deeply. I’ll never forget it.

“I think sometimes as a coach, you remember some of the losses as much as you do some of the wins sometimes. And for our kids, they had poured so much into the changes we had brought about. We had asked them to do some things that were uncomfortable for them. We were 1-1 going into that game and for 59 minutes and 58 seconds, we played a really good game. Then we didn’t play one play at the end very well.”

The Hail Mary came on fourth-and-10 with two seconds remaining, shortly after Troy had taken an intentional safety to make the score 28-24 with 20 seconds left. Brice threw well short of the end zone on the final play, but the ball caromed back upfield while App State receiver Dalton Stroman and Troy linebacker K.J. Robertson fought for it in the air.

Horn caught the ball on the 7, and outran several Troy defenders — many of whom were out-of-position because they were off-balance or lying on the ground after leaping on the play — to the end zone. One of those was safety Dell Pettus, who tried in vain to beat Horn to the goal line.

“I remember watching the guy catch it and take off to the pylon, to the corner,” Pettus said. “Hey, it happens.”

Trojans defensive lineman A.J. Pierce was watching from the sideline.

“It was terrible, to say the least,” Pierce said. “I could feel a hush over the crowd as the ball was in the air. And then when the ball got batted, I was happy. But then one of their players caught it and I just kind of fell to my knees. Then I got up and went to the locker room.”

What happened in that post-game locker room is now the stuff of Troy football legend. The Trojans fell to 1-2 after that App State game, but did not lose again the remainder of the year.

Troy won 11 consecutive games to finish 2022, winning the Sun Belt Conference championship and the Cure Bowl and winding up ranked in the FBS Top 25 at season’s end for the first time in program history. Sumrall said he simply tried to remind his players in his postgame speech how far they’d come in such a short time, improving dramatically from the team that had three consecutive losing seasons prior to his arrival.

“While we did not get the tangible results of a victory, there was growth and there was change that had occurred,” Sumrall said. “I don’t ever feel good about losing, but I saw growth in a loss, in that moment. Really, what I talked to our team about in that moment was, that loss or that play would not define us — how we responded to it would. And I think you’ve seen our response.”

Indeed, the Trojans not only won 12 straight games (including the 2023 season-opener) following the App State Hail Mary, that success has sustained itself. Troy was also 1-2 after three games (including a close loss to Sun Belt rival James Madison this year), but hasn’t lost since, making them 21-2 since that ill-fated ending 14 months ago in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Pettus said he hasn’t dwelled on that loss, however. Troy coaches wouldn’t allow it.

“One thing we pride ourselves on is moving on and focusing week-by-week,” Pettus said. “It definitely stuck with us, but our coaches last season did a great job of making sure that we moved on and focused about our upcoming opponents. I’m happy that App State won and that we get to play them again in the championship game. Who doesn’t love a good comeback story, a redemption story?”

App State finished first in a Sun Belt East Division left in disarray due to the fact that the best team on that side of the conference — 11-1 JMU — was not eligible for the title game as an FBS transitional program. The Mountaineers are only 8-4 this season, but won five consecutive games to snatch the East title.

Sumrall insists revenge isn’t on his mind, however.

” You worry about what you can control,” Sumrall said. “I don’t go, ‘I want revenge or I want another shot at these guys.’ I just want our guys to play good football and whoever’s in front of us, we’re gonna play them. It just happens to be a team that we have a little bit of history with.

“(App State) is a good football team. … I think they’re a better team by a lot than they were last year, in so many areas. But it is neat to see how we’ve come full circle a little bit in the last two years.”

Pierce, a Dothan native, also used the term “full-circle” about facing App State again. As a sixth-year senior, he’ll play his final game at The Vet on Saturday.

“I couldn’t ask for anything else,” Pierce said. “This is the shot we’ve been waiting for.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference championship game is set for 3 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Troy. The game will air live on ESPN.