MOSCOW — The Idaho Vandals did just about everything right in the first half of Saturday’s Sun Belt Conference football game at home vs. Appalachian State.

Then came the second half.

Appalachian State, blanked in the first half, scored 23 points in the second half — all in the final 23 minutes — to stun the Vandals 23-20 before 10,168 at the Kibbie Dome.

Idaho (2-4, 1-2 Sun Belt) led 17-0 at halftime, but was held to 57 yards of total offense in the second half and suffered a second-straight gut puncher of a loss at home.

Last week, the Vandals fell 21-16 to Louisiana-Lafayette.

“That’s two weeks in a row we’ve lost a game right at the end and that’s hard to take,” Idaho coach Paul Petrino said. “There’s two different ways to look at it. We didn’t play good enough to win at the end, or you can look at it that we overachieved to be there right at the end.”

The Mountaineers (4-2, 3-0) took their first lead of the game at 23-20 on a 31-yard field goal with 7:24 remaining.

Idaho had the ball in the red zone with under four minutes to play, but a third-down fumble by quarterback Matt Linehan ended the scoring threat. The possession came after Cade Coffey, a redshirt freshman from Lakeland High, boomed a career-long 68-yard punt down to the 1-yard line to flip the field. Idaho’s defense forced a three-and-out, followed by a 10-yard punt.

The Vandals limited the Mountaineers to a season-low 276 yards of total offense, 145 yards below their season average. The defensive effort included 12 tackles for loss. Junior linebacker Tony Lashley recorded 3.5 tackles for loss, among his career-best 16 tackles.

“It’s a hard one take,” Petrino said. “We put in a lot of time. We worked hard on (Appalachian State) both in spring ball and in fall camp. I thought we had a good plan. I thought we were executing it well. Our guys came out and battled their hearts out. We played well for the first half and probably the first five minutes of the second half. Then we just didn’t play good enough. Bottom line, we didn’t coach good enough and we didn’t play good enough.”

Idaho held Appalachian State to fewer than 20 yards on 12 of its 15 possessions. The other three drives resulted in touchdowns, coming on consecutive possessions spanning the third and fourth quarters. All three touchdowns came through the air. The first was a 45-yard touchdown from Taylor Lamb to Ike Lewis. The game-tying score with 10:04 remaining was a 38-yard connection from Lamb to Lewis. The Vandals had allowed three total passes of 30-plus yards through the first five games of the season.

The Vandals were led by Aaron Duckworth, who ran for 113 yards on 21 carries. It was Duckworth’s second 100-yard rushing game of the season and fourth of his career. He had 97 yards at halftime, helping to set up two touchdowns and a field goal in the second quarter.

Linehan was 12 for 19 for 159 yards and two touchdowns at intermission. Linehan hit Alfonso Onunwor for a 20-yard score to take a 10-0 lead. He found Joe Wysocki on a 5-yard touchdown with nine seconds left before halftime, giving the Vandals a 17-0 advantage.

Coffey finished 2 for 3 on field goal attempts and averaged 46.5 yards per punt on six kicks. He missed his first field goal of the game from 37 yards, but converted from 28 yards in the second quarter and 23 in the third to make it 20-0.

“We need to finish better,” Duckworth said. “They made adjustments and so did we. But that’s not excuse. We just need to finish harder.”

Kaden Elliss blocked the extra-point attempt following Appalachian State’s second touchdown to keep it a seven-point game. It was the first blocked kick of Elliss’ career.

App. St. 0 0 7 16 — 23

Idaho 0 17 3 0 — 20

Second Quarter

IDA—FG Coffey 28, 10:22

IDA—Onunwor 20 pass from Ma.Linehan (Coffey kick), 5:24

IDA—Wysocki 5 pass from Ma.Linehan (Coffey kick), :09

Third Quarter

IDA—FG Coffey 23, 11:28

APP—Lewis 38 pass from Lamb (Rubino kick), 7:59

Fourth Quarter

APP—Reed 6 pass from Lamb (kick failed), 13:23

APP—Lewis 45 pass from Lamb (Rubino kick), 10:04

APP—FG Rubino 31, 7:24

A—10,168.

APP IDA

First downs 14 14

Rushes-yards 38-121 36-112

Passing 155 200

Comp-Att-Int 19-26-1 15-28-0

Return Yards 19 55

Punts-Avg. 7-32.57 6-46.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 2-2

Penalties-Yards 0-0 7-60

Time of Possession 30:22 29:38

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Appalachian St., J.Moore 17-49, Lamb 8-44, Upshaw 11-31, (Team) 2-(minus 3). Idaho, Duckworth 21-113, Saunders 5-21, Henderson 1-1, Ma.Linehan 9-(minus 23).

PASSING—Appalachian St., Lamb 19-26-1-155. Idaho, Ma.Linehan 15-28-0-200.

RECEIVING—Appalachian St., Lewis 6-101, Hennigan 5-26, Watkins 3-4, Mal.Williams 2-14, Virgil 1-6, Reed 1-6, J.Moore 1-(minus 2). Idaho, Onunwor 6-85, Sannon 3-30, Mwehla 2-70, Wysocki 2-11, Duckworth 1-5, Thigpen 1-(minus 1).

MISSED FIELD GOALS—Idaho, Coffey 37.