Marshall goes green for conference win over Houston

By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

October 29, 2008 10:38 pm

— HUNTINGTON — The ‘greenout’ turned into a blowout. For Marshall.
A pair of three-game streaks came to an end on a cold, breezy Tuesday night in front of 20,716 mostly green-clad fans at Joan C. Edwards Stadium. Fortunately for the Thundering Herd, that included their three-game losing skid.
“I’m very proud of our football team, I’m proud of our coaches,” Marshall head coach Mark Snyder said. “We had a little three-game skid game going there and I feel like we’ve got our swagger back again.”
Facing one of the most prolific offensive teams in America, it was Marshall putting up the big numbers in a 37-23 Conference USA win over Houston. It was 30-3 and 37-9 before the Cougars tacked on a pair of late scores.
“I thought the kids played extremely hard and extremely well for three quarters, but we still haven’t put four quarters together yet,” Snyder said. “We did put three quarters together tonight against a very good offense and a very good defense.
“I thought the offense played to the defense, I thought the defense played to the offense, and the special teams brought it all together.”
It was a remarkable turnaround for Marshall, which started the season at 3-1, but had lost three straight, including a disappointing loss at Alabama-Birmingham. The other defeats were to Big East foes West Virginia and Cincinnati.
“I said it before and nobody wants to listen to me, but I think West Virginia is a pretty good football team and I think Cincinnati is a pretty good football team,” Snyder said. “We stubbed our toe at UAB and we played well tonight, it’s as simple as that.
“We made too many mistakes at UAB. We still had a chance to win the game as bad as we played. We got rid of those mistakes tonight and that helped us get a win.”
Marshall (4-4, 3-1) moved into first place in the East Division, a half-game ahead of East Carolina, which plays Central Florida on Sunday. The Herd will travel to play the Pirates on Nov. 8.
“It is going to be a real tough matchup, ECU is a good team, but we’ve got six or seven days to prepare for them so we’ll be ready,” said Marshall senior Darius Passmore, who caught three passes for 71 yards, and also ran for 42 yards while lining up at times at quarterback.
Wearing shiny green helmets for the first time since 1985, the Herd exceeded their season average with 406 yards, and also reached a season-high with 37 points. Darius Marshall ran for 102 yards, while Chubb Small added a career-high 81.
“It was big for us, we wanted to come out and establish the running game like we did,” said Marshall quarterback Mark Cann, whose Herd had the ball nearly 15 minutes longer than the high-powered Cougars. “As the game went on the defense kept giving us great field position and kept getting turnovers and that was the key.”
Cann threw touchdown passes to Cody Slate and Emmanuel Spann, and also joined Marshall with scoring runs. Craig Ratanamorn added three field goals. The Herd forced three Houston turnovers, and scored touchdowns off all of them. Maurice Kitchens had an interception and momentum-changing fumble recovery, and Ashton Hall also picked off a pass.
It was fumble recovery that Kitchens will remember. Houston was on the brink of closing to within 16-10 early in the third quarter, but a mishandled handoff inside the Marshall five was scooped up by Kitchens and returned 80 yards. Cann then connected with Spann for the score and the 23-3 lead.
“It’s hard to weigh them, but I would have to say the fumble because they were getting ready to score,” said Kitchens, whose second quarter interception set up Marshall’s first touchdown. He was joined by defensive end Michael Janac with eight tackles apiece.
“We were on the sidelines thinking about how the D-line could change the whole game,” said Janac, whose Herd didn’t have normal starters C.J. Spillman or Ian Hoskins on defense. “We knew we had to out there and make a difference in the game.”
Houston (4-4, 3-1) quarterback Case Keenum, who entered the game averaging 384 passing yards a game, threw for 317 and two touchdowns, but had just 119 at the break and 145 when the Cougars fell behind 30-3 at the 2:52 mark of the third quarter.
The Cougars, which had punted 22 times in seven games, kicked the ball away six times, including on five of their first seven possessions, while seeing their three-game win streak come to an end.
“I thought they did an excellent job defensively,” Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin said. “I thought their plan was good and they did a good job of mixing things.”
While Marshall was sparkling for an ESPN2 audience, Snyder still wasn’t pleased that the Herd didn’t play a complete game. His players sensed the same feelings.
“The locker room wasn’t overly exorbitant because we didn’t play four quarters, that was a good sign, I thought,” Snyder said. “It was a little quiet down there until the end because they know we can still play better.
“We want to put together four quarters, this team is capable of doing that, and hopefully it will come in the next game.”
That next game will be East Carolina, with first place possibly on the line.
“It feels good. It’s just like it was when we came out of the Southern Miss game,” said Snyder of Marshall’s win earlier this season that had the Herd at 2-0 in C-USA’s Eastern Division. “We control our own destiny, we’ve got to take care our ourselves and I’ll be surprised this group doesn’t do that.”
Notes: Houston’s leading receiver Patrick Edwards had surgery on Wednesday for a broken leg suffered when he ran into a service cart that had been left near the back of one of the end zones...A pair of Graham products are on the Marshall roster. Robert Henry is a sophomore tight end, while T.J. Carper is a redshirt freshman defensive back...Marshall improved to 115-15 at home since 1991.
_—Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.