Central Michigan University Athletics
Central Michigan University
Marshall
Marshall Tops the Chippewas, 42-21
10/20/2001 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 20, 2001
HUNTINGTON, W.VA. -- The Central Michigan football team (2-4, 1-3 Mid-American) was the first and last team to score but the Marshall Thundering Herd racked up 42 points in between Chippewa scoring drives.
The Herd doubled the Chippewas' efforts, 42-21, in MAC action in Huntington, W.VA., on Saturday evening.
CMU amassed 483 yards of total offense with 261 yards coming from the rushing game. Terrence Jackson led the ground assault for the third straight week. He had 27 touches and ran for 107 yards and one TD. Kenan Lawhorne wasn't far behind on his 14 carries. He managed to scamper for another 100 yards of offense. Quarterback Derrick Vickers led the air attack with 178 yards on 14-of-31 and one score. Rob Turner and Roderick Means were the top two targets for Vickers. Turner had three catches for 74 yards and Means had 38 yards on four catches.
The Herd would not be outdone. They tapped the Chippewa defense for an impressive 647 yards of total offense. Marshall quarterback, Byron Leftwich, accounted for 471 of those yards on 30-of-44 passing and three scores. The team's 484 total yards passing are the most passing yards allowed by the Chippewas. Eastern Michigan's 450 yards passing in 1996 was the old mark.
CMU put up the first seven points in the first quarter when Vickers capped an eight-play, 73-yard drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tory Humphrey. It was Humphrey's third score on the season.
However, the Chippewas would need more than a seven-point lead to keep pace with the potent Marshall offense. The Herd's answer to CMU's touchdown was six straight scores of their own.
Leftwich, engineered two scoring drives in the second quarter to wrangle the lead away from the Chippewas. He drove the Herd 91 yards before Franklin Wallace knotted the game at seven with a six-yard touchdown scamper. Leftwich found the end zone on the very next possession when his 16-yard pass found Denero Marriott for pay dirt.
Marshall sat on a one-touchdown lead at the half, 14-7.
The Herd built on their lead by adding four touchdowns to their first-half showing. Leftwich threw for two more scores in the third, a 47-yard pass that found Darius Watts and an 86-yard toss to Josh Davis. Wallace also repeated his second-quarter heroics with another six-yard scoring run. Marshall had the commanding 35-7 lead going into the final stanza.
Brandon Carey's one-yard run in the fourth ended Marshall's 42-point scoring rush and CMU looked to mount a comeback. With 5:11 remaining in the game, Jackson would find the end zone on a two-yard run that sealed an 11-play, 84-yard drive. The Chippewas put the last seven point on the board as time expired in the game. Derek Gorney stepped in at QB and drove the Chippewas 66 yards in six plays and threw for his second touchdown of the season. As the clock hit double zero, Dante McKnight caught his first career touchdown.
The Chippewas return home next Saturday, Oct. 27, when they host West Division rival Northern Illinois. Kickoff in Kelly/Shorts Stadium is set for 1 p.m.
