WKU stuns No. 24 Marshall 67-66 in OT

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall fans won’t forget Black Friday 2014 anytime soon.

The Herd saw its perfect season slip away when Western Kentucky converted a two-point try in overtime to stun 24th-ranked Marshall 67-66 .

Western Kentucky quarterback Brandon Doughty threw a league-record eight touchdown passes in a game that featured 1,446 yards. The Herd’s Rakeem Cato threw seven touchdowns of his own but was also intercepted four times, which Western Kentucky converted into 28 points.

“We have a great quarterback and some good receivers,” said WKU coach Jeff Brohm. “One thing we like to do on offense is we are going to be wide-open. We’re going to take our shots. We are going to go for the juggler when we get the chance. Our guys like it.”

That chance came on the Hilltoppers’ first possession of overtime. After Marshall scored on a 25-yard catch and run by Hyleck Foster, WKU was quick to respond. Doughty found Jared Dangerfield in the back of the end zone and WKU kept the offense on the field to go for two. Doughty rolled to his left and found Willie McNeal for the game clinching conversion.

“Well we had no doubt,” Doughty said. “We had some confidence going into it. We thought Coach Brohm called the right play. I knew right when we scored (the touchdown) he was going to call it. It was a blessing. God’s done so many things in my life and I can’t thank Him enough.”

Western Kentucky’s 67 points was the most Marshall has allowed in a game and was the fourth time WKU has eclipsed the 50-point mark this season. Its 738 yards of total offense set a school record.

The 67 points was the most points allowed by the Herd since giving up 81 to WVU all the way back in 1923.

“It’s obvious we didn’t get it done out there tonight,” admitted Marshall coach Doc Holliday. “And I thought Western Kentucky came in and played extremely well. I have to give them credit and we didn’t do a very good job of stopping them.”

Marshall never led in the game until it scored on the first possession of overtime. WKU quickly jumped out to a 14-0 less than five minutes into the game. Doughty connected with tight Tyler Higbee for the first of his eight touchdown passes. On Marshall’s first possession, Braden Leston made the first of his two interceptions and set up another Hilltoppers touchdown.

That set the tone for the rest of the day.

Marshall trailed by as much as 21 points in the first half before it clawed back. Joel German’s 9-yard touchdown catch at the 10:37 mark of the second quarter made it 42-21.

Marshall pulled to within a touchdown going into halftime, trailing 49-42 at the break.

By halftime, the teams had statistics normally found at the end of games. WKU had amassed 462 yards of total offense and Doughty had already thrown for 285 yard and six touchdowns. Cato had 246 yards and five touchdowns.

Every time Marshall got close or evened the game, Western Kentucky responded. Marshall tied the game at 49 in the third quarter but another Cato interception set up a 35-yard Doughty touchdown pass. Garrett Schwettman booted a 21-yard field goal and WKU went back in front by 10 in the fourth quarter.

Steward Butler appeared to draw Marshall to within three points on a 1-yard touchdown run but the touchdown was overturned. With the ball resting inches from the goal line, Marshall settled for a short field goal.

“We were down 10 points there and the one thing that couldn’t happen was you couldn’t come away with zero points,” Holliday said. “You have to get points right there and we were able to go down and tie it up at the end. I think the situation right there you just couldn’t take that chance and come away with nothing because you had to score twice to get it to overtime.”

The Herd got a defensive stop on the ensuing series and gave the offense a chance to tie the game.

Cato marched the Herd down the field capping off a 12-play drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Eric Frohnapfel to force overtime.

“The bottom line is we have to put this behind us because we are playing for a championship next week,” said Holliday. “We have to do a good job; the leadership on this football team has to do a tremendous job of putting this game behind us and moving on to whomever we happen to play next week, because there still is the ultimate goal to win a championship. We still have that out there for us.”





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