— By David Walsh
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte got the biggest win in its brief football history Saturday and it came at the expense of Marshall University.
The 49ers, down 10-0 at one point, came back to defeat the Thundering Herd, 24-13, in front of 10,526 fans at rain-soaked Richard Stadium to become bowl eligible for the first time. For Marshall, it no longer controls its own destiny in the Conference USA East Division.
Dual threat quarterback Chris Reynolds threw for 166 yards and a score and ran for 145 yards and a score to propel the 49ers to their third comeback win in C-USA and program-first four-game league win streak.
Charlotte is 6-5 overall (most in school history), 4-3 in the C-USA and closes out the regular season next Saturday at Old Dominion.
Marshall had its five-game win streak snapped and now Florida Atlantic is in control for the top spot in the C-USA East. The Owls, who lost at home to the Herd earlier, won at UTSA and are home next week against Southern Miss. A win in that game and they host the league championship game with a 7-1 league mark.
The Herd has a noon date against FIU at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
“We didn’t play well offensively at all,” Herd coach Doc Holliday said. “They got it going, we didn’t. It was the same elements on both sides. They handled it better than we did.”
Charlotte had 422 total yards (256 rush, 166 pass) to 230 (144 rush, 86 pass) for the Herd. Charlotte entered the game No. 1 in rushing in the league and Marshall No. 2.
“We couldn’t get the quarterback on the ground,” Holliday said of Reynolds.
Marshall took a 10-0 lead when Joseph Davis ran 16 yards with a blocked punt by Darius Hodge. Justin Rohrwasser added a 31-yard field goal. Marshall had won 12 straight games when scoring first.
Reynolds connected with Victor Davis for a 15-yard TD with 4:25 left in the second period. The 49ers had one more chance to score, but Jonathan Cruz missed a 39-yard field goal on the last play of the half.
In the second half, Cruz hit from 23 yards to tie the game, but Rohrwasser nailed one of 31 yards again to put the Herd back on top, 13-10, with 4:22 left in the third.
Early in the fourth, Reynolds had several big runs to spark the go-ahead drive. He had carries of 10, 12, 17 and 11 for first down at the 20. A pass interference call in the end zone gave the 49ers first down at the 5. Tucker ran 5 yards on a jet sweep for the home side’s first lead with 10:47 to play.
With just over 7 minutes left, Green suffered his second interception and Reynolds and Benny Lemay, who had missed the last two games with an injured ankle but returned for Senior Day, sparked Charlotte to its final score. The score came on a 25-yard toss from Reynolds to Tucker on fourth down and 48 seconds left.
“We gave them too many gifts,” said defensive back Nazeeh Johnson, who had a pick for the Herd.
Knox, who is over 1,000 yards for the season, said the Herd just couldn’t find the right combinations.
“We could not get in a good groove early like we’ve done in the past,” Knox said. “We had a tough time opening things up on offense.”
Charlotte ran 73 plays to 52 for the Herd. The 49ers had a combined 18 snaps on their final two TDs taking four minutes off the clock on one and 5:36 on the other.