Marshall vs Ohio State recap

 By Ben Anderson

   Marshall football put early pressure on Ohio State Saturday, but it was not enough as the Herd suffered its second straight loss 49-14. 

    Marshall struck first on the game’s opening drive as the Herd drove 75 yards on 13 plays that took nearly seven minutes of the first quarter. The drive concluded with a 2-yard touchdown run from Ethan Payne to give Marshall a 7-0 lead and their only lead of the game.

    The opening drive score was the pressure that Marshall head football coach Charles Huff wanted to put on the Buckeyes early in the game.

    “I thought the biggest play, was we were down there on the goal line and we punched it in.” Huff said during his postgame news conference. “That’s a man’s yard down on the goal line. And I thought offensively, we were a lot more efficient today.” 

    Ohio State responded on their opening possession by going 70 yards on 2 plays to tie the game at 7-7. 

    The game’s momentum shifted towards Ohio State in the second quarter as Marshall originally recovered an Ohio State muffed punt inside the 10-yard line, but the play was called back as Marshall was penalized for illegal formation for having 5 men in the backfield. Ohio State’s Quinshon Jenkins had his lone scoring play on an 80-yard touchdown run on the next play to give Ohio State a 21-7 lead.

    “He was just off the ball in his alignment, just so happened that was the one that (they) muffed it. Huff said. “That’s why you have to play the game for a full 60 minutes, because you never know when an opportunity is gonna come up.”

    Marshall answered back, as starting quarterback Stone Earle connected with Elijah Metcalf on a 13-yard touchdown pass in the back of the endzone to cut the deficit to 28-14 at halftime. 

    Ohio State collected more than 500 yards of total offense, including 4 scoring plays of 40-plus yards, to overcome an early deficit and run away in the second half. 

    “Some really good football players over there.” Huff said. “I thought the guys battled 60 minutes, (Ohio State) wore us down a little bit in the second half, but I thought we showed when we do what we need to do (and control) the things we need to control, we can play with anyone in the country.”

    Marshall tallied 264 yards of total offense, most of the yardage coming in the first half as the Thundering Herd scored two touchdowns and became the first Ohio State opponent this season to find the endzone.

    Earle finished the game for Marshall and went 16-21 in the air for a season-high 132 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game in the second half with an injury.

    The game marked the second time this season that Marshall had all three of its quarterbacks play. Braylon Braxton replaced Stone Earle after his exit and was later replaced himself by Cole Pennington when he rolled his ankle. 

    “That kind of really put us in a different situation.” Huff said. They were able to score back to back, so it kind of changes the mindset a little bit. They banged us up pretty good. Hopefully, we can get back to Huntington, and some of these guys are ready to go next week, but we started going down pretty quickly in the second half.”

    Marshall’s offense gained 61 yards of total offense in the second half and threw the ball 6 times. 

    Marshall returns home to Joan C. Edwards stadium Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against the Western Michigan Broncos.