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Oct. 23, 1999 SportsLine wire reports |
AMHERST, N.Y. -- There was no question No. 15 Marshall would beat
winless Buffalo on Saturday. The question was by how much.
Marshall answered that one early: A lot.
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Game summary T O P N E W S
Chad Pennington completed 20 of 25 passes for 339 yards and five touchdowns in less than three quarters as the Thundering Herd rolled to a 59-3 victory over Buffalo.
Pennington, who came up limping slightly after a keeper early in the third quarter, left the game with 6:22 left in the quarter.
"I'm all right," said Pennington, who hurt his shin. "Just got to walk it off."
Ranked fourth in the nation in total offense with 328.5 yards per game and second in passing efficiency, Pennington was 13-of-17 for 263 yards and three touchdowns as Marshall (7-0, 4-0 Mid-American) built a 38-3 halftime lead.
Pennington became the sixth player in NCAA history to throw 100 touchdown passes with a 5-yard toss to John Cooper for a 52-3 lead in the third quarter.
It could have been worse, but Marshall elected to pull its starters.
"We're not into running up the score," Pennington said. "At halftime, I knew I was going to have two more possessions, and that was it."
As good as they were, Saturday's numbers were not even the best for Pennington, Marshall's career leader with 11,655 yards passing. He threw for 406 yards in a 34-0 victory over Temple on Sept. 25, and his five touchdown passes against Buffalo (0-7, 0-6) fell one short of his school record set in 1997 against Ball State.
The margin wasn't the greatest of the season for Marshall, which routed Liberty 63-3 after opening with a 13-10 victory over Clemson. The Thundering Herd has scored 272 points and allowed only 59.
The game was far out of reach by the half for Buffalo, which moved up to Division I-A this season. The Bulls' only points came on Scott Keller's 30-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Despite the battering they took, the Bulls didn't feel that they were playing out of their league.
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| Chad Pennington throws five TD passes in Marshall's 59-3 victory.(AP) |
"That was a top team," Buffalo safety Craig Rohlfs said. "That's the best we'll see. We'll be all right."
Pennington tossed a 57-yard touchdown pass to Doug Chapman on the Thundering Herd's second play from scrimmage, and Chapman scored on a 14-yard run for a 14-3 first-quarter lead.
Pennington threw a 45-yard TD pass to Nate Poole for a 21-3 lead on the first play of the second quarter.
Marshall scored its first defensive touchdown of the season when Rogers Beckett intercepted a pass by Bulls quarterback Joe Freedy and returned it 19 yards for a 28-3 lead with 13:21 left in the half.
A 34-yard pass to David Foye made it 35-3 with 5:52 left in the half and J.R. Jenkins added a 30-yard field goal.
Foye had four catches for 85 yards and two TDs.
The Thundering Herd amassed 321 yards to Buffalo's 124 in the first half and finished with a 567-196 edge for the game.
Buffalo defended its decision to move up to I-A without having established a winning program at the lower level.
"I was hired to build a program and the university made a decision that we belong in Division I-A," said Buffalo coach Craig Cirbus, a former assistant at Penn State. "We have a long way to go. I'm not flinching, not at all."
Marshall coach Bob Pruett led Marshall to a 10-3 record and the school's first bowl appearance in 1997, the Herd's first season in Division I-A. Marshall won the Division I-AA national title in 1996.
"The people in Buffalo have to have patience," Pruett said. "Just saying you're going to be Division I-A is not enough."
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