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NEWS
FINAL: Ohio State 45, Marshall 7
Ohio State running back Daniel Herron stiff arms Marshall defender Marques Aiken during the football game on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.
COLUMBUS — It certainly wasn’t the debut that first-year Marshall University football coach Doc Holliday envisioned.
The Thursday night game started with Marshall fumbling the opening kickoff and didn’t get any better as No. 2 Ohio State walked away from Ohio Stadium with a 45-7 victory over the Thundering Herd.
This contest was a stark contrast to the only other meeting between the teams, which was in 2004 when the Buckeyes got a 24-21 win on a last-second 55-yard field goal by Mike Nugent.
There would be no such excitement on this night as Ohio State took a 28-point lead into the locker room courtesy of many first-half errors by the Herd that continued throughout the game.
Marshall’s most promising drive of the night was in the third quarter with the game well in hand, but ended the same way many did on the evening — with a mistake.
Quarterback Brian Anderson finished 8-of-9 for 69 yards on the drive, but Martin Ward fumbled a swing pass at the Ohio State 7 to extinguish the scoring opportunity.
It was a microcosm of the night for the Herd, which finished with had three turnovers.
Anderson finished 17-of-28 for 135 yards for Marshall (0-1), which hosts West Virginia on Friday, Sept. 10, in the Friends of Coal Bowl at Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
The Marshall offense failed to register a touchdown for the first time since the 2008 Friends of Coal Bowl when the Herd fell to West Virginia, 27-3.
Marshall’s lone score came when defensive end Johnny Jones blocked a 53-yard field goal attempt by Ohio State’s Devin Barclay. Ahmed Shakoor scooped it up and raced 61 yards for a touchdown to cut Ohio State’s lead to 14-7 with 2:21 left in the first half.
It was a highlight on a night where few were present.
Just about everything that could’ve gone wrong in the first half did for the Herd on Thursday evening as the Buckeyes took a 35-7 lead to the locker room.
After Shakoor’s blocked field goal return cut the Ohio State lead in half, it took the Buckeyes just two plays to find the end zone and push the lead back to two scores.
Quarterback Terrelle Pryor froze the Marshall secondary with a play-action fake then hit Dane Sanzenbacher on a 65-yard touchdown strike, giving the Buckeyes a 21-7 lead at the end of one quarter.
The lead ballooned two four scores at the halftime break after a pair of big plays in the final minutes.
Brandon Saine broke loose for a 45-yard touchdown run with 3:49 remaining in the half and Brian Rolle intercepted an Anderson pass and returned it 30 yards for a score just 63 seconds later to put the game away.
Saine, who led all rushers in the contest with 103 yards on nine carries, also busted a 40-yard run to set up his own 4-yard score to give Ohio State a 14-0 lead less than five minutes into the game.
On the game’s opening kickoff, Marshall’s Andre Booker fumbled and Ohio State recovered, taking possession at the Herd’s 22-yard line. Four plays later, Pryor connected with DeVier Posey on a 6-yard pass to open the scoring 78 seconds into the game.
Pryor, a Heisman Trophy candidate, finished 17-of-25 for 247 yards and three touchdowns.
