Ben Anderson
10-1-24
This past Saturday, Marshall football returned to Joan C Edwards Stadium for the first time in nearly a month on a rainy afternoon to battle against former Mid-American Conference rival Western Michigan Broncos for the first time since 2004.
Western Michigan entered the contest with a 1-2 record and coming off a 59-31 victory against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats.
Marshall entered the contest falling in back to back games, with the most recent being a 49-14 loss on the road against the 3rd ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
Marshall for the second game in the row, would find pay dirt in its opening drive going 69 yards on 5 plays concluding with a 32-yard touchdown pass from Stone Earle to tight end Toby Payne for his score since the 2022 opener vs Norfolk State to give the Thundering Herd a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest.
Western Michigan would respond with 6:09 remaining the first quarter as Luke Surak would connect on a 45-yard field goal to cut Marshall’s lead to 4.
At the end of the 1st quarter Marshall would lead 7-3.
After missing a 48-yard field goal in the 1st quarter, Marshall’s Rece Verhoff would connect on a 20-yard field goal and his first field goal of the season under 40+ yards to give Marshall a 10-3 lead with 12:18 remaining the 2nd quarter.
Marshall would end the first half finding the endzone again with 4:42 remaining as Stone Earle would throw his 2nd touchdown pass on the game dotting up Carl Chester on a 7-yard score to give Marshall a 17-3 lead.
The Thundering Herd’s defense would come up big to end the first half forcing the Broncos to punt in all of their last three drives and holding the Broncos to only 93 yards of total offense.
Marshall’s offense at halftime would have 286 yards of total offense with 177 yards on the ground and 109 yards in the air as the Thundering Herd would lead 17-3 at the break.
The second half would be a different story as the Broncos would come out of the locker room rejuvenated as the Broncos would drive the 75-yards on their opening possession in the second half concluding with a 36-yard touchdown run by Jaden Nixon to cut the Herd’s lead to 17-10 with 10:41 remaining in the 3rd quarter.
Marshall would respond with 5:52 remaining in the 3rd quarter with Rece Verhoff hitting his 2nd field goal of the contest with a 28-yard boot to give the Thundering Herd a 20-10 lead.
Western Michigan struck again stampeding its way down the field and into the endzone as quarterback Hayden Wolff would fire a 3-yard touchdown pass to Blake Bosma to make the score 20-17 in favor of Marshall with 53 seconds remaining the 3rd quarter.
Overall in the 3rd quarter Western Michigan would outscore Marshall 14-3 and out gain Marshall on offense 145-60 as the Thundering Herd would lead 20-17 entering the final period of play.
On the opening drive of the 4th quarter, Western Michigan would tie the game at 20-all as Luke Zurak would connect on a 45-yard field goal.
The Broncos defense would continue to carry the momentum from their offense as they would force a fumble on the following Marshall possession.
Marshall’s defense would answer back as Jayden Yates would force a fumble to put Marshall’s offense back on the field with 8:42 remaining with a chance to retake the lead.
The Thundering Herd would drive down the field and Stone Earle would throw his 3rd passing touchdown of the game hitting up Christian Fitzpatrick on a 34-yard score and the game winning touchdown to give Marshall a 27-20 lead.
Marshall would go on to win by a final score of 27-20.
Marshall running back AJ Turner finished the game with a career-high 124 rushing yards on 9 carries. Quarterback Stone Earle finished the game going 15 for 25 for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Marshall improved to 2-2 on the season while Western Michigan fell to 1-3.
Marshall football returns home to Joan C. Edwards Stadium on Saturday for homecoming and its Sun Belt Conference Opener as it will play host to previous Southern Conference rival Appalachian State Mountaineers.