Filling in for the injured Byron Leftwich, Stan Hill occupied the role as Marshall Thundering Herd quarterback admirably on Tuesday night against the Miami of Ohio RedHawks.
Hill led the Herd to a 34-32 victory while throwing for 292 yards and four touchdowns and he ran in the game winning score with five seconds remaining in the game.
Marshall was given a second chance when an extremely questionable pass interference call was made on fourth down in the endzone giving MU a first down and goal. This presented new life for the Herd and Hill capitalized on the opportunity when he punched it in from the 1-yard line.
Hill's game-winning touchdown run only punctuated what was an incredible night for the quarterback who was starting his first game since his senior year in high school. He and receiver Darius Watts, who caught 9 passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns, scorched the RedHawks defense all night long.
That's not to say that Miami's quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, did not have a superb night as well. Roethlisberger lit a fire in the sky in passing for 247 yards and three touchdowns. He led the RedHawks to what would have been a game-winning drive when Miami tailback Luke Clemens bolted 17 yards into the endzone and dove for the touchdown with 6:33 remaining on the clock.
Clemens had a standout night also; rushing 27 times for 108 yards and what would have been the game winning score. He also reeled in five passes for 81 yards and a touchdown.
Roethlisberger and the RedHawks twice trailed by two-score leads in the game, but Marshall could not keep them down as Roethlisberger engineered two comebacks, and his RedHawks finally took the lead on that second comeback.
It's just too bad for them that the officials decided to take control of the game when it was on the line.
Marshall is now the frontrunner in the MAC East division, as they only have one loss in the MAC and hold the tiebreaker over Miami. Marshall will head to Ohio on November 23rd and will look to take further control of the East Division of the MAC.
Saturday afternoon the Northern Illinois Huskies did what nobody else - including Missouri and Kansas - has been able to do in 2002.
Slow down the Bowling Green offense.
The BGSU Falcons came into their game against NIU with the nation's second highest scoring offense, but were held to just 17 points as the Huskies controlled their opponents and the game in a 26-17 win before a home crowd of 25,852.
With the win NIU is now in control of the MAC East Division. At 6-0 in the conference they are now one game ahead of second place Bowling Green (5-1) and also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Falcons.
Toledo (4-1) occupies third place in the West but has played one less game. The Rockets, however, close their season with conference games at NIU and at home against BGSU.
Along with snapping their 11-game winning streak, the loss dropped the Falcons out of the AP Top 25. They were ranked 20th in the poll. BGSU fell from No. 16 to No. 25 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll.
The Falcons came into the game as the MAC's best rushing team, averaging 262.9 yards per game, but were held to 86. The limited ground attack along with a 20-3 third quarter deficit forced BGSU quarterback Josh Harris to throw 52 times. Harris held his team in the game with 27 completions for 271 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions.
NIU's Michael Turner, the nation's No. 2 running back, scorched the BGSU defense for 197 yards on 40 carries.
Huskies' quarterback Josh Haldi threw two touchdown passes, both in the second quarter. The first was a 12-yard strike to Dan Sheldon, the second an 18-yarder to Shatone Powers.
NIU picked up their second win in 22 meetings against ranked teams.
Robert Menchinger nailed a 39-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining to give Western Michigan a 33-31 home win over Eastern Michigan. WMU out-scored EMU 24-0 in the first quarter but let their lead slip away ... Akron scored 10 points in the first quarter but were outscored 27-0 over the last three quarters in a 27-10 loss at Ohio ... Toledo quarterback Brian Jones threw for 323 yards and two TDs in his team's blowout 44-17 home win over Central Michigan ... Connecticut dominated Kent State in a 63-21 home win.
