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Herd Thunders Back to Overtake
East Carolina
By JOHN ZENOR
AP Sports Writer
MOBILE, AL (AP) — Marshall and
East Carolina piled up the points so quickly that even the coaches had
trouble keeping track.
In the highest-scoring bowl game
in history, Marshall rallied past the Pirates 64-61 in double overtime
Wednesday night to win the GMAC Bowl behind Byron Leftwich's 576 yards
passing.
``Lord, have mercy,'' East
Carolina coach Steve Logan exclaimed. ``I hope everyone got their money's
worth.''
Leftwich capped his night with an
8-yard touchdown toss to Josh Davis to end it, capping Marshall's comeback
from a 30-point halftime deficit.
``I can't give up,'' Leftwich
said. ``That's stupid to give up. It doesn't make no sense.
``We knew we could come out here,
move the ball and score some points on these guys. It was just a matter of
time when we were going to do it.''
Previously, the highest-scoring
bowl was Texas Tech's 55-41 victory over Air Force in the 1995 Copper.
The Thundering Herd (11-2)
stormed back from a 38-8 halftime deficit, tying it at 51 in the final
seconds of the fourth quarter. Marshall wasted a chance to win in regulation
when it missed the extra point.
``I guess we had to make it a
little dramatic and miss that extra point, then give the fans and TV a
little bit more thrill,'' Marshall coach Bob Pruett said. ``It's bad that a
team had to lose.''
Leftwich finished 41-of-70 with
four scoring passes and a TD run.
Ahead 51-45, East Carolina (6-6)
recovered an onsides kick in the final two minutes. But the Pirates couldn't
run out the clock and punted into the end zone.
Marshall took over at its 20 with
50 seconds left and no timeouts. After two incomplete passes, Leftwich hit
Denero Marriott for 20 yards. Leftwich then connected with Curtis Jones for
27 yards and Marriott for 23.
Marshall made it 51-all when
Leftwich hit a leaping Darius Watts in the corner of the end zone for an
11-yard touchdown with seven seconds left.
Curtis Head's extra-point try was
wide right, his seventh missed PAT of the year, leaving it tied. Head's
28-yard field goal with 1:53 remaining had cut the deficit to six points.
Both teams scored touchdowns in
the first overtime. Marshall's Franklin Wallace had a 2-yard run and Leonard
Henry came back with a 25-yard TD on the next play.
It was the Pirates' fifth loss by
seven points or less.
``It hurts, man,'' said Henry,
who gained 195 yards on 29 carries. ``There's nothing we can say. There's
nothing we can do. This game, it was how our season went all year.''
Marshall held East Carolina to
Kevin Miller's 37-yard field goal in the second overtime.
Then, Leftwich hit Marriott for a
21-yard completion. After two running plays lost yardage, Leftwich connected
with Davis to win it on third-and-goal.
The game featured four defensive
touchdowns, two by East Carolina in the first four minutes of the game and
two by Marshall in the third quarter.
Henry rushed for 195 yards and
three scores on 29 carries, but couldn't overcome Leftwich's fifth 400-yard
passing performance of the year.
Marriott had 15 catches for 234
yards and Watts added 133 yards and two scores on seven receptions.
The teams combined for 1,141
total yards.
``It was amazing,'' Pruett said.
A few thousand fans left at
halftime, and they missed seeing the Thundering Herd come back with 28
third-quarter points, scoring on 25-yard interception returns by Ralph
Street and Terrence Tarpley.
An East Carolina fumble then set
up Wallace's 15-yard scoring run to make it 41-36 with a minute left.
Miller then hit a 32-yard field
goal, his third, after David Garrard's touchdown run was negated by a
holding call.
Marshall had committed just nine
turnovers in its first 12 games, but nearly self-destructed early.
On the game's second play,
Leftwich's screen pass bounced off Marriott's arm and in the arms of Ty
Hunt, who took it 12 yards into the end zone.
The Thundering Herd's next drive
ended when Leftwich couldn't handle a high snap. He tried to fall on it, but
the ball squibbed out of his hands and Jerome Steward scooped it up for a
43-yard score.
Leftwich appeared to click into
gear on the next drive, completing five straight passes. But he threw an
interception directly to Steward in the back of the end zone.
A muffed punt set up Garrard's
6-yard scoring run late in the first half.
AP-NY-12-20-01 0134EST
Copyright 2001
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
02/23/2007 10:51:25 AM
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