Marshall beats UConn 16-10 in the St. Petersburg Bowl
Marshall’s win over Connecticut in Saturday’s St. Petersburg Bowl won’t be one of the most memorable bowl games of the season.
OK, it will be if you’re a Marshall fan. But that’s about it after the Thundering Herd beat the Huskies 16-10. The win means Marshall finishes the season with a 10-3 record and it’s the third-straight season the school has had 10 or more wins.
The game’s only touchdowns came in the first quarter, which ended 7-7. The rest of the game was sustained by four field gials, three of them by Marshall’s Nick Smith.
UConn’s field goal came on a 52-yard kick by Bobby Puyol that ricocheted up in the air after hitting the crossbar.
After Smith’s third field goal of the game, UConn had 1:44 and no timeouts to score a touchdown and possibly steal the bowl win. It didn’t happen. The Huskies didn’t cross midfield before failing to convert a fourth down and Marshall took over to end the game.
The Thundering Herd ran more than 30 more plays than UConn did and racked up nearly 400 yards of offense. But it settled for four field goal attempts after the touchdown and also failed on a fourth down conversion inside the UConn 30.
While the UConn defense did a good job limiting the chances Marshall attempted to create, the offense was stifled. Quarterback Bryant Shirreffs threw for just 87 yards and the Huskies ran for 127 yards on 33 carries.
UConn finishes the season 6-7.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
