Pennington Is on the Money When It Counts for Marshall

Chad Pennington completed 27 of 37 passes for 393 yards and three touchdowns to offset two second-half interceptions Thursday night as No. 15-ranked Marshall defeated Toledo, 38-13, at Huntington, W.Va.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Toledo was stopped on downs at the Marshall 41, and Pennington led a five-play scoring drive that ended with his 15-yard touchdown pass to James Williams for a 31-13 lead.

“I put my team in a potentially bad situation,” Pennington said. “Being a senior quarterback, sometimes you want to make plays instead of being patient. But in the fourth quarter I was able to help us dig out of it.”

Pennington, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., moved into eighth place on the NCAA’s career passing list ahead of Peyton Manning of Tennessee with 11,316 yards.

Marshall is 6-0 overall and 3-0 in Mid-American Conference. Toledo is 3-3 and 2-2.

Southern Methodist 24, Fresno State 14--Josh McCown threw for two first-half touchdowns and the Mustangs (1-5, 1-2 in the Western Athletic Conference) controlled the ball for 16 1/2 minutes more than the Bulldogs (4-3, 1-1) at Dallas.