It’s the Fastest Start Since ’79 for Ohio State : Big Ten: The Buckeyes improve to 7-0 with a 45-24 victory over Purdue.

Marlon Kerner returned an interception 100 yards for a touchdown, sparking No. 3 Ohio State to a 45-24 Big Ten victory over Purdue on Saturday.

Ohio State (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten) is off to its best start since the 1979 team went undefeated until it lost to USC in the Rose Bowl.

“It was a dream come true,” Kerner said. “The back coming out of the backfield . . . the ball comes . . . I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to get the ball and be on my way.’ ”

Ohio State rushed for 364 yards. The defense added a second touchdown when Matt Finkes recovered a Purdue fumble in the end zone. “The game went about like I thought it would go,” Ohio State Coach John Cooper said. “I felt like we were more physical than they were. We wanted to run the football . . . We alternated running backs, kept them fresh.”

The Buckeyes had three players rush for 95 or more yards. Raymont Harris, who matched his career high with 118 yards rushing, scored on runs of 11 and three yards in the first quarter to help the Buckeyes take a 35-0 lead. “We’re a mature squad,” Harris said. “We’re a senior-led team . . . We’ve endured a lot of negativity. We’re taking that negativity and building it into a positive.”

Purdue (1-6, 0-4) totaled only 21 yards on its first five possessions, but reached Ohio State’s two with the help of a 60-yard kickoff return by Jermaine Ross, a 15-yard face-mask penalty on the return and a pass-interference call in the end zone for the Boilermakers’ initial first down.

But Kerner intercepted Rick Trefzger’s pass at the goal line on the next play and raced the length of the field untouched to make the score 28-0.