Marshall Extends Winning Streak to 15 by Defeating Ohio, 34-3

Chad Pennington threw for 378 yards and three touchdowns in a steady, cold rain as No. 12-ranked Marshall beat Ohio, 34-3, Friday in a Mid-American Conference game at Huntington, W.Va.

The Thundering Herd, 11-0 overall and 8-0 in the MAC, ran its winning streaks to 15 games overall and 30 at home, both tops among major colleges.

Pennington completed 25 of 37 passes as he joined Brigham Young’s Ty Detmer and Louisville’s Chris Redman as the only major college quarterbacks to surpass 1,000 career completions.

Pennington’s three touchdown passes gave him 34 this season, tops among major college quarterbacks.

Marshall held Ohio, which has the nation’s fifth-best rushing offense, to 112 yards, 165 below its average.

Marshall had already clinched the MAC’s East Division and a spot in next week’s championship game at home against Western Michigan, which Marshall defeated, 31-17, two weeks ago.

Ohio (5-6, 5-3) got only Kevin Kerr’s 53-yard field goal in the first quarter against a defense that allows the fewest points in the nation at 10.1 a game.

Louisiana State 35, No. 17 Arkansas 10--Rohan Davey, beaten out as LSU’s starting quarterback in the third game of the season, came off the bench and threw three touchdown passes at Baton Rouge, La., to help the Tigers end a losing streak at eight games.

It was the first victory since Sept. 11 for LSU (3-8, 1-7) and came just over a week after Gerry DiNardo was fired as coach. Assistant coach Hal Hunter led the team but is not considered a candidate for the job next season.

Davey completed 10 of 12 passes for 224 yards.

Arkansas (7-4, 4-4) was coming off victories over nationally ranked Tennessee and Mississippi State.

Texas Christian 21, Southern Methodist 0--LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 125 yards in 32 carries to clinch the NCAA rushing title and scored two touchdowns for the Horned Frogs in a Western Athletic Conference game at Fort Worth.

A week after running for an NCAA Division I-A record 406 yards against Texas El Paso, Tomlinson needed only 110 to stay ahead of Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne, the career rushing leader, and Virginia’s Thomas Jones.

Tomlinson finished the regular season with a school-record 1,850 yards (168.2 per game).

TCU (7-4, 5-2) will play No. 21 East Carolina in the inaugural Mobile Bowl on Dec. 22.

With the loss, SMU (4-6, 3-3) won’t have to play next week against San Jose State. The Oct. 23 game between the schools at San Jose State was canceled because of a power failure about an hour before kickoff and was tentatively scheduled to be made up if SMU still had an opportunity to share the WAC title. TCU ends up sharing the title with Hawaii and Fresno State.