SportsDirect Inc. staff
Nov 9, 2013

Marshall 56, Alabama-Birmingham 14: Rakeem Cato threw for three touchdowns and ran for another while setting a school record by throwing a TD pass in his 27th straight game as the Thundering Herd won their seventh consecutive home contest.

Essray Taliaferro rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns as Marshall (6-3, 4-1 Conference USA) rushed for 381 yards. Steward Butler rushed for 139 yards and a score while Kevin Grooms added 108 yards with a 71-yard run among his two TDs for Marshall, which had three players rush for 100 or more yards for the first time in school history.

Marshall averaged less than a minute of clock time on its five touchdown drives in the first half en route to a 35-14 lead. Jordan Howard rushed for 123 yards while Darrin Reaves scored both TDs — one rushing and one receiving — for the Blazers (2-7, 1-4), who lost for the fifth time in six games.

Cato broke the Marshall mark for consecutive games with a TD, set by Chad Pennington in 1997-98, when he teamed with tight end Eric Frohnapfel for a 39-yard strike to give Marshall a 14-7 lead in the first quarter. Cato added two more TD passes in the first half, including a 9-yard toss to Kevin Grooms with 20 seconds left.

Marshall scored on its first two drives of the second half, with Taliaferro's 16-yard scamper followed by Cato's 6-yard run before Butler added a 49-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Cato finished 14-of-20 for 276 yards and threw a touchdown to Tommy Shuler, as Marshall won for the fourth time in five games.