Football: Second-half ODU rally falls short at Marshall, 31-17

ODU quarterback Kesean Strong scored on a 24-yard touchdown run to cut Marshall’s lead to 24-17 midway through the third quarter, but Brenden Knox’s six yard touchdown run with four minutes left in the game put Marshall up 31-17 and that was the final score Saturday afternoon at Marshall.

Marshall (3-3, 1-1 C-USA) got on the board first with a one-yard touchdown pass from Isaiah Green to Devin Miller to complete a 12 play, 94-yard scoring drive.

Marshall pushed its lead to 14-0 on a 17-yard touchdown run from Green to cap a nine play, 77-yard drive.

Old Dominion (1-5, 0-2 C-USA) got on the board with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Messiah deWeaver to Aaron Moore. The touchdown completed a seven play, 75-yard drive that featured a 20-yard first down run by deWeaver.

The Thundering Herd added a 45-yard field goal from Justin Rohrwasser with 11 seconds left in the first half, but Blake Watson returned the ensuing kickoff 75-yards to the Marshall 22 to set up a Nick Rice 39-yard field goal to make the halftime score 17-10 Marshall.

Willie Johnson scored on a 27-yard run to Marshall up 24-10 before Strong’s run made it a one score game again.

deWeaver completed 8-of-14 passes for 100 yards and a touchdown, while Moore caught his first career touchdown. Strong led the Monarchs with 35 yards rushing.

Lawrence Garner led ODU with 12 tackles and a sack, while Jordan Young finished the day with 11 tackles.

Notes: Game captains were Lawrence Garner, Isaac Weaver, Tony Barnett and Jeremy Meiser … Darius Savedge’s 23-yard first quarter catch was his first of the season and second of his career … Bailey Cate’s 55-yard second quarter was a season-long … Messiah deWeaver’s 44-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Moore was the first touchdown pass and catch for both players … Lawrence Garner had 10 tackles in the first half, securing his third-straight double-digit tackle game … Blake Watson’s 75-yard kickoff return late in the first half was the ninth longest in ODU history, and longest since Isaiah Harper had a pair of kickoff return touchdowns at North Texas in 2017 … Cate broke Jonathan Plisco’s record for career punt yards with his 45-yard punt in the third quarter that was downed at the one. Cate has 8,362 career punt yards.