NORFOLK, Va. — NORFOLK, Va. (WTKR) — After a first half to forget, Ricky Rahne told his Old Dominion team on Saturday night to play fast and with confidence even through mistakes.
The Monarchs showed that fight in the second half, it just didn't have enough counter punches to put Marshall away for good.
The Thundering Herd held off the silver and blue's comeback attempt in a 42-35 game at S.B. Ballard Stadium, officially ending ODU's hopes for a bowl game with its seventh loss.
"They wanted to earn a bowl game so they could have three more weeks together, and they understand that that's not an option anymore,” said head coach Ricky Rahne said. “They’re hurt."
Marshall took control through the first two quarters with three scoring drives to take a 17-7 lead into halftime. ODU's offense found one drive of true rhythm that ended with an Aaron Young touchdown run, but struggled to find much beyond it.
"Too many mistakes, too many errors," said quarterback Colton Joseph. "Turnovers, penalties, negative yardage plays. Backing up and not going forward. Too many plays going wrong rather than going right."
Things flipped rather quickly in the third quarter, as Joseph would hit Isiah Page for a 46-yard connection on the first drive to get Old Dominion on the goal line. Young would plunge it home to make it 17-14 on the next snap.
The Thundering Herd added a field goal, but the silver and blue went right down the field on a seven play drive that finished with a Na'eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding 10-yard reception in the back of the endzone to grab a 21-20 lead.
A mishandled punt recovery allowed the visitors to get a break and Braylon Braxton took advantage of it, hitting Chuck Montgomery for a 22-yard touchdown catch to get the 27-21 lead back, but ODU had an immediate response. Joseph finished off an eight play drive with a scoring run to make it 28-27 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.
That was the beginning of a stretch that saw the teams trade touchdowns on five straight possessions. After Marshall got a 35-28 advantage to start the final quarter, Joseph would again find the endzone with his legs to tie the game up. The redshirt freshman finished the game with 227 passing yards and 158 rushing yards and three total touchdowns.
The Thundering Herd would not be denied, chewing up 75 yards on an 11 play drive that ended with an Ethan Payne touchdown run to reclaim a 42-35 lead with 4:03 to play.
ODU went three-and-out on its next drive and Rahne faced a choice to try and go for it on his own 30 or punt the ball, ultimately taking the latter option.
"You have four timeouts because of the two minute timeout. Even if we get a three-and-out in that situation, they're already in field goal range if we don't get it," he said. "We pinned them deep, gave ourselves a chance to get good field position if we stopped them. Unfortunately they got a couple first downs and we eventually got the ball back but with not enough time do it."
Marshall picked up two first downs but ODU was able to force a stop and get the ball back with 22 seconds left in the game. Joseph hit Page for a 28-yard gain on the first snap of the final drive, but took a sack on the second play. Old Dominion tried to get a miracle final play but was unsuccessful.
Despite racking up 513 yards of total offense, the Monarchs couldn't find that one last play to get the game to overtime.
"Anytime we lose, we’re going to be sad or be down,” said Koa Naotala, who led ODU with 12 tackles. “That’s how we react to any loss. But we knew we had to win this game to go to a bowl and we didn’t, so obviously, we’re going to be down about that.”
After winning four of five games midway through the year to get back to 4-4, it appeared the silver and blue would be in the thick of things for a bowl and a potential Sun Belt title game. Adversity hit quickly however with Saturday's home finale, which was also the 74th annual Oyster Bowl, stretching Old Dominion's losing streak to three straight.
“Didn’t make enough plays to win the game and make enough calls to win the game,” Rahne said. “So disappointing. But I did think that our players played extremely hard the entire game.”
Now at 4-7, the silver and blue have to compartmentalize the tough emotions for one more week to focus on the regular season finale. They'll head to Arkansas State next Saturday, hoping to end the year out with a win.
"Think back to when all you guys were young. You didn't want to win on the playground because you somehow you got another playground game next week," Rahne said. "You wanted to win on the playground because you wanted to win. It made you feel accomplished and proud of how you played and how you went out there and did that sort of thing."
"I think our mindset going into this game is that we want to win this for us,” Naotala said. “We know what we’ve been though, we know all of the work we put in. So we want to do it for us, do it for our seniors and just finish out strong for them.”
