By TOM BONE
HUNTINGTON � Break out your bright green bowling clothes, Marshall fans.
The Thundering Herd earned conditional bowl eligibility Saturday night with a 34-31 squeaker over the SMU Mustangs at Joan C. Edwards Field.
Marshall (6-5) had sought its sixth win since Nov. 1, but had been tagged with a pair of late losses. However, on Senior Day in Huntington, the Herd was able to withstand the offensive attack masterminded by Coach June Jones.
On offense Marshall chalked up 475 yards on 73 plays � without injured stars Darius Marshall and Cody Slate. And the Herd overcame 144 yards on 15 penalties.
The struggles seemed to dissolve away in the Gatorade bath dumped on MU head coach Mark Snyder as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
�I about had a heart attack,� Snyder said, recalling his first such shower as a head coach. �It was cold (but) it felt pretty daggone good.�
The clenching touchdown came with 2:01 left. Quarterback Brian Anderson rolled left and tossed a fluttering pass that came down onto the numbers of true-freshman receiver Aaron Dobson, who was open after an SMU coverage breakdown.
The 16-yard-scoring play and the point-after kick by Craig Ratanamorn, provided a 34-24 cushion.
The Mustangs drove 64 yards in a time frame of 1:21, cutting Marshall�s lead to 34-31 after a late 9-yard run by freshman Zach Line.
But Herd senior Ashton Hall snagged the onside kick to seal up the significant win.
Mustangs came into the game 5-1 in Conference USA and 6-4 overall, but like Marshall, they had several reserves starting due to injury.
�We were just physically not as good as we needed to be,� said SMU head coach Jones. �We did what we could do, we just didn�t play well enough.�
Snyder said �After a couple of hard losses we�ll take this hard win any day.�
Anderson passed for 213 yards and two touchdowns. Marshall had two runners go over 100 yards in the same game for the first time since Ahmad Bradshaw and Bernard Morris achieved the feat in 2006.
Martin Ward ran for 136 yards on Saturday and Terrell Edwards-Maye had 113 yards. Ratanamorn kicked two field goals in the win.
For the Mustangs quarterback Kyle Padron threw for 225 yards and two scores but was sacked five times.
Snyder said �We�re ready to move on. We�ve got a little bit of confidence back.�
Marshall concludes its regular season next Saturday at the University of Texas at El Paso.
