St. Petersburg Bowl 2015, Connecticut vs. Marshall: Full highlights, final score and more

The Marshall Thundering Herd outlasted the Connecticut Huskies at the St. Petersburg Bowl.

An expected defensive slugfest at the 2015 St. Petersburg Bowl lived up to the hype, as the Marshall Thundering Herd took down the Connecticut Huskies 16-10 at Tropicana Field on Saturday morning.

Both teams leaned on strong defenses all season long, while neither offered a particularly explosive offense. Marshall’s defensive line caused problems for the Huskies’ run-heavy offense early on, leading to two three-and-outs to start the game.

The Thundering Herd struck first just over six minutes in on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Chase Litton to Ryan Yurachek following a lengthy Deandre Reaves punt return to set up great field position. Connecticut responded with a 13-play touchdown drive fueled heavily by designed runs for quarterback Bryant Shirreffs and capped off with a 8-yard run by Ron Johnson to even the score near the end of the first.

After the teams traded punts, Marshall added a pair of field goals on its next two possessions to open up a 13-7 lead at halftime. Litton, a true freshman, led two lengthy drives and looked comfortable throwing against an experienced Huskies secondary that was very stingy during the regular season.

Meanwhile, Marshall’s defense did a better job of limiting the UConn rushing attack in the second quarter. The Huskies had just 33 passing yards in the first half and needed to find a way to generate some offense other than Shirreffs’ runs after the break, a difficult task against a Marshall secondary that was excellent at limiting explosive plays this season.

The Huskies’ defense came up with a number of big plays in the second half to keep in the game, including stopping Marshall on fourth down deep in UConn territory on the first possesion of the third. Connecticut couldn’t take advantage of the momentum, as Shirreffs was picked off by Kendall Gant to end the drive.

Still, the Huskies kept it to a one-score deficit after Marshall missed a field goal following the interception. UConn got to within three on a 52-yard field goal from Bobby Puyol to close out the third.

Litton finally made a mistake to open the fourth, as cornerback Jamar Summers recorded his eighth interception of the season on a deep pass. Despite a couple more positive runs from Shirreffs, the Huskies simply could not generate any splash plays, and were forced to punt with eight minutes left.

Marshall th3n put together a 13-play play drive to ice over six minutes and effectively win the game. Keion Davis carried the ball times on the drive, including a 41 yard run that was the longest play of the game, before Nick Smith kicked his third field goal of the game. Forced to pass with no timeouts, UConn stalled just shy of midfield to seal the 16-10 Marshall win.

Doc Holliday called a very conservative game for Marshall, but it was effective against a poor UConn offense. The Thundering Herd surrendered just 213 yards while possessing the ball for over 34 minutes.

Three Stars

Deandre Reaves, WE, Marshall. Led the team with nine catches for 88 yards and long punt return in the first quarter proved to be a key play.

Ryan Bee, DE, Marshall. Recorded a sack and led a strong team effort on the defensive line to disrupt the UConn running game.

Chase Litton, QB, Marshall. Completed 23 of 34 passes for 218 yards and largely did a nice job of taking care of the ball against a UConn secondary that was one of best in the nation at generating turnovers.

Highlights

"Kendall Gant’s INT for Marshall on The Trop’s trademark horror turf #StPeteBowl https://t.co/EFw1SKOYlL — RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 26, 2015"

"The 52yd FG bounces off the upright…and is good! UConn closes gap to 13-10 #StPeteBowl https://t.co/Uc7gjZlcdr— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 26, 2015"

"UConn’s Jamar Summers with the interception #StPeteBowl https://t.co/EbBNypv072 — RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) December 26, 2015"

Odds

Marshall covered the spread of 4.5 points thanks to the late field goal. The two teams fell well short of the over/under of 43.

Up Next

The Thundering Herd should be thrilled with a 10-3 season in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year and should be one of the better Group of Five teams again next year. UConn has plenty to build on from a 6-7 season, as Bob Diaco has the program trending in the right direction.