HERD STAMPEDES TRIBE

Southeast Missouri's Nick Reed rushed for yardage before being met by Marshall's George Miller (90) during the first half Thursday at Marshall Stadium.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Southeast Missouri State University hung tough for a while, but Marshall University's powerful Thundering Herd wound up posting their expected lopsided season-opening victory over the outmanned Indians Thursday night.

The Division I-AA Indians were even with the I-A Thundering Herd for a little more than a quarter, but Marshall turned on the jets and scored the game's final 56 points to romp 63-7. It was the most points given up by Southeast since 1922, when Southwest Missouri State routed the Indians 67-0.

So the Tim Billings era of Southeast football pretty much started as expected, the Indians coming away with their $120,000 guaranteed money and the Thundering Herd coming away with their all-but guaranteed tuneup romp in anticipation of next week's huge ESPN game at Michigan State.

The sixth-largest crowd in Marshall history -- 30,225 fans showed up at the newly-enlarged Marshall University Stadium that now can hold 40,000 -- saw the Thundering Herd extend the nation's longest winning streak to 18 games and the nation's longest home winning streak to 32 games.

"Marshall is bigger, stronger and faster than us," said Billings, the Indians' first-year head coach who spent the previous 10 seasons as an assistant for the Thundering Herd. "Our kids played hard for a while, but they just have better players. They just wore us down."

Even though the final score reflected a total mismatch, for most of the first half Marshall was locked in a dogfight with the Indians, who trailed just 14-7 until the Thundering Herd scored two late second-quarter touchdowns to go up 28-7 at the intermission.

"I thought Tim really had them prepared," said Marshall coach Bob Pruett. "They attacked us well and we did not have control of the game at all in the first quarter."

Southeast's offense -- led by elusive quarterback Rashad West -- gave Marshall's fast defense fits in the first half, piling up 213 yards and moving the ball effectively on virtually every drive. The Indians had only one three-and-out first-half possession, that coming late in the second quarter.

"Their quarterback is a really good player," Pruett said. "He's elusive. He made some great plays. He can play in any league, not just their league."

After Southeast fell behind 35-7 midway through the third quarter, Billings wisely got West out of the game. The Indians' offense pretty much stalled the rest of the way and they wound up with just 46 second-half yards, giving them 259 for the contest.

Meanwhile, Marshall's offense picked up plenty of steam in the second quarter and continued on in the second half, even after Pruett also removed his starting signal caller, Byron Leftwich, after the Thundering Herd went up 35-7 in the third period.

Marshall finished with a whopping 573 yards, 329 coming in the first half. The Thundering Herd had 315 yards rushing.

"Our defensive coaches made some great adjustments and I thought we had control of the game from the second quarter one," said Pruett.

The Thundering Herd got on the scoreboard first as they scored on the game's opening possession. Leftwich directed an eight-play, 76-yard march that he capped with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Greg Kellett.

But Southeast came right back to score on its opening possession. West went 15 yards on a quarterback draw on the Indians' first play and he led an 11-play, 80-yard drive that ended with a 26-yard TD pass to Leslie Weaver on a fourth-and-eight play.

Weaver made a nice catch in the back of the end zone, barely getting a foot down, and Jason Witczak's conversion kick tied things at 7-7.

That's the way things stood until 11:10 remained in the second period, when Chanston Rodgers scored on a 2-yard run to cap a four-play, 85-yard drive keyed by a Leftwich escape act.

Leftwich appeared to be all but sacked deep in his own territory, but he eluded two would-be tacklers and tossed a pass to Curtis Jones, who raced 76 yards to inside the Southeast 10. Rodgers scored a short time later to make it 14-7.

"The pocket collapsed, I got away and I just tossed the ball up there," said Leftwich. "I just let him (Jones) get it."

Southeast was still hanging tough, trailing 14-7 entering the late stages of the opening half. But the Thundering Herd tacked on two more touchdowns to open up some breathing room.

Rodgers scored on a 7-yard run with 3:58 left to cap an 11-play, 80-yard drive as Marshall went ahead 21-7. Then, with 1:16 to go before halftime, Leftwich hit Nate Poole with a 34-yard TD pass to make it 28-7 and severely deflate the Indians.

"The touchdown right before the half was really big," Billings said.

Said West, "It was a very competitive first quarter and most of the first half. A couple of late scores (in the second quarter) took the wind out of our sails. It gave them momentum and we never recovered."

The second half was the total blowout that a lot of people had expected from the start as the Thundering Herd -- listed as 43-point favorites -- scored early and often.

Two third-quarter touchdowns -- on drives covering a total of just 15 yards after a Southeast botched punt and a nice punt return -- made it 42-7 entering the final period and the Thundering Herd backups tacked on three more TDs over the last 15 minutes.