Sept. 12, 2003

Final Stats| Quotes| Notes

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - Bruce Gradkowski threw two touchdown passes and Astin Martin scored on a 10-yard run with 1:10 to play to give Toledo a 24-17 victory over Marshall on Friday night.

Toledo (2-1) beat the Thundering Herd for the third time in four years. The Rockets are the only team with more than one win over Marshall since it returned to the Mid-American Conference in 1997.

Marshall (1-2) lost for just the second time in 52 home games since Bob Pruett became coach in 1996.

Young quarterbacks produced one of the lowest-scoring contests in the teams' last seven meetings. They had averaged 85 points combined in their previous two games.

Gradkowski, a sophomore, came up big down the stretch. He took the Rockets downfield after Toledo's Paul Dye recovered a fumble by Butchie Wallace at the Rockets 44 with 6:41 left.

Gradkowski converted a fourth-down run at the Marshall 29. Sophomore Trinity Dawson, who led all rushers with 156 yards, ran for 17 on the next three plays before Martin, another sophomore, scored untouched.

Marshall, which beat Toledo in the 2002 MAC title game on Darius Watts' last-minute touchdown catch, couldn't come up big in the closing seconds this time.

Marshall moved the ball to the Toledo 47, but a holding call negated a pass from Graham Gochneaur to Watts. Gochneaur's desperation pass on the final play was intercepted by Patrick Body at the Toledo 11.

Gochneaur, a junior, fared well in his first start in place of the injured Stan Hill but he couldn't produce any points over the game's final 20 minutes.

Gochneaur finished 31-of-39 for 289 yards with two interceptions. His 11-yard scramble set up a 22-yard TD pass to a wide-open Watts for a 17-14 lead late in the third quarter.

Hill did not dress for the game after injuring his knee last week in a 34-24 loss at Tennessee. He's also questionable for Marshall's game next week at No. 7 Kansas State.

Toledo nearly squandered Dawson's 58-yard run on the next series. Gradkowski recovered Martin's fumble on third down, and Jason Robbins kicked a 37-yard field goal to tie the score at 17.