UCF 35, Marshall 14
Ronnie Weaver rushed for a career-high 150 yards, Jeff Godfrey ran for two touchdowns and Central Florida beat Marshall 35-14 on Wednesday night.
UCF (4-2, 2-0 Conference USA) broke open a close game in a steady rain with two touchdowns in the span of a minute in the third quarter and Marshall (1-5, 0-2) never recovered.
The nation's ninth-best defense limited Marshall's running game to 37 yards. And on a soggy night, two Marshall quarterbacks couldn't complete enough passes to overcome a big deficit.
The game was stopped for more than an hour in the second quarter due to lightning. Only a few thousand fans returned to their seats when play resumed and halftime was canceled.
When the third quarter started, the Knights were ready.
Jamar Newsome returned the kickoff 70 yards and Godfrey, who earlier had a 9-yard scoring run, finished the short drive with a 5 yard scamper up the middle.
On Marshall's third play from scrimmage in the quarter, A.J. Bouye intercepted Brian Anderson's pass and weaved his way 42 yards for a touchdown that made it 28-7. It was the third time in fourth games that UCF returned an interception for a score.
Freshman Eddie Sullivan replaced Anderson after the turnover and quickly provided a spark. He threw a short pass on first down to Aaron Dobson, who broke a tackle and went the rest of the way for an 86-yard score.
It was the second score of the game for Dobson, who had a 12-yard TD reception in the second quarter, and the first career touchdown pass for Sullivan, who had completed 1 of 10 passes to that point.
Anderson returned after sitting out two series but Marshall punted on four straight series and Sullivan replaced Anderson a second time late in the game. Anderson finished 15 of 30 for 129 yards.
UCF's two-quarterback rotation was thrown off when Rob Calabrese hurt his left knee on a 2-yard TD run in the first quarter and didn't return. That left the freshman Godfrey to take all the snaps. Godfrey went 11 of 21 for 138 yards.
The Knights held Vinny Curry, the nation's sack leader, without a sack.