Marshall gets phantom touchdown, takes sucker-punch loss vs. WVU

Marshall scores on a beautiful 96-yard pass play that ends with a premature celebration

West Virginia 24, Marshall 21 (Overtime). Marshall was the beneficiary tonight of the first hilariously obvious officiating gaffe of the 2010 season, courtesy of sophomore receiver Aaron Dobson and his slightly premature touchdown celebration at the end of an otherwise brilliant, 96-yard bomb from quarterback Brian Anderson against West Virginia. Keep your eye on the ball, kids, and pause it as Dobson crosses the goal line around the 14-second mark if necessary

This is why instant replay exists: The ball should have been ruled a live fumble and a touchback after rolling out of the end zone during Dobson's celebration, giving West Virginia a first down at the Marshall 20-yard line. Instead, the touchdown stood, giving the Thundering Herd a fairly commanding 14-3 lead. In fact, with the Herd up 21-6 in the fourth quarter and driving inside the Mountaineer 10-yard line for an icing score with eight minutes to play, it looked like any quibbling over the Dobson score was destined to go down as a quirky footnote in Marhsall's first-ever win in the cross-state rivalry.

But what the football gods giveth, they taketh away, this time in the form of one of the most gut-wrenching losses in Marshall history. Instead of putting the Mountaineers away with a field goal or touchdown to go up three scores, freshman running back Tron Martinez coughed the ball up at the West Virginia four-yard line, setting up WVU for its first touchdown drive of the night – a nine-play, 96-yard march capped by a short Noel Devine run to pull within 21-13 with a little over five minutes left. The Mountaineers got the ball back two minutes later at their own two-yard line, and proceeded to take it the length of the field, 98 yards on 15 plays, for another touchdown and the tying two-point conversion with 12 seconds on the clock. In overtime, West Virginia made a field goal in the first frame to go up 24-21; Marshall subsequently missed the answering kick by the narrowest possible margin, and Herd fans could begin their fiery meltdowns in earnest.

The comeback saved the Big East the ignominy of falling to 1-5 against I-A/FBS opponents on the season, with the lone win coming over lowly Akron. Not that rallying in overtime against a random Conference USA outfit that it's traditionally dominated is a good omen for West Virginia's BCS hopes, but at the rate the Big East is going early on, any win is a positive.