Marshall coach Bob Pruett was worried about the NIU football team when the Thundering Herd walked into Huskie Stadium Saturday.

The coach said he was tickled over his team’s performance in the Herd’s 37-15 win over the Huskies in Mid-American Conference play Saturday.

“I’m really proud of our football team,” Pruett said. “People count the Herd out and people picked us to lose. To go on the road and win in the MAC is extremely tough. Never count the Herd out. They count the Herd out. Maybe we’re better than what people expect us to be.”

But Pruett never expected to win the game giving up 17 penalties, a new Huskie Stadium record. Six of the penalties were holding penalties.

“That is too many penalties,” Pruett said. “I don’t know why we had so many penalties. To come up here and have 17 penalties and beat a pretty good football team, it says something about this football team.”

Marshall jumped on the board first on the opening drive, which lasted seven minutes on 17 plays. Byron Leftwich threw one of his three touchdowns of the day to Darius Watts on a five-yard pass to give the Herd the early 7-0 lead.

Marshall scored on the next drive when Orlando Washington recovered a Chris Finlen fumble and ran 25 yards for a touchdown to take the early 14-0 first quarter lead.

The Huskies took 17 plays to score their first touchdown of the game as Thomas Hammock scored on a run up the middle from four yards.

After the Huskies’ touchdown, Marshall took over.

Curtis Head kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Herd a commanding 17-7 halftime lead. Leftwich then threw his second touchdown of the game, this time to Denero Marriott on a 31-yard pass, giving Marshall a 24-7 lead.

Michael Owens intercepted Finlen’s pass and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown to give Marshall a 31-7 lead. Leftwich then threw his third touchdown of the game, thirteenth of the season, to Watts for a three-yard touchdown pass to give the Herd 37-7 lead.

Finlen, who finished with 94 yards passing on 9-of-20 with three interceptions, then scored on a one-yard run, and threw a pass to P.J. Fleck for the two-point conversion to pull within 22, 37-15.

“It is really frustrating,” Finlen said. “We have been struggling the last couple of weeks, trying to move the ball. I put the defense in some bad situations. It’s something that I need to overcome.”

Thomas Hammock finished with 67 yards on 18 carries. Marshall’s Franklin Wallace finished with 109 yards on 23 carries, leading all rushers.

The loss now puts NIU 0-11 against the top three of the MAC — Marshall, Toledo and Western Michigan.

“We have six games left,” said NIU coach Joe Novak. “We can win it all or we can lose them all. We can still have ourselves a pretty good season. But we want to get up in that echelon. Obviously, we aren’t there yet.”