Hewitt, Marshall top Maryland in Military Bowl

Rakeem Cato threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns as Marshall defeated Maryland 31-20 in the Military Bowl Friday.

Maryland (7-6) had taken a 20-17 lead when C.J. Brown found Dave Stinebaugh for a two-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter. That was all the scoring Maryland would do, while Essray Taliaferro scampered in for the go-ahead touchdown from seven yards at the 12:05 mark of the fourth, and Cato capped the scoring with his third touchdown toss of the day, an eight-yard strike to Gator Hoskins with under four minutes to play.

The Terps, whose last bowl appearance was a victory in the 2010 Military Bowl, went scoreless over the final 14:56 thanks to a Thundering Herd defense, which includes Rockdale graduate Neville Hewitt, that allowed just 40 total yards in the fourth.

“I would like to say how proud I am of our football team, coaching staff both offensively and defensively,” Marshall coach Doc Holliday told herdzone.com.

Marshall (10-4), which won its third consecutive bowl game and defeated an ACC team for the first time since a victory over Clemson in September, 1999, led 17-13 at halftime, thanks to a pair of touchdown passes from Cato to Tommy Shuler (one yard) and Hoskins (eight yards). Maryland got a pair of field goals from Brad Craddock to help make it a four-point game at the break, before the teams played a scoreless third.

Hewitt, a junior linebacker in his first year with the Huntington, West Virginia school after transferring from Georgia Military College, finished the year second on the team with 85 tackles (30 solo) and added two and a half sacks.