The 1992 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason

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game between the

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and the Marshall Thundering Herd. The game was played on December 19, 1992, at

Marshall University Stadium Joan C. Edwards Stadium, formerly Marshall University Stadium, is a football stadium located on the campus of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, United States. It can hold 38,227 spectators and includes twenty deluxe, indoor suites ...

Huntington, West Virginia Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A h ...

. The culminating game of the

1992 NCAA Division I-AA football season The 1992 NCAA Division I-AA football season, part of college football in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division I-AA level, began on September 5, 1992, and concluded with the 1992 NCAA Divisio ...

, it was won by Marshall, 31–28. The game was a rematch of the prior season's championship game.

Teams

The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the 1992 I-AA Playoffs, which began with a 16-team

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. The site of the title game,

, had been predetermined months earlier.

Youngstown State Penguins

Youngstown State finished their regular season with an 8–2–1 record. Unseeded in the tournament and ranked seventh in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll, the Penguins defeated Villanova, second-seed The Citadel, and third-seed

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to reach the final. This was the second appearance, both consecutively and overall, for Youngstown State in a Division I-AA championship game, having won in 1991.

Marshall Thundering Herd

Marshall finished their regular season with an 8–3 record (5–2 in conference). Unseeded and ranked sixth in the final NCAA I-AA in-house poll, the Thundering Herd defeated

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, fourth-seed

Middle Tennessee Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of the U.S. state of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the s ...

, and

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

to reach the final. This was the third appearance overall, and second consecutively, for Marshall in a Division I-AA championship game, having lost in 1987 and 1991.

Game summary

After a scoreless first quarter, Marshall led 14–0 at halftime, and extended their lead to 28–0 with 5:46 left in the third quarter. Youngstown State then rallied, cutting the lead to 28–14 by the end of the third quarter, and tying the game with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter. Marshall then drove from their 19-yard-line to the Youngstown State 5-yard-line, and

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kicker Willy Merrick made a 22-yard-field goal with seven seconds left to play, providing the winning points for Marshall. It was Merrick's first collegiate field goal, as the team's usual kicker, Merrick's

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brother David, was suspended for the game due to missing a practice.

Scoring summary

Game statistics

References

External links

Marshall University's 1st 1-AA Win From 1992
via

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{{1992–93 NCAA Division I championships navbox

Championship Game In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

NCAA Division I Football Championship Games Marshall Thundering Herd football games Youngstown State Penguins football games Sports competitions in West Virginia NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game