ORLANDO, Fla. - Marshall quarterback Graham Gochneaur ran 49 yards for a touchdown with 1:44 left, sealing a 21-7 victory.

Wednesday night for the Thundering Herd and ruining the coaching debut of Central Florida’s Alan Gooch.

Butchie Wallace and Earl Charles also had TD runs for Marshall (7-4, 5-2 Mid-American Conference).

Gooch took over as interim head coach when Central Florida (3-8, 2-5) fired Mike Kruczek a week ago. The Golden Knights’. only touchdown came on a 55-yard run by freshman quarterback Steve Moffett in the fourth quarter, and they were held to just 170 yards of offense.

The Thundering Herd dominated throughout the first half, but couldn’t sustain a drive and needed a 70-yard punt return from

Chris Royal to set up their first score. Royal sliced through the middle of the punt coverage team and appeared to be on his way to a 77-yard return for a touchdown when punter Matt Prater dragged him down at the 7-yard line.

Wallace ran over right tackle on the next play and scored easily to make it 7-0 with 1:43 left in the first quarter.

The Knights had only 80 yards in the first half. Their only real threat ended when Moffett fumbled the snap on a fourth-and-inches from the Marshall 3-yard- line, turning the ball over on downs.

Marshall, which came into the game averaging 267 yards passing, went strictly to a running attack to score its second touchdown. Charles went over on a 2-yard burst on the final play of the third quarter to cap a 10-play drive of 76 yards.

Despite making only four first downs in the first three periods,

Central Florida finally got untracked on its first possession of the fourth. Moffett, making only his second start, ran around end on an option play to score the first touchdown of his career and cap a six-play, 74-yard drive to make it 14-7 with 12:07 remaining.

Then the Knights needed to hold Marshall on a third-and-six play

from the Central Florida 49, but Gochneaur fooled the defense on a bootleg play and ran into the end zone untouched.