HUNTINGTON, W. Va. – Jelani Woseley picked off Rakeem Cato at the Ohio 15-yard line and the Bobcats held on to win a back-and-forth game against Marshall to win the Battle for the Bell for the second straight year, 27-24, on Saturday night.

The nation’s leading passer, Cato finished with 432 yards, but the Thundering Herd had two turnovers in the final six minutes, helping the Bobcats to beat their rival in consecutive seasons since 1979 and 1980, and for the first time in Huntington since 1977.

“I couldn’t be any prouder of our guys,” Ohio coach Frank Solich said. “We’ve played three very, very physical football games in a row. It was a tremendous comeback by our guys. They truly believe in each other and were able to make enough plays to keep us in this game and then to win it.”

Tyler Tettleton threw three touchdown passes, including a 27-yarder to Ryan Clark on a fourth-and-5 play. Matt Weller’s 38-yard field goal, set up by a 48-yard Nathan Carpenter fumble return, gave Ohio the lead with 1:37 remaining.

Cato, who was 44 of 65 with three touchdown passes of his own, quickly led Marshall (1-2) up the field and had it in position to at least force overtime, hooking up with Demetrius Evans for an 8-yard gain to the Ohio 27-yard line on a third-and-1 play with less than 20 seconds left.

But Woseley put an end to the drive by leaping for the Bobcats’ only intercept of Cato in the game.

“I was looking at his eyes,” Woseley said. “I tried to look off and I waited for him and he threw it up. I just jumped up and grabbed it.”

The intercepted prevented the lead changing for the fourth time in the game. For the third straight game, Ohio (3-0) started slow, falling behind, 14-0, but this time, a big second quarter gave the Bobcats a 17-14 edge at halftime. The Thundering Herd took control in the third quarter and went ahead early in the fourth by a touchdown.

Late in the third quarter, Marshall converted on fourth-and-2 from the Ohio 41-yard line with a 17-yard pass to E. Frohnapfel. It came after a 17-yard pass to Andre Snipes-Booker on third-and-19 and led to Justin Haig’s 37-yard field goal with 14:13 remaining, giving Marshall a 24-17 lead.

Ohio converted a pair of third downs on the ensuing possession but faced a fourth-and-5 from the Marshall 27 and elected to go for it. Tettleton made an audible and went for the end zone rather than the first down, hitting Clark with a perfect throw in one-on-one coverage.

“The initial call was just a slant,” Clark said. “Tyler saw it and I saw it. He saw it before me. He gave me the tag. … He threw a perfect ball and I tried to come down with it and I did it.”

Both teams punted on their next possession, but Ohio had to do so from inside its own 10-yard line and Marshall took over only 48 yards from the end zone with 5:37 remaining. The Thundering Herd seemed poised to regain the lead, converting a third-down pass to the Ohio 21, but Antavious Wilson fumbled and Carpenter caught the ball in stride as it popped up in the air.

“I learned a long time ago turnovers will be the No. 1 thing to take you out of a ball game,” Solich said. “… We worked that tremendously hard and it’s been a plus for us in these first three ball games.”

Ohio’s only turnover might have prevented it from pulling away in the second half. Leading 17-14, Tremayne Scott recovered a Cato fumble at the Marshall 43-yard line, but Beau Blankenship fumbled it back to Marshall only two plays later.

The Thundering Herd later took advantage of a shot field to score the go-ahead touchdown, a 14-yard Cato pass to Gator Hoskins with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

Jazz King had a 3-yard touchdown reception on the game’s opening possession and Aaron Dobson scored on a 5-yard pass on Marshall’s second possession to make it 14-0 early.

Troy Hill caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Tettleton, Weller kicked a 22-yard field goal and Tyler Futrell had a 4-yard scoring grab with 49 seconds left in the first half as Ohio outscored Marshall 17-0 in the second quarter.

Blankenship finished with 30 carries for 102 yards and the Bobcats had balance with 200 passing yards and 199 rushing yards.

“We’ve been a very balanced football team so far this year,” Solich said. “We knew coming in to the year that we had the kind of offensive line that we should be able to establish some kind of running game.”

Marshall netted 491 yards of offense but had just 22 carries for 59 yards. Tommy Shuler had 13 catches for 121 yards, while Dobson made 11 receptions for 94 yards.

The Bobcats play their final non-conference game against Norfolk State at 2 p.m. Saturday at Peden Stadium.