MIAMI -- Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato set an NCAA record by throwing a touchdown pass in his 39th consecutive game, finishing with four scoring tosses as No. 25 Marshall (7-0, 3-0 Conference USA) shook off a slow start and rolled past FIU 45-13 on Saturday night to remain unbeaten.
"It was a team effort for all 39 games and we still got more games to play," said Cato, who posed for photos with some fans afterward and shook hands with anyone he could reach as he left the field. "We've got to keep finding a way to find seven points."
The record-breaker went to Ryan Yurachek, a 1-yard toss with five seconds left in the opening quarter and coming 1 minute, 55 seconds after Alex McGough's 1-yard quarterback keeper gave FIU an early 7-0 lead.
So for the first time in 2014, Marshall played from behind.
The Herd wasn't rattled. The deficit lasted all of four plays.
Devon Johnson's career-long 71-yard run up the middle got Marshall into the red zone. Cato rolled right and found Yurachek in the end zone not long afterward; the record was his, the game was tied and a potential scare would soon be dodged.
"That record probably won't be broken for a while now," Yurachek said.
Johnson finished with 117 yards rushing and 79 receiving, averaging 16.3 yards on his 12 touches.
Cato came into the game sharing the Football Bowl Subdivision record with Russell Wilson, who threw a touchdown pass in each of the final 38 games of his career for North Carolina State and Wisconsin from 2009 to '12. He also passed Byron Leftwich for No. 2 on Marshall's career passing list. With 12,088 yards, he's behind only Chad Pennington (13,143) for the school record.
"How about Cato?" asked a smiling Marshall coach Doc Holliday. "I mean, it's a record that may never be broken. That's a heck of a record. If anyone deserves it, that young man does. And to be able to come down here to Miami and do that in front of his family, 15 minutes from where he grew up, that was huge."
He finished 15 of 27 for 214 yards with one interception.
It was the ninth time Cato threw for at least four touchdowns in a game. Cato has 110 career touchdown passes, by far the most of any active player.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.