HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) _ Chad Pennington passed for four touchdowns and ran for another in little more than a half to lead Marshall to a 63-3 victory over Liberty Saturday night.

Pennington completed 23 of 31 passes for 279 yards, with one interception, before retiring after the first series of the second half.

Pennington's first touchdown toss of the night gave him 64 scoring passes since Marshall joined the Mid-American Conference in 1997. That broke the MAC record previously held by Brian McClure of Bowling Green.

Marshall's point total was its most since a 71-7 victory over Morehead State on Sept. 3, 1994.

Marshall (2-0) took the mystery out of the contest early, jumping to a 35-0 halftime lead while rolling up 316 yards of first-half offense.

Marshall's defense held Liberty to 74 yards in the half.

During a 13-10 season-opening victory over Clemson, Marshall's offense was held to only one touchdown, a score that came with 1:10 remaining in the game.

But against Liberty (1-1), Marshall's first touchdown took only three offensive plays.

After recovering a fumble at the Liberty 24 on the game's third play, Marshall moved in for its first score. Two Pennington passes carried Marshall to the Liberty 1, where Doug Chapman ran for a touchdown with 13:00 remaining in the first quarter.

Things got no better for Liberty. Pennington hit tight end John Cooper with a 40-yard touchdown pass with 6:51 left in the first quarter to increase Marshall's lead to 14-0.

With 11:11 left in the second quarter, Pennington sneaked in from the 1-yard line to increase Marshall's lead to 21-0.

Pennington then threw scoring passes of 1 yard to David Foye and 29 yards to Nate Poole.

On the first possession of the second half, Pennington threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Poole.

Marshall won to its 25th straight game at home. Marshall's last home loss came against Montana in the 1995 Division 1-AA title game.