Murfreesboro, Tenn. - Dwight Dasher accounted for 421 yards of offense - completing 22 of 35 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns, and rushing for 66 yards and two more scores - in Middle Tennessee's 62-24 win over the Western Kentucky University football team Saturday afternoon at Floyd Stadium.

The loss dropped WKU to 0-7 and 0-3 in the Sun Belt, while the Blue Raiders improved to 4-3 and 2-1 in the league.

The Raiders racked up 646 yards of offense in the game, including 417 through the air.Both teams traded field goals on the opening possessions, with WKU taking advantage of two pass interference calls against the Blue Raiders on the opening drive to get inside the 10 yard line before settling for a 37-yard Casey Tinius field goal. MTSU went 47 yards in 11 plays on their first possession before stalling and getting a 38-yard Alan Gendreau kick to tie the game at 3-3 with 5:56 to go in the opening quarter.

The Blue Raiders were able to take advantage of short fields on their next two possessions, and got long scoring passes from Dasher. MTSU's second drive of the game was capped off by a 23-yard scoring strike to Chris McClover. Then on its third possession - after taking over at the MTSU 48-yard line - Dasher connected with Harold Turner for a 52-yard touchdown on the second play of the drive to stretch the Raider lead to 17-3 with 12:32 to go in the second quarter.

Dasher made it four scores on four straight drives for MTSU as on 4th and four from 34, he hooked up against with McClover for a scoring strike to extend the lead to 24-3.

Another Dasher-to-McClover pass set up Middle Tennessee's fourth touchdown of the second quarter as the two hooked up for a 32-yard completion down to the WKU six-yard line. This time, however, Dasher finished things off himself with a one-yard run to stretch the Blue Raider lead to 31-3 with just over a minute to go in the half.

WKU was able to take some momentum into the locker room, however, on its last drive. Starting at their own 27-yard line with 1:08 remaining, the Hilltoppers got a 36-yard run from Kawaun Jakes on third down to move down to the MTSU 36 with 11 seconds remaining. However, Jakes was sacked on the next play, but WKU was able to call a timeout with five ticks left. On the final play of the period, Jakes lofted a pass into the endzone, and after being tipped twice, Jake Gaebler came down with the football for a Topper touchdown to make it a 31-10 score at intermission.

MTSU racked up 319 yards of total offense in the first 30 minutes of action, getting 246 of those through the air as Dasher completed 15 of 25 passes. WKU finished with 101 offense yards in the period - 73 coming on the final drive.

The momentum gained on the last-second touchdown was quickly taken back by the Blue Raiders as Desmond Gee returned the second-half kickoff 74 yards down to the WKU 17 yard line. However, the Topper defense held MTSU to just three as Gendreau connected on a 29-yard field goal to stretch the Blue Raider lead to 34-10.

After WKU fumbled on the ensuing kickoff after returning the ball into MTSU territory, the Blue Raiders added another touchdown in just 35 seconds as Kenneth Gilstrap ran for 49 yards on a reverse to push the lead to 41-10 less than two minutes into the second half.

The Toppers were able to end the bleeding with a 6-play, 72-yard drive in just 2:05 as Jakes ran in from four yards out to make it a 47-17 game with 11:04 on the clock, but MTSU added a one-yard touchdown run by D.D. Kyles.

Gaebler - who finished the game with six catches for 100 yards - caught his second touchdown of the game has he hauled in a 16-yard pass from Brandon Smith to make it 48-24 with 14:26 remaining in the game. For Gaebler, it was his first career multi-touchdown game, and his first 100-yard game since catching 11 balls for 125 yards against MTSU in 2008. However, the Blue Raiders added two more fourth-quarter scores of their own to cap off the day for the 38-point victory.

The Hilltoppers will head back out on the road next Saturday, visiting North Texas at 3:15 p.m. (CST) in Denton, Texas.