There was no hiding Cameron Marshall.

With senior Dimitri Nance out after reinjuring his shoulder on the first possession and sophomore Ryan Bass being pulled following a goal-line fumble, the freshman Marshall responded with 16 carries for 71 yards during ASU’s 23-21 Homecoming loss to Cal.

“I thought Cameron came in and did real well,” ASU coach Dennis Erickson said. “Bass came in and ran OK, [but he] fumbled it once, and we decided to go with Cameron and thought he played very well for a young kid. He made some tough runs, and he is going to get better all the time.”

With ASU’s offense forced to transition out of the shotgun to more traditional two-receiver sets due to the injuries to junior Kerry Taylor and sophomores T.J. Simpson and Gerell Robinson, Marshall’s straight-line power running complemented the switch.

“Nance was a little banged up, so I had to step in there a little bit,” the freshman said. “The offensive line was doing a great job blocking, so we were able to get five yards a pop.”

Unlike the runners before him, Marshall was able to gain consistent positive yardage.

None of his carries went for negative yardage, and eight went for at least three yards.

While he wasn’t able to break an explosive play like he did against Washington, a 75-yarder that is ASU’s longest rush of the season, Marshall did convert three third-down situations, including a touchdown on a third-and-goal from the 6-yard line.

When the Sun Devils (4-4, 2-3) put senior quarterback Danny Sullivan behind center, they most often ran off the left side, many times in two tight end sets using the sophomore blocking specialists Dan Knapp and Trevor Kohl.

While the change of style was a necessity, the results did not reek of desperation.

“We had to — we didn’t have any receivers,” Erickson said. “We decided in that third quarter that we were going to go [to a] two-tight end package. I thought we ran the ball extremely well with it and actually moved the football real good with that.”

McGaha’s milestones

With four catches for 76 yards on Saturday, senior wide receiver Chris McGaha became just the sixth player in ASU history to amass more than 150 career catches.

McGaha is the first Sun Devil to catch more than 150 balls in a career since Derek Hagan passed that mark in 2004.

McGaha reached the 150-catch milestone on the first play of ASU’s go-ahead drive in the fourth quarter, which also put him over 2,000 receiving yards for his career.

Reach the reporter at nick.ruland@asu.edu.