WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- At 5-foot-9 and 191 pounds, Vinny Sutherland knows he needs speed to overcome a lack of size. He made that speed pay off on Saturday.

	Vinny Sutherland is tackled by Central Michigan's Tedaro France II after a 57-yard reception.

Sutherland set a school punt-return record to help No. 14 Purdue improve to 3-0 for the first time since 1969 as the Boilermakers overpowered Central Michigan 58-16.

Sutherland returned a punt 64 yards for one score en route to topping a 50-year school record for punt return yardage in a game. Sutherland finished with 142 on five returns. The record of 138 was set by Ken Gorgal on seven returns against Pittsburgh in 1948.

"I ran fast. Coach (Scott) Downing made some adjustments on the punt return team in practice this week," said Sutherland, who sprints for Purdue's track team and finished second in the 60-meter dash in this year's Big Ten meet. "I also read my blocks better today."

Sutherland, who became the first Purdue player since 1982 to return a punt for a touchdown, added a career-high 134 yards on seven receptions and contributed another 30 on three end-around runs.

"I thought I had a chance to make deep plays coming into the game," Sutherland said.

Purdue coach Joe Tiller said Sutherland's 306 yards didn't come as a surprise.

"It was a heck of an effort, a heck of a game by Vinny but from an athletic standpoint he had guys covering him who were not as athletic as him. That's a situation you want to make them pay," Tiller said. "To his credit, he was able to do that."

Travis Dorsch had field goals of 26, 20 and 47 yards for Purdue. His first started the scoring with 12:07 left in the opening period. Purdue built a 17-3 lead in the first quarter with the help of Sutherland's TD return and a 59-yard run by J.Crabtree.

Central Michigan (1-2) fell behind 41-3 in the second period before scoring twice in the final two minutes of the quarter.

Central Michigan, which lost its top two tailbacks to injury in its previous game, was outgained 353-142 in the first half. The Chippewas netted only 23 yards rushing in the half and most of its yardage came on a short pass from Pete Sheperd to Jammarl O'Neal, who got behind the only defender near him and raced 60 yards untouched for a touchdown.

Central Michigan finished with just 36 yards on 39 rushes and the Chippewas were outgained 580-245.

"Overall, a pretty good football game for our team," Tiller said. "We certainly wanted to play good defense, and our goal was to hold them to under 100 yards (rushing). We really felt that this was a football team, when we looked at the matchups, that we would be more athletic."

Purdue had three sacks among 19 tackles for losses.

"Purdue was outstanding. They had a superb running and passing game," Central Michigan coach Dick Flynn said. "They were able to control the line of scrimmage too much for us to get anything going."

Holding onto the ball was the biggest problem for Purdue, which lost three fumbles in the first half. Tedaro France recovered the third fumble and returned it 41 yards for a Central Michigan score 25 seconds after O'Neal's score.

"We drove the ball well, but the turnovers hurt. In a close game, those could prove costly," said Drew Brees, who continued his climb on Purdue's career passing lists.

Brees was 25-of-39 for 320 yards and two TDs before getting the rest of the day off with the Boilermakers leading 51-16 and 2:29 left in the third quarter.

Sutherland caught a 20-yard TD pass from Brees and Chris Daniels, who went into the game leading the Big Ten with 21 receptions in the opening two games, had a 4-yard TD reception on his ninth catch of the day.

The scoring passes moved Brees past Scott Campbell into second place with 46 touchdowns. Mark Herrmann leads with 71.

Brees, in his second year as a starter, became the seventh Purdue quarterback to pass for 5,000 yards. He moved into sixth place on Purdue's career list with 5,125.

Purdue moved 46 yards in five plays with its reserves on the field in the fourth period. Quarterback Mike Segard capped the drive with a 4-yard run.