Penn State quarterback Drew Allar backed away from Maryland’s pass rush looking for any escape he could find. Allar found his favorite target — Tyler Warren — and the senior tight end took care of the rest.
Warren took the backward pass from his junior signal caller and ran it 29-yards down the field, hurdling one Terrapin defender and bouncing off the tackles of a couple others. Running back Nick Singleton and backup quarterback Beau Pribula finished the drive with a pair of rushes that scored the Nittany Lions’ third touchdown of the game and grew their lead to 17 midway through the second quarter.
No. 4 Penn State scored four of its six touchdowns in the second quarter beating Maryland, 44-7, Saturday evening. With the loss, Maryland finishes the season on a five game losing streak.
“Disappointing loss, disappointing end to a long, long season,” said head coach Michael Locksley. “As I’ve stated before the season didn’t meet the standards that we set out.”
The Nittany Lions dominated the Terps on both sides of the ball throughout the game, starting their domination after Maryland scored its only touchdown of the first half.
The Terps’ only score of the first half occurred in the first two plays of the game. Senior defensive lineman Tommy Akingbesote stripped Singleton on Penn State’s first play of the game, giving the ball to MJ Morris and the Maryland offense. Morris launched his first pass as Maryland’s starting quarterback to Kaden Prather in the endzone providing the Terps’ their only lead of the half.
“We got off to a quick start like we wanted to do, but was unable to carry the momentum,” said Locksley. “Our defense, I thought early on, gave us some opportunities that we just column’t take advantage of.”
Following the score, Penn State scored 31 straight points going into halftime with a 24-point advantage over Maryland.
All four of Penn State’s touchdowns in the second quarter were scored by different people starting with Singleton, then both Nittany Lion quarterbacks running the ball in for a score, and ending with Warren catching a seven yard pass from Allar.
Penn State finished the first half with 259 yards of total offense. The Nittany Lions collected 16 first downs and scored on five of their nine drives.
The Terps only gained 97 yards of total offense and failed to make it into the red zone. Morris completed nine of his 15 passing attempts, but threw two interceptions — one of them coming on the doorstep of Maryland’s first red zone trip.
Morris finished the game with a 58 percent completion percentage and 112 passing yards, ending his first career start in a Maryland uniform with a loss. Morris started because of a thumb injury to normal starter Billy Edwards Jr.
The Terps offense was stifled all night long accumulating a dismal 194 yards of total offense. Penn State forced three turnovers — all interceptions — and sacked Maryland quarterbacks six times.
Redshirt junior Roman Hemby led the Terps in rushing — with 64 yards — and senior receiver Tai Felton led the team in receiving — with 27 yards — in his final game as a Terp.
Maryland’s defense struggled against the creative Nittany Lion scheme allowing 412 yards of total offense. Penn State’s offense possessed the ball for most of the night forcing Maryland’s defense to be on the field for the majority of the game.
Singleton finished the game as Penn State’s leading rusher — with 87 yards — and Warren finished as the Nittany Lions’ leading receiver — 68 yards — finishing five-yards shy of setting a new conference single season receiving yards record for tight ends.
Maryland’s loss to Penn State means the Terps finish their disappointing season with a 1-8 conference record — its worst conference record since 2019.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” said Felton. “I feel like my past three years we’re definitely, like, elevating, going up and this season we kind of hit a dip. But, like I was telling the guys in the locker room, there’s a lot of lessons we can learn … just for the younger guys a lot of stuff they can learn from this season whether [that be] adversity, obstacles, they can go in and learn from it and get better for next year.”
Maryland will head into the offseason with question marks at key positions like the offensive line and secondary. The Terps will try to answer these questions and retool for the start of next season.
“I’m looking forward to diving into the season of getting some help in here, some needed help to build on the foundation we have and to kind of get this program back in the direction that we all want it to go,” Locksley said.
