Maryland football home cruises beat Howard 62-0 and remain perfect in 2021

With just over nine minutes left in the second quarter, Howards ’defense simply couldn’t find a way to curb Maryland football.

The Terps pinned Bison deep into their own heads, turning into a short point that second-year Defense Party Tarheeb Still returned 28 yards to Howards ’11-yard line, a field Maryland had known all evening.

A further strong return to the red zone caused Maryland to strike again against Howards ’leaking defense. Colby McDonald, who started freshman, was the beneficiary this time, and he took the first range of his collegiate career to the finish line to help Maryland take the fourth game.

The Terps led 28-0 after a busy touch with McDonalds, and the Freshmen were just an example of how Maryland dominated on the way to a 62-0 victory at Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium on Saturday night.

I thought you know that our team for four quarters, no matter who was in the game, maintained the intensity we wanted and we discussed going to the game, head coach Michael Locksley said.

Maryland has now won its two opening matches of the season, with the teams taking their first win against West Virginia with a six-point win last week.

Just before the start, Maryland held a quiet moment to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the deaths of the 9/11 attacks.

After giving up just three points against West Virginia in the second half on their way to the season opener, the Marylands defense forced Howard’s pound to take three in and out in just over a minute of play.

The Terps attack then began the first control of the game when red-shirt senior striker Tayon Fleet-Davis and senior wide receiver Dontay Demus Jr. combined two major plays to place Maryland in the Howard area. Junior quarterback Taulia Tagovailo didn’t waste time putting his team on the table shortly after and combining 14 yards in the middle of the field with Demus Jr. to lift Terps to the lead 7-0 early in the year.

Demus Jr., who burned mountaineers last Saturday with 133 yards and points, has now scored two goals a season and six consecutive games with a touchdown, the Longest player in the Big Ten’s current series.

Maryland stopped the Howards attack for the second consecutive run, which opened the door for the blades to build an early single-control lead. Six games and 37 yards later, Fleet-Davis turned the corner at a blistering speed away from the Tagovailoa handoff and broke into the finish area from 17 yards, giving Maryland a 14-0 lead with just under seven minutes left in the first quarter.

Howard finally got his attack stalled in the right direction during the fourth possession of the programs, but the remaining field goal, with two and a half minutes left in the quarter, kept Marylands closed for the time being. The defense surrendered just 50 yards to Bison during the quarter.

Terps immediately returned for the next run and a magnificent 42-yard jumping catch from Demus Jr. offered Maryland a second trip to the Howard area. Senior tight-headed Chigoziem Okonkwo took home a few games later two yards away after a nice hind leg throw from Tagovailo, pushing Maryland 21 in just under a minute into the second quarter.

However, the Marylands attack didn’t end in damage at halftime.

Still, his remarkable 28-yard pound returned deep into the Howards area, and McDonald ended the fast drive with an 11-yard busy touch from the next game.

The second touch was on the terrain horizon in the same frame, and this time it was secondary runner Peny Boone, who jumped into action after a five-game 45-yard drive. Boone took the handoff from Tagovailo and immediately drove to the thickness of Howards ’line of defense, but the sophomore plunged four yards of busy contact to bring the Marylands advantage to 35th.

I was actually really pleased with the running team, second-year defender Tarheeb Still said. A lot of young guys can show what they can do, so this was just a glimpse of what those guys can do.

The Maryland attack in the first half was reminiscent of a match with Howard in 2019, when Terps scored 56 points in a 79-0 victory over College Park in the first half. This time, the Locksley team scored 38 points in 30 minutes of play.

Maryland decided to keep their beginners on the field early in the second half, which directly caused more attack for the home team.

Second-year wide receiver Rakim Jarrett joined the attack for four minutes in the third quarter as Tagovailoa released a dart falling into Jarrett’s hands. 45-0 in favor of Maryland.

Backups came into the game soon after Jarretts touched, but it was more of the same offensive from Maryland.

Senior quarterback Reece Udinski threw the first touch of his Maryland career in the first inning, with about seven minutes left in the third quarter, giving Terps 52 points.

With Maryland scoring seven goals at night, Howard had only 91 offensive goals at the end of the third frame.

Field goal redshirt freshman Harrison Beatts ’leg in the first game of the fourth quarter scored 55-0.

Whenever good, when you get to play a lot of players, you know, to develop our team, as it’s still in the growth phase, it’s great to be able to play a lot of these young guys, Locksley said.

Then another freshman, running Roman Hemby, arrived in the Howards final to finish the win at the end of the fourth quarter.

We have some really great runs … they’re the best runners I’ve ever seen, second-year offensive line Mason Lunsford said of the teams ’international match. We’ve worked on it a lot in practice, it’s been one of our priorities when trying to get the running game together.

Three things to know

1. Chigoziem Okonkwo has been a positive factor in two games this season. Okonkwo got a two-yard goal attack early in the second quarter and now has two touchdowns in Marylands in two games to start the season. Experienced a tight end sitting last season for medical reasons, but he has returned a huge amount of crime. He now has four catches for 22 yards in 2021. Remember, in last game’s five games last season, Maryland’s tight heads only got one whole catch.

2. Maryland beginners will take care of the business against Howard during the first half. In the first half, the Marylands attack exploded against the rather weak Howard defense. Tagovailo was a pioneer, winning two in the first quarter 17-22 and throwing 179 yards and two touches. It was again a Demus Jr. show in College Park when he got 83 yards received and a touchdown in the first half.

Let’s just say they make us better, redshirt secondary line player Deshawn Holt said about the teams ’attack. Honestly, I think we had eight guys today, so great job. Our attack is amazing … they heal us every day.

The line of attack looked scary, and most importantly, the defense did its job to get the shocked hopes to sleep. In the first half, Howard had just 60 yards and 132 yards for the entire game.

3. Maryland improves 2-0 and has more chances to increase its winnings in the coming weeks. Terps ’two victories in 2021 have been won by two non-conference opponents in West Virginia and Howard. In the future, Maryland could make critical gains in the coming weeks. The match with Illinois is on deck, and Fighting Illini suffered a 42-12 defeat to Virginia just on Saturday. Then Kent State has another home game on schedule before the awesome Iowa Hawkeyes visit College Park. Realistically, Maryland could go 4-0 before facing its toughest opponent of the season, and it’s very important that the Terps take care of business over the next two weeks.

We need to leave this game behind pretty quickly and then start preparing for Illinois tomorrow night, Locksley said. Enthusiastic about the opportunity to get back there with this team and get a chance to play on the road for the first time and again, still trying to set or create an identity for us.