COLLEGE PARK, MD — Maryland scored early and often and cruised to a 62-0 victory over Howard to move to 2-0 on the season. Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa was 22-of-27 for 274 yards with three scoring passes. Dontay Demus Jr. had six catches for 128 yards and scored a touchdown for the sixth game in a row. Eight different players scored a touchdown, including three who scored the first of their careers. 

The Terps' defense limited Howard (0-2) to just nine first downs and 145 total yards in the win. Howard was 0-for-13 on third-down conversions. It was the Terps' first shutout since the 79-0 blanking of Howard in 2019. The Terps have only allowed three points in the last 101:30 of game action dating back to last week's win over West Virginia. 

The offense racked up 574 yards, with 347 through the air and 227 on the ground. 

A quick three-and-out by the defense and a surgical drive from Tagovailoa quickly gave the Terps a 7-0 lead on a 14-yard strike to Demus. A rushing touchdown from Tayon Fleet-Davis on the next drive gave the Terps a 14-0 lead that they took into the second quarter. 

Just 39 seconds into the second quarter Tagovailoa found Chigoziem Okonkwo in the back of the end zone for another score to make it 21-0. Maryland's defense continued to suffocate the Bison offense, only allowing them across the 50-yard line once in the first half. Freshman Colby McDonald and sophomore Peny Boone both collected their first career touchdowns in the second quarter, ballooning Maryland's lead to 35-0. Jakorian Bennett's interception with 37 seconds left set Joseph Petrino up for a 38-yard field goal. 

Leading 38-0 heading into the second half, Terps picked up right where they left off as Tagovailoa found Rakim Jarrett on a slant for a 36-yard touchdown. It was after that when graduate quarterback Reece Udinski took over and was a perfect 3-for-3 with a touchdown pass to Carlos Carriere. 

A Harrison Beattie field goal and a healthy dose of the running game by players like Challen Faamatau and Antwain Littleton II allowed the Terps to bleed the clock and come away with the win.

Receivers and Rushers Galore

• 10 different Terps caught a pass in the victory led by Demus Jr., who had six catches for 128 yards and a touchdown.
• Seven different Terps had a rush in the victory led by Tayon Fleet-Davis, who had 66 rushing yards on eight carries. 

Tossing Taulia

• Taulia Tagovailoa has thrown for 606 yards in the first two games of the season, the most passing yards in the first two games of a season since Danny O'Brien threw for 636 in the first two games of the 2011 season. 
• Tagovailoa is 48-of-63 for a 76 percent completion percentage with six touchdowns and no interceptions. 
• With six touchdown passes, Tagovailoa has the most touchdown passes in the first two games of a season since Scott Milanovich had seven TD throws in the first two games of 1993 (vs. Virginia and North Carolina). 

Demus Jr. Notables

• Dontay Demus Jr., had his sixth 100-yard receiving game and second in a row as he had 133 last week vs. West Virginia with 128. 
• Demus Jr., is the first Terp with back-to-back 100-yard games since Stefon Diggs had 179 vs. Old Dominion and 110 vs. UConn in 2013. 
• With 261 receiving yards in the first two games of the season, Demus has the most in the first two games for a Terp since Diggs had 277 in the first two games of the 2013 season vs. Florida International and Old Dominion. 
• Demus Jr., moved to 13th on the career receiving yardage list as he had 128 against Howard to give him 1,529 in his career. Demus passed Russell Davis (1,408), James Milling (1,446).
• Demus Jr., has caught a touchdown in six straight games dating back to the Minnesota (10/30/20) game last season, the longest streak by any Mayland pass catcher since at least 1985 and the longest current streak by any Big Ten player. 
• The senior is now eighth all-time in career touchdowns at Maryland with 12, tying Gary Collins (1959-61).
• Demus Jr. has also caught a pass in 24 straight games, dating back to October 27, 2018, tied for the 14th-longest streak in the country and fourth-longest in the Big Ten - entering the day. 

Fleet-Davis Back In The End Zone

• Tayon Fleet-Davis scored his first touchdown in 672 days when he scored on a 17-yard rushing touchdown in the first quarter. His last score came on Nov. 9, 2019 against Ohio State. 

Getting Chiggy With It

• Tight end Chigoziem Okonkwo scored a receiving touchdown for the second consecutive week with a 2-yard catch in the second quarter. He's the first Maryland tight end with touchdowns in back-to-back games since Tyler Mabry scored in the first three games of the 2019 season against Howard, Syracuse and Temple. 

Petrino on The Charts

• Kicker Joseph Petrino moved to a tied for 11th in career scoring with 162. He tied Louis Carter (162) and passed Jermaine Lewis (158), Dan DeArmas (158), Charlie Wysocki (158) on the charts. 
• With a 38-yard field goal field goal, he is tied for to 13th, as he now has 22 career field goals, tying Ed Locnar (22). 

Firsts

• Freshman rushing back Colby McDonald scored his first career touchdown on an 11-yard rush, his first career carry, in the second quarter to put the Terps up 28-0. 
• Sophomore Peny Boone had his first career touchdown on a 4-yard rush with 4:57 left in the first half. 
• Freshman Roman Hemby had his first career score with a 1-yard rush in the fourth quarter.
• Graduate quarterback Reece Udinski made his Terps debut with 9:28 left in the third quarter and threw his first Terps touchdown to Carlos Carriere (his second career TD) midway through the third quarter. Udinski threw 70 touchdowns at VMI. 
• Hembry had his first carries in the third quarter.
• R-Freshman Harrison Beattie kicked his first career field goal, a 34-yard field goal to open the fourth quarter.  
• Freshman Antwain Littleton II had his first career carries in the fourth quarter. 

Back-To-Back Bennett

• Jakorian Bennett had an interception for the second game in a row with a pick late in the first half. He's the first Terp since Tre Watson to have interceptions in consecutive games. Watson had picks vs. Rutgers (10/13/18) and Iowa (10/20/18). 

The Howard Series

• The Terps now lead the all-time series with Howard, 3-0, winning the three contests by a combined total of 193-13 That includes a 79-0 win in 2019 and a 52-13 victory in 2016. 
• Maryland had a first-half scoring margin against Howard of 129-0, leading 35-0 in 2016, 38-0 in 2021 and a school-record margin 56-0 in 2019.

From The Coach:

"I thought our team for four quarters regardless of who was in the game maintained the intensity that we wanted to have. We talked about it going into the game but the standard was set. No matter who was in there we were looking for execution. For the most part we got that out of them today. I want to shout out our student section. To come out of The Shell and see that student section just packed was great for our team. They really feel the effect of them. We just have to strive to keep them here for four quarters. We just want to continue to strive to play to our standard. It was great to see them keep up the standard of showing up. It's great to play a lot of these young guys and see them go out and compete. They pay a price Monday through Friday and so any time you can get young guys in and let them go out and play it's always great to see. We had eight different guys score touchdowns and I think we learned a little more about ourselves as we went into game two showing that we're capable of playing at a high level for four quarters where we don't let the external factors whether it's the opponent or the scoreboard or whatever it is come into effect of how we play. To me, that's what we've set as the standard and we'll continue to play that kind of football."

Up Next

• Maryland will hit the road for the first time this season as they'll take on Illinois (1-2, 1-0 Big Ten) on Friday, September 17 at 9 p.m., in a game that will air nationally on FS1 and can be heard on the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
• The game marks a homecoming for both head coach Michael Locksley and special teams coordinator Ron Zook where Locksley was the offensive coordinator from 2005-08 and Zook was the head coach from 2005-11.