COLLEGE PARK, MD – Big plays on both sides of the ball helped Maryland take down West Virginia, 30-24, as the Terps won their home opener for the 16th consecutive time in front of a raucous crowd of 43,811. Taulia Tagovailoa threw for 332 yards with three touchdowns. Both Dontay Demus Jr. and Rakim Jarrett had six catches and more than 100 yards receiving and a touchdown apiece. Tayon Fleet-Davis ran for a career-high 123 yards. The defense showed out as well with four turnovers gained and four sacks. 

The Terps trailed 21-20 in the fourth quarter before Joseph Petrino put them ahead for good at 23-21 with a 26-yard field goal with 9:16 left in the game. A 60-yard dart and run from Tagovailoa to Jarrett gave the Terps a two-score lead at 30-21 with 6:25 left in the game. 

An explosive first quarter saw the Terps jump out to an early lead thanks to a 45-yard field goal from Petrino. The Mountaineers answered with a touchdown drive but the Terps remained poised. Tagovailoa connected with both Demus Jr. and Chigoziem Okonkwo to put Maryland up 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. The offense ended up with 192 yards of total offense in the first quarter alone. 

The Terps defense and special teams started making plays in the second quarter as Nick Cross hauled in his fourth career interception and Darryl Jones recovered a muffed punt. The Terps ended the half with a two-minute drill resulting in Petrino's second field goal of the game. 

Coming out of halftime down 21-20, the two teams battled with neither coming away with any points. As the Mountaineers were driving late in the third, freshman Branden Jennings forced a fumble late with Lawtez Rogers falling on it, igniting the Maryland sideline and raucous student section. Now with the ball, Tagovailoa and the rushing of Isaiah Jacobs led the Terps down the field for a 14-play drive that was punctuated by another Petrino field goal which gave the Terps the lead back, 23-21.

After Jakorian Bennett's interception in his own end zone, Tagovailoa and the offense had a chance to expand the lead and they didn't let the opportunity pass them. After a few runs by Fleet Davis, Tagovailoa launched a pass deep down the right sideline and found Jarrett in stride. Jarrett breezed into the end zone with his teammates following in tow to celebrate. With Maryland now up 30-21, West Virginia marched down the field but were stopped on the goal line and forced to kick a field goal to make the score 30-24. They would never see the ball again as Isaiah Jacobs and Tayon Fleet-Davis iced the game with multiple first downs and Tagovailoa taking the final kneel downs. 

From The Coach

• "Hard fought game. That was a hard fought game. We talked to our team on Thursday and Friday, I actually showed them a video of the Arturo Gatti vs Mickey Ward fight, that ninth round, to show them that that's exactly what I thought this game would end up being. Sure enough it ended up being one of those four quarter games right until the end. We give a lot of credit to West Virginia for the job they did and the way they competed. Really proud of our team. They faced adversity throughout the game. They got down, things happened and they gave up some big plays on special teams. The thing that really jumped out to me that was created by how we worked and things that were done in the offseason and our guys kind of bonded together and they kept fighting. To me, that's the important thing. The discipline issue with the penalties, we had some issues. We're going to keep coaching them through it. We gave up four points when we had a stop in the redzone on third down but we jumped offsides. Those are all correctable. Fortunately for us we corrected it with a win. I've got to give the kids credit. They hung in there and believed. They wanted it more and I'm really proud of the job they did today. We'll celebrate it for 24 hours, get back in here tomorrow as a coaching staff and on Monday we'll set our preparation and make some corrections and get ready for Howard."

300-Yard Dynamo

• Quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa had his second-career 300-yard passing game as he racked up 332 in the game. His previous 300-yard game was a career-high 394 yards against Minnesota (10/30/20).
• Tagovailoa was efficient, completing 26-36 with three touchdowns and no interceptions. 
• The completions tied his career-high with 26. He previously had 26 against Minnesota (10/30/20).
• The pass attempts also tied his mark of 36. He previously had 36 at Indiana (11/28/20) 

Demus Dominating

• Dontay Demus Jr. had a standout day as he continued his rapport with Taulia Tagovailoa. 
• Demus finished the game with six catches for a career-high 133 yards with the one touchdown.
• Demus surpassed his previous career-high of 114 which came on (11/28/20) against No. 12 Indiana. 
• The pair connected on a 66-yard pass after Demus leaked behind the West Virginia secondary for the first touchdown of the game. The longest catch of his career was an 80-yard touchdown vs. Rutgers (10/5/19).
• With his 133 receiving yards, Demus moved to 16th in career receiving yards at Maryland. He now has 1,401 as he surpassed Jafar Williams (1,301), Frank Russell (1,344), Vernon Davis (1,371). 
• Demus Jr's 66-yard touchdown catch and run marked the fifth straight game he has scored a touchdown in. It's the longest touchdown streak for a Maryland wide receiver since at least 1985.

Jarrett's 100-Yard Day 

• Rakim Jarrett had his second-career 100-yard receiving game with 122 on six catches. 
• Jarrett's first 100-yard game came at Penn State (11/7/20), when he had a career-high 144 yards. 
• Jarrett's 60-yard touchdown gave the Terps a two-score advantage in the fourth quarter. It was the second-longest reception in his career with the long being a 62-yard score at Penn State. 

300-100-100-100

• With Tagovailoa (332 passing yards), Demus (133 receiving yards) and Jarrett (122 receiving yards) and Tayon Fleet-Davis (123 rushing yards), the Terps had a 300-100-100-100 game. 
• The last time they accomplished that feat was against Minnesota (10/30/20) last season when Tagovailoa threw for 394 with Jeshaun Jones (103) and Demus (101) surpassing 100 receiving yards and Jake Funk ran for 221. 

Winning The Turnover Battle

• The Terps had a +4 (4-0) in the turnover battle with two fumble recoveries and two interceptions. 
• The last time the Terps had a +4 (4-0) was in a 30-24 win over UCF (9/17/16) when they had one interception and three fumble recoveries without turning the ball over.
• Nick Cross came away with an interception in the second after an overthrow by the Mountaineer quarterback. For Cross, it was his fourth career interception. 
• On special teams, Darryl Jones raced down the field and recovered a muffed punt inside West Virginia territory. 
• Lawtez Rogers recovered a fumble late in the third quarter on a third and short. 
• Jakorian Bennett's first-career interception came in the end zone with West Virginia midway through the fourth quarter.

Bringing The Pressure

• The Terps defense found themselves living in the backfield as they kept West Virginia's quarterback on his heels the entire game. Maryland had three sacks and five TFLs. 
• Sam Okuayinonu, Tarheeb Still and Deshawn Holt all registered a sack in the game.
• Ruben Hyppolite II had a TFL while Lawtez Rogers and Okuyanionu split a TFL. 
• Others like Durrell Nchami and Demeioun Robinson delivering intense pressure.
• For both Still and Holt it was the first career sack -- and they came on consecutive plays on back to back plays as Still blitzed off the right side and had a clear path to the quarterback. Holt then bull rushed the right tackle directly into the quarterback.

For Openers

• With the win, the Terps have now won 16 consecutive home openers dating back to 2005, when they beat William & Mary, 27-14 on 9/2/05. 
• During those 16 wins, Maryland has outscored it opponents 659-268 for an average of 41.2 points scored vs. 16.8 points allowed.
• The Terps have also won 10 consecutive non-conference season openers, second only to Michigan State, as the Spartans have won 11 in a row. 
• During those 10 wins, Maryland has outscored it opponents 415-165 for an average of 41.5 points scored vs. 16.5 points allowed.

Notes

• Joseph Petrino hit the 2nd longest field goal of his career with a 45-yard kick on the opening drive of the game. His longest is a 51-yarder that came last year against Minnesota.
• Chigoziem Okonkwo returned after missing all of last season and caught a touchdown pass in the first quarter.
• Tayon Fleet-Davis rushed for a career-high 123 on a career-high 18 carries with his career-long rush of 53 yards that sealed the game for the Terps.
• The crowd was 43,811 including more than 13,000 students. 

Up Next

• The Terps will stay home and welcome the Howard Bison to Maryland Stadium next Saturday at 7:30 p.m. That game will air on Big Ten Network and the Maryland Sports Radio Network. 
• Their last meeting in 2019 ended in a blowout as Maryland trounced Howard by a score of 79-0.