In a defensive affair, Maryland football held a slim 16-12 lead with 2:34 left in the fourth quarter.
NC State took possession of the ball after a Maryland punt on the previous drive, as its offense looked for its first touchdown of the game.
Jakorian Bennett had other thoughts.
On the first play of the drive, Maryland’s senior defensive back intercepted Ben Finley on a jump ball near the Maryland sideline.
Bennett stood up and went to celebrate with his teammates, as he sealed the 16-12 win over NC State in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
“The execution wasn’t perfect, but we did enough to win and to me that’s what it’s ultimately about,” coach Mike Locksley said.
The Maryland offense took the field first, and redshirt freshman Billy Edwards started at quarterback over redshirt junior Taulia Tagovailoa. Edwards led a 10-play, 60-yard drive — energized by a 45-yard completion to redshirt senior wide receiver Jeshaun Jones — that reached as close as the NC State one-yard line, but a sack on fourth down ended the Terps’ scoring threat.
On NC State’s first drive of the day, redshirt senior linebacker Fa’Najae Gotay notched his first career interception off a deflection, setting up the Terps with golden field position inside the Wolfpack 30.
Tagovailoa started Maryland’s second drive, and remained the starter the rest of the way. On third down, Tagovailoa scrambled to his right before throwing a wobbler into the right corner of the end zone. Defensive back Cyrus Fagan caught Tagovailoa’s pass and got a foot down before going out of bounds, resulting in an interception.
The Wolfpack turned the interception into points with a 38-yard field goal, giving them the first lead of the game, 3-0. Maryland responded with a 42-yard field goal of its own, tying the score at three.
The score remained 3-3 at the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, NC State was faced with a fourth-and-one at the Maryland 32. The Wolfpack elected to go for it, but running back Jordan Houston was stuffed immediately on the handoff. The Terps took over as a result on the half’s third turnover on downs.
On the ensuing drive, a 26-yard completion to sophomore wide receiver Tai Felton brought the Terps into NC State territory — and gave Tagovailoa the program record for completions. Five plays later, Tagovailoa threw a beauty of a ball to freshman wide receiver Octavian Smith in the back left corner of the end zone. Smith strongly corralled the ball through contact and remained in bounds for the touchdown, giving the Terps their first lead of the game, 10-3.
“That was a great catch,” Jones said. “He’s played often this year and it’s good to see him get that opportunity in this moment.”
The touchdown pass put Tagovailoa atop the Terps’ all-time touchdowns list, as he continued to rewrite Maryland’s record book one play at a time.
In response, the Wolfpack moved down the field with ease, but three straight incompletions at the Maryland two resulted in fourth down. NC State elected to take the points, as Christopher Dunn nailed the 19-yard attempt to trim the deficit down to four, 10-6.
With 14 seconds left in the first half, Dunn connected for the third time in the half, this time from 38 yards out.
Maryland led 10-9 at halftime.
The Terps’ first drive out of the break took 11 plays and ended in three points when senior Chad Ryand easily cashed in from 33 yards out. The Terps’ lead extended back up to four, 13-9.
The rest of the third quarter was dominated by defense, as the other five drives in the quarter all ended in punts. The quarter saw a combined 106 yards of offense, five penalties, and an average of 3.31 yards per play.
Tagovailoa made a costly mistake four minutes into the fourth quarter, when he overthrew an open Felton up the right seam. The pass was snagged by defensive back Rakeim Ashford for an interception, giving the Wolfpack offense good field position as a result.
For just the second time this season, Tagovailoa was intercepted multiple times in a game.
NC State drove the ball into the red zone, but for the fourth time in the game, settled for a field goal of under 40 yards. The 26-yard make by Dunn continued his run as the Wolfpack’s lone scorer.
Ryland nailed his third field goal on a 45-yarder with 5:36 left in the fourth quarter. For the third time in the game, Maryland led by four, 16-12.
“All four phases … played really, really well,” Ryland said. “It was a good full circle game.”
With under five minutes left, the Wolfpack had the ball just across midfield, and punted on fourth-and-nine. NC State got the ball back with 2:34 remaining, but the Wolfpack were forced to burn all three of their timeouts on the previous Maryland drive.
It didn’t matter much, about the lack of timeouts, as Bennett picked off Finley on the opening play of NC State’s last drive.
Bennett’s victory-sealing interception awarded him the MVP of the game.
“Coach B-Dub [Williams] harped on communicating, being disciplined,” Bennett said.
In a season of ups and downs, the Terps capped off their 2022 campaign with a bowl game victory for the second season in a row — for the first time since the 2002-03 season. As the program shifts towards 2023, there appears to be more good days on the horizon for the Terps moving forward.
“The next step for us is to start competing for Big Ten championships,” Locksley said.
