Maryland football passes first Big Ten test, defeats Illinois, 20-17.

Taulia Tagovailoa stood in the shotgun, took the snap, and fired a strike to Rakim Jarrett, setting up Joseph Petrino’s game-winning field goal.

Lining up from 32 yards away for the third time in the game, Petrino’s kick squeezed just inside the right upright and Maryland football shocked the Illini in front of a home crowd.

“[Joseph] Petrino is a guy that we [have] a lot of faith in,” Head Coach Mike Locksley said. “Pushed the second one that he missed a little bit to the right, made the correction. Our team had a lot of faith in Joe, I had a lot of faith in him. Offensively they put us in position to be able to kick the field goal and we executed.”

The Terps overcame a shaky start to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2016 and grab their first Big Ten win of the season as they defeated Illinois 20-17 Friday night.

Both teams started slow out of the gate, trading punts on each of their first two possessions. On Illinois’ third drive of the first quarter they finally got something going, driving deep into the Maryland red zone. They were helped out by a targeting penalty on Maryland defensive back Lavonte Gater, who launched himself at Illinois quarterback Brandon Peters on a pass attempt. 

Despite threatening to score the game’s first touchdown, the Illini’s offense stalled out and James McCourt attempted a 26-yard field goal. The attempt was blocked by Maryland’s Ami Finau and the game remained knotted up, 0-0.

Following the blocked kick, Maryland’s offense came to life. Tagovailoa found Rakim Jarrett for a 37-yard gain, and Tayon Fleet-Davis picked up 18 more on the ground, helping the Terps find their way into Illinois’ territory and setting Joseph Petrino up to break the tie. He connected from 32 yards out to give the Terps a 3-0 advantage.

With under four minutes to go in the second quarter, Maryland once again drove deep into Illini territory, and Joseph Petrino lined up again from 32 yards out to try to add three more to Maryland’s lead. His second 32-yard attempt of the night sailed wide right and Maryland came up empty.

A litany of penalties on Maryland helped Illinois on their next drive, but the Terps defense stood tall inside the ten and forced another field goal attempt for Illinois. McCourt made good on his first miss, converting from 25 yards out to knot things up again, 3-3.

Each side had the ball once more in the first half, but the sloppiness continued, and things headed to halftime back at square one.

After a sluggish first half, Maryland’s offense came out swinging on their first drive of the third quarter. Going up tempo out of the locker room, it took only five plays for the Terps’ to drive 75 yards and score their first touchdown of the night. Tayon Fleet-Davis finished things off from 2-yards away, giving the Terps a 10-3 lead.

“For us, the execution on offense was not necessarily in sync, we drove down a couple of times and kicked field goals,” Locksley said. “When you get in the red [zone], you [have] to score touchdowns.”

After a defensive stop, Maryland’s offense threatened to quickly add more points to their lead. On second-and-11 from the Illinois 12-yard line, Tagovailoa found Fleet-Davis out of the backfield. Fleet-Davis turned up field, but was flipped into the air and fumbled the ball. Kerby Joseph recovered and Illinois’ defense kept it a one score game.

With new life following the fumble recovery, Illinois marched all the way down the field and finally broke through, tying the game once again. The score came from Illinois true freshman running back Josh McCray, who broke a handful of tackles on his 38-yard touchdown run.

On their next drive, Maryland turned it over via fumble once again, but Nick Cross undid the offense’s error, picking off Brandon Peters and giving the Terps the ball right back.

Both teams would continue to trade possessions through the end of the third quarter.

Less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Illini running back Reggie Love III broke a long run but was stripped by Maryland defensive back Jordan Mosley. What should have been a turnover for Maryland wound up as a touchdown for the Illini, as Casey Washington scooped up the loose ball, and took it 38 yards for Illinois first lead of the night at 17-10.

It would take almost the rest of the game, but Maryland’s offense found the answer following a stop from the defense. Tagovailoa and company marched 86 yards in eight plays to once again tie the game, with just over two minutes remaining.

On Illinois’ ensuing possession, Peters was sacked twice and penalized for throwing a pass to an offensive lineman, forcing an Illinois punt on 4th-and-39. A short punt gave Maryland the ball at Illinois’ 46, with a chance to win the game.

“Every game is a four quarter game,” Tagovailoa said. “[Coach Locksley] always talks about, we don’t play to the scoreboard. We just continue to play one play at a time.”

On the first play of their last drive, Tagovailoa found Jarrett for a gain of 26, ultimately setting up Petrino to play the hero. Petrino drilled the 32-yard field goal and the Terps survived, moving to 3-0 for the first time since 2016. Tagovailoa finished the game 32-43 for 350 yards and one touchdown, as Maryland scored the final ten points to walk away victorious.

On a night where Maryland couldn’t stay out of its own way with turnovers, costly penalties and squandered opportunities, they still did enough to weather the storm and claim their first Big Ten win of 2021.

“I just try to stay as calm as I can through it, try to make it seem like it’s just a regular kick, same as every other kick,” Petrino said. “Being a kicker, you can miss one, but you just have to come back, and that’s the one thing that I’ve been trying to work on a lot, because you’re not always going to make them and you just have to respond.”