Early hole not too deep as Terps storm back to topple Poggi, 49ers

COLLEGE PARK — The Maryland football team took the proverbial punch to the mouth — but refused to go down.

After digging themselves into a 14-0 hole less than four minutes into the first quarter, the Terps scored 38 unanswered points to defeat Charlotte, 38-20, on Saturday night before an announced 32,804 at SECU Stadium.

Maryland, which defeated the 49ers, 56-21, on Sept. 10, 2022, improved to 2-0 for the eighth time in the past nine years. The team will seek its second 3-0 start in a row Friday at 7 p.m. when it hosts Virginia (0-2), which was stunned by James Madison, 36-35, earlier in the day.

Unlike their season-opening 38-6 thumping of Towson on Sept. 2 when they sprinted to a 21-0 advantage, the Terps were forced to be more methodical against Charlotte.

Redshirt sophomore kicker Jack Howes scored the team’s first nine points on three field goals, and a pair of backups, quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. and running back Colby McDonald, scored rushing touchdowns to help Maryland overtake the 49ers. Then redshirt senior quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa and redshirt sophomore running back Roman Hemby put the game away.

“As bad as things played out for us, we still found a way to win, we still found a way to not lose it,” Maryland coach Mike Locksley said. “And I’ve seen this team kind of lose it in the past where we start off slow and things start to snowball, but these guys stuck together and fought through.”

Hemby, an Edgewood resident and John Carroll graduate, carried the ball 19 times for 162 yards, earning the fifth 100-yard game of his career. He was 17 yards shy of his career high set on 24 attempts in a 31-24 victory against Northwestern on Oct. 22.

“I feel like we were able to wear the defense out a little bit towards the end of the game,” said Hemby, who gained 153 yards in the second half. “I’m behind a great offensive line. So I was just able to make some plays I needed to make.”

Tagovailoa completed 25 of 36 passes for 287 yards and one touchdown and was intercepted twice. Junior wide receiver Kaden Prather caught four passes for 80 yards and one score.

The Terps also got a significant lift from a defense that surrendered its first touchdown in four games (first since the fourth quarter of a 43-30 loss to Ohio State on Nov. 19), but recorded three sacks, one interception and one fumble recovery and held Charlotte scoreless for 55 minutes, 28 seconds. Sophomore outside linebacker Jaishawn Barham, a St. Frances graduate, led the way with four tackles and two sacks.

After averaging 15 yards on their first five plays, the 49ers averaged 4.9 on their last 49. Maryland junior defensive end Donnell Brown, who intercepted senior quarterback Jalon Jones (St. Frances) in the fourth quarter, said the defense made a concerted effort to contain Jones, who rushed 16 times for 67 yards.

“I feel like [the] quarterback run was really key for them,” he said. “So after they got a few runs and did what they needed to do, we kind of made some adjustments, and we figured some stuff out to stop them from getting the outside runs or the QB draw. There was a lot going on, but we figured it out.”

The setback dropped Charlotte to 1-1 for the fifth time in the past six years. It also spoiled what had been a highly anticipated homecoming for coach Biff Poggi, the Baltimore native and 1979 Gilman graduate who coached high school football at his alma mater and St. Frances.

Eager to get an upset win against the Terps that would have made Poggi’s trip back even more memorable, the 49ers got off to a promising start by scoring two touchdowns before the game was even four minutes old.

Charlotte opened with four consecutive runs before redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jarius Mack took advantage of a busted coverage to get wide-open for a 48-yard touchdown pass fromJones just three minutes into the game. Mack had no one around him because Maryland senior cornerback Ja’Quan Sheppard slid off Mack and chased a receiver on an out route.

On the ensuing kickoff, Terps sophomore Octavian Smith Jr. bobbled the return at the 5-yard line, but Hemby recovered the loose ball at the 13. Then on first-and-10, Tagovailoa did not see Demetrius Knight II sliding to Hemby on a wheel route to the left, and Knight returned the interception 16 yards to give the 49ers a 14-0 advantage with 11:50 remaining.

“It was a poor decision on our quarterback’s part to throw it there,” Locksley said. “The ball should have went inside.”

Maryland remained in neutral, compiling minus-2 yards on its first eight plays before Tagovailoa hit graduate student wide receiver Jeshaun Jones on a slant for

a 17-yard gain on the final snap of the first quarter.

That play seemed to spark the offense, which moved another 53 yards to Charlotte’s 16. But Tagovailoa overthrew Jones twice in the end zone, and the team was forced to settle for a 32-yard field goal from Howes with 11:09 left in the second period.

The Terps made another deep incursion into 49ers territory and used a 37-yard screen pass from Tagovailoa to Hemby to earn first-and-goal at the 7. But after running for 2 yards on first down, redshirt sophomore running back Antwain Littleton II was flagged for unnecessary roughness after shoving graduate student defensive end Eyabi Okie-Anoma (St. Frances) in the face mask. That infraction forced the offense back to the 20, and the team settled for another field goal by Howes, this time from 38 yards with 3:25 remaining.

Littleton did not receive another carry, allowing McDonald, a junior, to rush for 73 yards on eight attempts.

“All I know is that we have a standard. I’m tired of dumb penalties, I’m tired of us doing stuff after the whistle,” Locksley said. “The only way you fix stuff like that is what happened today. Put [Littleton] on the bench, Colby gets the opportunity, he takes advantage of the opportunity. To me, that’s how we’re going to play. If guys don’t play to our standard, you’re going to be on the bench.”

Howes kicked his third field goal as time expired in the half, nailing it from 45 yards. Maryland thought it had scored a touchdown when Prather caught a 32-yard pass from Tagovailoa in the end zone, but Prather was called for pass interference after brushing aside junior cornerback Dontez Fagan to get to the ball, and the score was waived off.

The Terps took their first lead of the game on the opening drive of the third quarter. Hemby’s 40-yard run off left tackle kickstarted a nine-play, 75-yard march capped by a 1-yard sneak into the end zone by Edwards, a redshirt sophomore. A successful 2-point conversion on a pass from Tagovailoa to junior wide receiver Tai Felton gave Maryland a 17-14 lead with 9:18 remaining.

The Terps’ next possession ended successfully when McDonald scampered 23 yards off the left tackle to inflate their cushion to 24-13 with 11:55 left in the fourth quarter.

A 40-yard run by Jones moved the 49ers to the Terps’ 25, but junior defensive end Donnell Brown stepped in front of a pass and returned the interception 19 yards to the 45.

Three plays later, Tagovailoa hit Prather (four catches for 80 yards) on a 40-yard deep post in the end zone for a 31-14 advantage with 8:06 remaining. Then Hemby capped Maryland’s scoring with a 15-yard touchdown run with 4:35 left.

Locksley said he was proud of how his team fought back despite the ugly start — a departure from recent seasons.

“When things were going downhill early, I saw leadership on the sidelines. I didn’t see panic,” he said. “I don’t think I saw anyone looking at the scoreboard with the ‘Oh, here we go again’ look that I’ve seen around here the last three to four years, and to me it’s a testament to the locker room and the type of culture we have.”

The 49ers ended a 55:28 scoring drought when senior running back Joachim Bangda, a St. Frances graduate and Towson transfer, punched in a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:22 to go in regulation.

Charlotte’s roster featured plenty of links to Baltimore and the state of Maryland. Besides Poggi’s roots, 28 players graduated from St. Frances, six players transferred from the Terps, and offensive coordinator-quarterbacks coach Mike Miller was Maryland’s co-offensive coordinator last fall.

“They came in with a little chip on their shoulder,” Locksley said of the 49ers. “When you have guys that used to be here, this was a big game for those guys coming back home. Got to give credit to Biff and his staff for starting fast the way they did.”

Although Saturday marked the 49ers’ debut on NBC, which broadcast the game as part of the network’s “Big Ten Saturday Night” package, they are no stranger to the TV screen. Two days before the game, ESPN+ aired the first of a 12-episode documentary series called “Mining for Greatness” that focuses on Poggi and Charlotte’s inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference.

And Poggi, who wore his customary white shirt with cut-off sleeves, is accustomed to the bright lights. In 2020, HBO produced a four-part, two-hour documentary called “The Cost of Winning” that centered on Poggi’s revival of the football program at St. Frances.