Taulia Tagovailoa passed for 419 yards and threw two touchdowns to Carlos Carriere as Maryland fended off Indiana, 38-35, to end a three-game losing streak Saturday in Big Ten action in College Park, Md.
It was the first 400-yard passing performance by a Terrapins quarterback since 2010. Challen Faamatau scored two 1-yard touchdowns and Tayon Fleet-Davis added his own 1-yard score for Maryland (5-3, 2-3 Big Ten).
Indiana true freshman Donaven McCulley led a late comeback attempt and finished with 242 yards and two touchdowns. He made his first collegiate start with quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Jack Tuttle still recovering from injuries.
Trailing by 10 with 1:20 to go, McCulley connected with Ty Fryfogle for a vital 52-yard gain and tossed an 8-yard touchdown to Peyton Hendershot to cut the deficit to three, but the Hoosiers could not recover the ensuing onside kick.
Stephen Carr ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns for Indiana (2-6, 0-5), which dropped its fourth in a row.
Maryland cashed in on its first two possessions when Fleet-Davis and Faamatau each pushed their way into the end zone.
Early in the second quarter, Hendershot was left wide open and took a 31-yard reception to the 1, where Carr punched it in on the following play. The Hoosiers followed that up by forcing a three-and-out, and Miles Marshall blocked Maryland’s punt high to set his team up inside the red zone. But the Terps’ defense made a stand, resulting in a missed Indiana field goal.
Indiana cut it to 14-10 before halftime when Charles Campbell converted a career-long 55-yard field goal.
On the Hoosiers’ first drive of the second half, Carr found a lane and left the defense in the dust on a 66-yard touchdown run, giving Indiana 17 unanswered points.
That change in momentum didn’t stymie Tagovailoa, who responded by engineering three straight touchdown drives. Faamatau scored his second 1-yarder to move the Terrapins back in front, 21-17.
The next two went to Carriere. He made a move around a defensive back to score a 14-yard touchdown, and after a Hoosiers field goal, he beat the same defender down the left side for a 45-yard score to make it 35-20.
Carriere finished with eight catches for 134 yards.
McCulley found Hendershot in the back-left corner of the end zone for a touchdown with 9:28 to play. They connected again on a two-point play to cut the deficit to seven before the Terrapins extended it to 38-28 on a late field goal.
–Field Level Media
