Washington’s Late Rally Leads to 24-20 Win Over Maryland

Sports


Football Huddle vs Washington






24




Winner

Washington
WAS

4-1 , 1-1


20




Maryland
UMD

4-1 , 1-1

Winner


24


20





















Score By Quarters
Team
1st
2nd
3rd
4th 		F

WAS
Washington 		0 0 3 21 24

UMD
Maryland 		10 3 7 0 20


Game Recap: Football |




The Terps lost their first game of the season on Saturday.



COLLEGE PARK, MD —  The Washington Huskies (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) used a 21-point fourth quarter to erase a sizable deficit and hand Maryland (4-1, 1-1 Big Ten) its first loss of 2025 at SECU Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Terrapins used a great first half to build a lead, but a late surge from the Huskies resulted in a Washington comeback as the Terps were defeated for the first time in 2025.

Just as it has all season, the Maryland defense provided the early spark, intercepting Demond Williams Jr. on the Huskies’ opening drive. The Terps turned the turnover into three quick points to break the ice. 

On their next possession, Malik Washington and the Terrapin offense orchestrated a 16-play, 71-yard scoring drive on which they converted five 3rd downs and used over eight minutes. The Terps led 10-0 after the first frame and a dominating offensive drive. 

The Terps turned the Huskies over on downs early in the 2nd quarter, setting Maryland’s offense back up for another field goal drive after consuming eight more minutes. They forced another incompletion on a UW 4th-and-9 in the first half’s final minutes to preserve the 13-0 Maryland halftime lead. Through five games, the Terps have only allowed 10 points in the first half of their games, their lowest mark since at least 1996. 

Maryland opened the second half with another crushing drive, moving 75 yards in nine plays to set up a two-yard passing touchdown from Washington to AJ Szymanski. The Terps took a 20-0 lead early in the second half on Washington’s ninth passing touchdown of the season. 

A flurry of UW scoring drives erased the Terps’ lead and put Maryland behind for the first time all season with 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter. Maryland’s comeback efforts fell short in its first defeat of the season.

How it Happened:

1st Quarter:

  • Maryland won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, putting Washington on offense to start the game.

  • Jalen Husky picked off Williams Jr., setting up Maryland on the Huskies’ 14-yard line. 

  • Sean O’Haire drilled a 26-yard field goal to put Maryland ahead 3-0. 

  • Washington hit Jalil Farooq for a big 3rd-and-9 conversion to extend Maryland’s second drive.

  • Washington connected with Octavian Smith Jr. on 3rd-and-10 for 27 yards to bring the Terps down to the UW 4-yard line. 

  • Washington scored on a quarterback keeper to put Maryland ahead 10-0 in the waning seconds of the first quarter. 

  • The Terps converted five 3rd downs on their 8:09-minute scoring drive that took 16 plays and moved them 71 yards. 

2nd Quarter

  • The Huskies turned the ball over on downs after a 4th-and-6 incompletion in Maryland territory. 

  • A 4th-and-3 conversion to Dorian Fleming kept the Maryland drive alive. 

  • Another completion to Fleming on 3rd-and-6 set Maryland up on the UW 7-yard line. 

  • O’Haire hit a 29-yard field goal to extend Maryland’s lead to 13-0.

  • Zahir Mathis sacked Williams Jr. on 3rd-and-6 to force another UW punt.

  • The Huskies picked off Washington at midfield late in the second quarter. 

  • The Terps turned the Huskies over on downs again in the final minutes of the first half.  

  • O’Haire missed a 55-yard field goal attempt with 25 seconds remaining in the half.

  • Maryland defended a pair of hail mary attempts to take a 13-0 lead into the half. 

3rd Quarter:

  • Smith Jr. picked up a 29-yard 1st down on 3rd-and-6 to bring Maryland down to the UW 16-yard line. 

  • Szymanski scored his first touchdown of the season on UMD’s first drive of the second half. 

  • The Huskies got on the board with a 36-yard field goal after draining over seven minutes of clock late in the 3rd quarter.

  • Maryland’s first punt didn’t come until the closing minutes of the 3rd quarter. 

  • The Terps took a 20-3 lead into the final frame. 

4th Quarter:

  • The Huskies scored a passing touchdown with 14:23 left in the game to cut the Maryland lead to 20-10.

  • UW scored another touchdown, going 75 yards in four plays in just over a minute to get back within three. 

  • An eight-yard completion to Knotts moved the chains on 3rd-and-5 and kept a Terps drive alive. 

  • A UW rushing touchdown put the Huskies in front 24-20 with 3:21 remaining in the contest. 

  • Maryland turned the ball over on downs with under two minutes remaining, icing the UW win.

Malik Washington’s Numbers:

  • Washington threw for 219 yards and a score on 30 completions on Saturday, boosting his impressive freshman season.

  • His 1,257 career passing yards are the most by a Power Conference true freshman through five career games since 2019 and tied for the third-most since 2015.

  • His nine touchdown passes are tied for the second-most by a Power Conference true freshman through five career starts since 2019.

  • His 110 career completions are tied for the second-most by a Power Conference true freshman through five career starts since 2019.

Numbers to Know:

  • 0: The Terps held back-to-back conference opponents to scoreless first halves for the first time since 2003.

  • 4: Maryland was 4-4 on red zone opportunities on Saturday. 

  • 5: Mathis has recorded at least half a sack in each of Maryland’s five games this season.

  • 7: The Terps defense posted a scoreless first half against a conference foe for the seventh time since joining the Big Ten in 2014. 

  • 9: Maryland’s nine total interceptions on the season rank second nationally, just behind Louisiana Tech (11).

  • 10: Maryland has held its opponents to 10 total points in the first half in 2025, the third-lowest by a Big Ten team since 2012, the fourth-lowest mark in FBS and the Terps’ lowest total since at least 1996.

  • 11: Maryland’s defense has posted 11 scoreless quarters in 2025, one of the highest tallies in the country.

  • 16: Maryland had multiple 16-play drives in the same game for the first time since 2024 against Northwestern. 

  • 71: Maryland’s 71-yard scoring drive at the end of the first quarter was its longest of the season in both length and time. 

  • 100: The Terps held UW to 100 total yards of offense in the first half. 

  • 1000: With his 57-yard day on Saturday, Smith Jr. eclipsed career yards.

  • 46,185: SECU Stadium drew 46,185 fans on Saturday in its first sellout since 2023.

Michael Locksley‘s Takaways:

  • “What we learned today as a team is you’ve got to learn how to put people away, especially good teams like Washington when you have them here at home.”

  • “I’ve got to give our fans tremendous amounts of credit for creating an element for our players and making it a great environment for us.”

  • “We’re a young, talented, inexperienced team.”

  • “These are great lessons for us. I’m looking forward to getting this stuff fixed with our team. We’ll learn from this and I expect this team to respond the right way.”

  • “This is the first bit of adversity we’ll face together as a team, dealing with the loss, and I’m looking forward to seeing just how those guys respond.”

  • “We’ve got another great opportunity next Saturday here at the Shell against Nebraska and I promise you our guys will show up and be prepared and will be working to get back on the right track.”

Washington’s Lessons:

  • “We just take it, watch the tape back and get the mistakes corrected and move on to next week. That’s the only way to deal with it.”

  • “We’re looking inward. But it’s not to point blame on anybody. We’re just going to get closer as a team and come out better.”

  • “I think we just had some plays that we left on the field that we have to execute.”

Daniel Wingate’s Observations:

  • “I saw our guys stick to what the gameplan was in the first half. We were able to stop the run. We were able to limit the explosives with their offense and just play up the standard that we have set, but we have to continue to play to that standard the entire game.”

  • “We have great talent on this team and we have the guys to be able to win these games, so we just have to come back, watch the film and perform better than we did this week.”

Up Next:

  • Maryland stays home to face Nebraska in a conference clash on Oct. 11. The game will start at 3:30 PM and air on BTN.




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