UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Nicholas Singleton set Penn State’s freshman single-season rushing touchdown record with two more scores Saturday evening in the Nittany Lions’ 30-0 victory over Maryland at Beaver Stadium.
Tight end Brenton Strange got Penn State’s scoring underway, catching a 3-yard pass from Sean Clifford for the game’s first touchdown. On two different fourth-and-1 attempts, Singleton’s number was called upon and he did not flinch.
On each fourth down, Singleton scampered into the end zone, in the first quarter from 45 yards away and in the second frame from 27 yards out. Singleton’s pair of scoring runs gave Penn State a commanding 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
As a team, Penn State rushed for 190 yards in the first half, the team’s most of the season in the opening 30 minutes of play. The Nittany Lions’ previous season high in the first half was 121 rushing yards in a 17-7 win over Northwestern.
Before halftime, Jake Pinegar tacked on a pair of long-range field goals from 50 and 46 yards, which put Penn State up 27-0 at the break. At that point, the Nittany Lions had 296 yards of total offense, while the Terrapins had 27.
Penn State’s offense stalled in the red zone on its second drive of the third quarter, but Pinegar was able to tie a career high with his third made field goal of the game, which came on a 21-yard attempt. That would do it for the second-half scoring from either team.
Maryland quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, who threw for 282 yards against Penn State in 2020 and 371 yards in 2021, was limited to just 74 yards through the air this time around. In Maryland’s 23-10 loss to Wisconsin last week, Tagovailoa totaled just 77 passing yards.
The Nittany Lions’ run defense was also stellar, limiting the Terrapins to a collective 60 yards on the ground on 37 carries. With the win, Penn State earned its second victory in a row against the Terrapins and moved to 42-3-1 all-time versus Maryland.
First-half frenzy
For the second week in a row, Penn State’s pass rush had a field day in the first half. The Nittany Lions had six sacks in the first half of Penn State’s 45-14 win over Indiana last Saturday and produced five more against the Terrapins during the first and second quarters.
Coming into their game against the Hoosiers last weekend, the Nittany Lions had 17 sacks as a team in eight games. Due to Penn State’s last two contests, that number has since ballooned up to 30, since the Nittany Lions also had two more in the second half.
Aside from the Auburn game, during which Penn State’s defense had seven sacks, the Nittany Lions’ pass rush struggled to consistently get home for much of the 2022 campaign. That narrative has certainly changed for first-year defensive coordinator Manny Diaz’s group in recent weeks.
Up next
Penn State will travel to Piscataway, N.J., next Saturday for another Big Ten East matchup, facing Rutgers in the Nittany Lions’ final road game of the regular season. The Scarlet Knights will need to score a big upset if they want to preserve their chances of becoming bowl eligible.
Under head coach Greg Schiano, who is in his second stint with the program, Rutgers is 4-6 on the year. The Scarlet Knights lost, 27-21, at Michigan State on Saturday in a game Rutgers was always playing from behind.
Similar to its dominance of Maryland, Penn State holds a 30-2 advantage all-time against the Scarlet Knights, which includes an active 15-game win streak. Rutgers’ last victory in the series came back in 1988, when both schools operated independently of a conference.
