Brandon Ross leads Maryland past Richmond

It wasn’t pretty, but Maryland eventually got the job done.

Behind a 150-yard effort from Brandon Ross, the Terrapins beat Richmond 50-21 in their season opener.

As a team, Maryland rushed for 341 yards on 45 carries, which was good for 7.6 yards-per-carry. Freshman Ty Johnson rushed for 83 yards while Wes Brown had 74 yards on the ground.

Cornerback Will Likely made his presence known early on as he returned the opening kickoff 42 yards to the Maryland 46-yard line. On his first three returns, Likely had 79 all-purpose yards.

When it was all said and done, Likely finished with 296 return yards with both kickoffs and punts. He also ran one back for a touchdown in the second half.

Unfortunately for Maryland, quarterback Perry Hills struggled on the opening drive after the Terps got inside the Richmond 20-yard line. Kicker Brad Craddock connected on a 33-yard field goal to give Maryland a 3-0 lead.

After Hills threw an interception on Maryland’s second drive, the Terps got creative and Hills flip a shovel pass to wide receiver Levern Jacobs as he ran by Hills in the backfield. Jacobs took the shovel pass 23 yards for a touchdown, thanks to some great blocking downfield.

With 12:34 remaining in the second quarter, another Maryland drive stalled and Craddock hit a 31-yard field goal to make it a 13-7 game.

One of the biggest positives in the opening half was Maryland’s commitment to the running game. Wes Brown looked very strong carrying the football and totaled 50 yards on his first five rushing attempts.

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Richmond quarterback Kyle Lauletta get Richmond going in the second quarter as he found wideout Brian Brown deep to put the Spiders in the red zone. On the very next play, Lauletta ran the ball in himself from four yards out to give Richmond a 14-13 lead with 10:35 to go in the first half.

With 4:10 to go in the opening half, the Terps did make their way inside the Richmond 10-yard line, but a chop block penalty stalled the drive. Craddock stayed busy once again as he drilled a 30-yard field goal to put Maryland back on top 16-14.

After completing his first three plays of the drive, Hills connected with wideout Malcolm Culmer on a 37-yard touchdown in which Culmer made a defender miss and turned the ball upfield with purpose. With just 54 seconds left in the half, Maryland took a 22-14 lead and they would go on to take that into the break.

Ross really started off the second half with a bang. Ross rushed for 49 yards on Maryland’s first drive of the the second half and found the end zone on a 21-yard touchdown run. Ross’ phenomenal vision and decisiveness extended the Maryland lead to 29-14.

Ross looked like a completely different back that he has been in years past. He displayed great vision and simply seemed to not shy away from contact. While this was just against Richmond, it’s refreshing to see Ross run with such purpose.

It was also refreshing to see eight different wideouts catch passes for Maryland. Levern Jacobs, D.J. Moore, and Amba Etta-Tawo each had two catches.

Hills only ended up completing 12-of-21 passes for 138 yards, but did toss a pair of touchdowns. One was the sweep play by Jacobs for a touchdown in the first half.

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