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46 41

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By Tom Luicci
ScarletKnights.com

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - All Leonte Carroo kept thinking afterward is that he could have done a little more. One more catch. A few more yards. One more touchdown reception.

Just a little more production, even after the best receiving game of his career, might have made the difference, he kept saying to himself.

Despite Carroo's career-high 183 receiving yards - a fitting ending to one of the best careers by a wide receiver in school history -- Rutgers wasn't able to slow Maryland's offense enough in the second half in a 46-41 loss to the Terrapins today before a crowd of 44,846 at High Point Solutions Stadium.

Maryland, which finished 3-9 overall and 1-7 in Big Ten play, rallied from a 21-point first half deficit and still trailed by 11 with 43 seconds left in the third quarter.

"That's what hurts me the most (the feeling that he didn't do enough)," said Carroo, one of 16 seniors marking the final college game. "I'm a guy that looks to make plays for my team and I wasn't able to, ultimately in the second half, make enough plays. That's what hurts me the most. It was senior night. I knew I was going to play well. I just wish we would have won the game."

Rutgers (4-8 overall, 1-7 Big Ten) had two late chances to prevent Maryland from turning the tables from a year ago, when the Terps saw the Scarlet Knights overcome a 25-point deficit - the largest in school history - in a 41-38 comeback victory.

But after Kyle Federico gave Rutgers a 41-39 lead on a 30-yard field goal with 4:57 to play, Maryland had the lead back at 46-41 on its next offensive play, when running back Brandon Ross (173 yards and three touchdowns on 28 carries) exploded for an 80-yard touchdown run.

"We're disappointed. We didn't get it done," said head coach Kyle Flood. "At times during the game we played well. A 46-41 game, back and forth, (we) took the lead, lost the lead in the fourth quarter, took the lead back in the fourth quarter. (There were) a lot of tremendous efforts out there."

The real sting, though, came in the final two minutes with the Scarlet Knights driving and facing a third and one at the Maryland 38 yard line. Robert Martin's first rushing attempt to get a first down and keep the drive going was stopped cold.

On 4th and one, Martin was again stopped - this time one inch shy of the first down, according to the measurement.

"We all thought it was a first down," said fifth-year senior left tackle Keith Lumpkin. "Hats off to that Maryland defense. The second half they came out to play and did a great job of changing the game and their offense executed."

Despite rolling up 530 yards and scoring the most points (31) in the first half this season, Rutgers couldn't slow a Maryland running game the produced 401 of the Terps' 656 total yards of offense.

"We just didn't play a good half of football (in the second half)," said Carroo, who finished third on Rutgers' all-time receiving yardage list at 2,373, set a school record with 29 career touchdowns and notched his 12th career 100-yard game, all in just 31 games at wide receiver. "We didn't come out with the same momentum as we did in the first half. They had momentum and they took advantage of it.

Rutgers looked to be well in control at 31-10 in the first half, and even when Maryland chipped away at that lead to make it 31-13 at halftime.

But as was the case a year ago between the teams, this was a tale of two halves. Maryland outscored Rutgers 26-7 from the start of the third quarter to the opening 37 seconds of the fourth quarter, regaining control at 39-38.

"We've proven on the other side of this that there are really very few leads in college football that are safe," said Flood. "We've been on the other side of a couple of these games (twice rallying to win after trailing by 25 the past two seasons). When we came in at halftime, I told the offense `we need to continue to be aggressive.' I felt like we were going to need more points.

"When you get leads in college football, you've got to keep playing because we've proven that we can come back. We've done it twice in the last year in a game that we can come back from 25-point deficits, and I had no doubt that Maryland had enough firepower to do it."

Sophomore quarterback Chris Laviano finished his first season as a starter with one of his better performances, going 21 of 33 (with Carroo catching seven of those passes) for 344 yards. He threw four touchdown passes and suffered an interception.

"We knew we weren't safe, even with that big first-half lead," said Lumpkin. "If you go back a year ago we were in the same situation. You have to stay hungry and keep fighting. They did a better job of that in the second half than we did."