No. 4 Penn State tripped out of the gates, then lapped visiting Maryland for a 38-7 victory Saturday in State College, Pa.
Win No. 11 on the season sends the one-loss Nittany Lions to Indianapolis for the Big Ten conference championship game to challenge No. 1 Oregon in Indianapolis next Saturday.
Penn State running back Nick Singleton scored two touchdowns and Tyler Warren, the Nittany Lions’ record-setting tight end, had another game for the books.
After trailing 7-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Nittany Lions (11-1, 8-1 Big Ten) found overdrive in the second quarter, scoring four touchdowns before halftime.
Quarterback Drew Allar’s desperate toss behind the line of scrimmage to his left found Warren, who hurdled one tackler, busted through another and kept driving for what registered as a 29-yard run to set up PSU’s third rushing touchdown in a span of barely six minutes to give the Nittany Lions a 24-7 lead with 6:53 left in the half.
Penn State wasn’t done, with Warren catching a 7-yard scoring pass from Allar to make it 31-7 with 1:46 left in the second quarter.
In all, the Nittany Lions scored the game’s final 44 points after spotting the Terrapins an early 7-0 lead.
Allar plowed for a 1-yard touchdown with 10:11 on the clock in the second quarter to make it 17-7, Beau Pribula jogged in from 6 yards out a few ticks under the seven-minute mark, then Penn State took the ball right back. Audavion Collins intercepted MJ Morris to set up Allar’s TD pass to Warren — the tight end’s 17th career touchdown reception (a school record for the position).
Moments after Happy Valley erupted in celebration of the Michigan upset at Ohio State, Maryland took the air out of the stadium.
Maryland forced a fumble on Penn State’s opening play and the Terrapins scored a touchdown on their first offensive snap — a 25-yard pass from Morris to Kaden Prather — to claim a 7-0 lead.
Warren set the Big Ten career record for receptions by a tight end with a catch in the first quarter, which was his 15th gain of 20-plus yards in 2024. The same 13-play drive ended with Penn State’s first touchdown of the game, Singleton’s 2-yard plunge off left guard two minutes into the second quarter. Singleton later broke through for an 18-yard score in the fourth quarter.
Pribula rounded out the scoring with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Tyseer Denmark on the game’s final play.
Morris was intercepted three times.
–Field Level Media
