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Maryland escapes Ross-Ade with a 34-29 win over Purdue

The Terrapins trailed through most of the first half but pulled away with a wild third quarter that produced three touchdowns in under seven minutes, including a 75-yard burst from DeJuan Williams.

Maryland went into West Lafayette and left with a 34-29 win over Purdue on Saturday, moving to 3-6 on the year with a performance that was messy in stretches but good enough in the moments that mattered.

Purdue drew first blood. Jacobo Echeverria Lozano opened the scoring with a 47-yard field goal in the first quarter, and the Boilermakers kept adding to it in the second. Two more Echeverria Lozano field goals, from 26 and 24 yards, pushed Purdue to 9-0 before Maryland finally answered.

Malik Washington scored on a 15-yard run to get the Terrapins on the board with 6:34 left in the half. Purdue responded before the break with a 36-yard field goal, sending teams to the locker room with the Boilermakers up 12-7.

The third quarter was where this game turned. Maryland opened the second half with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Washington to Na'eem Abdul-Rahim Gladding, then Washington punched in a 1-yard run to make it 20-12. Purdue answered almost immediately when Xavier Townsend took a handoff 30 yards to the house. Then, eleven seconds later, DeJuan Williams ran 75 yards untouched to put Maryland back ahead 27-18. Three touchdowns in under seven minutes of game clock.

Echeverria Lozano hit his fifth field goal of the day, from 22 yards, early in the fourth quarter to trim the gap to 27-21. That's when Washington found Chris Durr Jr. on a slant that turned into an 87-yard touchdown. Durr finished with four catches for 127 yards and that one score. The two-point conversion failed, leaving Maryland up 33-21.

Purdue scored again on a 2-yard Fame Ijeboi run with 3:50 remaining to make it a one-score game, but Maryland held on.

Washington ran the offense efficiently. He completed 13 of 18 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns, adding the rushing score and taking one interception. Williams carried 14 times for 99 yards, with that 75-yard run doing the real damage. On the other side, Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne was busy, going 24 of 38 for 296 yards, but the Boilermakers never found a consistent answer in the run game, gaining just 51 yards on the ground.

Echeverria Lozano finished 5-for-5 on field goals, accounting for all of Purdue's scoring until the fourth quarter. That kind of output from a kicker usually wins games. Saturday it wasn't enough.