COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Three wins in a row? The first conference win in almost two years? The first conference road win in almost three years? A record above .500?
The stage was set for the football team (2-3, 0-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) to reach a three-year high Saturday evening at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. But the Maryland Terrapins (2-3, 1-1) stole the show, as they rode the leg of Brian Kopka and the hands of Jason Hatala to a 16-10 victory over Duke.
"We really feel that we should have won this game-I think that's obvious," said sophomore linebacker Ryan Stallmeyer, who finished with a game-high 12 tackles, including an eight-yard sack.
Hatala, a freshman wideout, caught a pair of long passes from Terrapin quarterback Brian Cummings, including a 76-yard touchdown on the game's first play from scrimmage, while Kopka connected on field goals of 36, 47 and 31 yards.
Although Hatala finished with three catches for 129 yards and set up Maryland's second field goal with a 48-yard grab in the third quarter, it was the opening bomb that did the most damage to Duke.
"That first play... shell shock," Stallmeyer said.
Whether the Duke defense just hadn't dug in yet or whether someone missed an assignment was unclear, but a streaking Hatala caught the ball wide open over the middle and broke free of a potential touchdown-saving tackle by senior cornerback Tawambi Settles and continued unabated to the end zone.
The scoring toss was the longest at Maryland in four years and was the longest pass of Cummings' career.
"After that play, I told them that we still have the whole ballgame to catch up," Duke coach Fred Goldsmith said. "It's a whole lot better than someone driving on you and wearing you out, I guess. I told them we could come back, and we did."
After battling back to reach a 10-10 tie and then falling back behind by six, the Blue Devils still had a chance to win in the fourth quarter. With just under six minutes remaining in the game, Duke took over at its own 29-yard line, trailing 16-10. The Blue Devils seized the momentum two plays later, as freshman quarterback Bobby Campbell, who replaced injured starter Spencer Romine seven plays into the game, hooked up with Richmond Flowers for a 22-yard gain over the middle on third-and-seven.
Things fell apart, however, two plays later, as Campbell scrambled for an eight-yard gain and lunged for the first down, only to have the ball knocked loose by Maryland defensive end Eric Ogbogu. Linebacker Erwyn Lyght recovered the loose ball for the Terrapins.
"What happened there was that we just tried to make too much happen and we ended up turning it over once again," Goldsmith said.
With two timeouts still remaining and 3:49 left on the clock, the Blue Devils still had hope, but Cummings, who finished 17-of-23 for 242 yards, scrambled and found an open Mike Hull on third-and-two to give the Terrapins the first down and seal the win.
"Brian Cummings is a heck of a competitor," Goldsmith said. "The third-down play right here at the end, we still had time to come back if we stopped them on that play, but he made a heck of a play. They've won an awful lot of football games at Maryland with Brian Cummings playing quarterback."
The fumble by Campbell was the conclusion of an erratic and unproductive day for the Duke offense. The Blue Devils managed just 248 yards of total offense, while Campbell finished 10-of-20 for 93 yards and an interception after replacing Romine, who suffered a pulled groin on Duke's first series. It was Campbell's first game back in action since he suffered a partial tear of his MCL against Northwestern three weeks ago.
"We thought the rust was off Bobby a little bit better than that," Goldsmith said. "He moved around pretty good despite the brace on his knee, but I thought some of his decisions were not as good as I've seen from him. When you haven't been playing, that's the price you pay."
Freshman halfback Duanne Epperson provided the Blue Devils with their best offensive production on the day. He finished with 66 yards on 11 carries and led the Blue Devils on both of their scoring drives.
In the closing seconds of the first half, the Duke offense drove 50 yards in seven plays, with Epperson gaining 27 yards on two carries and catching two passes for another nine yards. Sims Lenhardt capped the drive with a 44-yard field goal with three seconds left to cut the deficit to 10-3 heading into the half.
The Blue Devils started the second half with a bang, as they turned to Epperson six times in a 10-play drive that covered 76 yards and was capped by a one-yard scoring plunge by Dawud Rasheed. Epperson racked up 32 yards on six carries on the drive, while Campbell kept the drive alive by hooking up with Thomas for a 25-yard gain on third-and-seven from the Maryland 36.
After the Terrapins' next drive stalled at their 47 and they were forced to punt, Duke appeared poised to march down the field for another score. But senior Lay Marshall was turned back on a third-and-one play from the Duke 42.
"I thought they key play of the game for us was when Lay Marshall got stuffed on third-and-one," Goldsmith said. "Our defense had just forced them to punt and we had a nice drive for a touchdown the previous possession, and I really thought that if we got that first down, we'd be in pretty good shape."
With the momentum back in their favor, the Terrapins reclaimed the lead with 1:19 remaining in the third quarter, when Kopka connected on a 47-yard field goal, following Hatala's second long reception.
Kopka then extended the lead to 16-10 with 10:02 to go in the game with a 31-yard field goal.
Despite giving up 309 yards of total offense to a Maryland team that was averaging just 206 yards a game (111th out of 112 Division I-A teams), the Blue Devil defense did more than its share to keep Duke in the game.
Through the first three quarters, the Blue Devils held the Terrapins to just 12 yards on the ground on 20 carries.
"Our defensive front did a great job of stringing out their zone attack," Stallmeyer said. "I feel like we definitely won the line of scrimmage tonight."
The Duke defense also came through time after time with its back against the wall. On Maryland's second possession of the game, it was threatening at the Duke 34-yard line. But sophomore Darius Clark slammed the door shut, as he dropped Cummings for an eight-yard loss on third down. Clark leveled Cummings on a safety blitz, knocking Maryland back to the Duke 42-yard line and out of field goal range, and sending Cummings out of the game for the Terrapins' next offensive possession.
"Coach made a great call and I just went in and made the sack," said Clark, who racked up seven tackles for the game. "We needed something like that."
The Blue Devil defense responded again twice in the second quarter following Duke turnovers. After a fumble by sophomore Letavious Wilks at the Maryland 49, the defense yielded a pair of first downs but then pushed the Terrapins back, forcing them to punt. Late in the quarter, Campbell threw a quick out pass to Corey Thomas that was easily intercepted by Maryland's Paul Jackson at the Duke 13. The defense responded by knocking the Terrapins backward on three straight plays, forcing Maryland to settle for a field goal.
"I thought we did play well as a defensive unit, but when you don't come out with a win, you can't feel too good," Clark said.
In addition to the injury to Romine, whose status for next week has yet to be determined, Duke also lost freshman linebacker Nate Krill for the remainder of the season with torn ligaments in his foot.
The Blue Devils now must prepare for a home contest against No. 4 Florida State next Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium.
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