COLLEGE PARK, Md. _ Penn State broke out of the blocks quickly Saturday against Maryland and closed its regular season with a commanding performance on both sides of the ball.
The Nittany Lions scored touchdowns on four of their first five possessions, including a pair of touchdown passes from Trace McSorley to tight end Mike Gesicki, and coasted to a 66-3 rout of Maryland in a Big Ten game at Maryland Stadium.
The Lions (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten, No. 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings), which posted back-to-back seasons of double-digit wins for the first time since 2008 and 2009, scored at least two touchdowns in every quarter. They got a pair of 1-yard TD runs by Saquon Barkley, both in the third quarter, as they piled up a 52-0 lead before the Terrapins (4-8, 2-7) kicked a field goal in the third.
McSorley, who became the first Penn State quarterback to throw for 3,000 yards in a season for the second time, completed 22 of 33 passes for 237 yards in less than three quarters of action. He also rushed for a touchdown, his 11th of the season on the ground, tying him with Michael Robinson for the most by a Nittany Lions quarterback.
Barkley, who also was lifted before the third quarter ended, rushed for 77 yards on 16 carries.
Backup quarterback Tommy Stevens ended up as the team's leading rusher with 113 yards on 12 carries and accounted for four touchdowns. He scored the Lions' first TD on a 21-yard run and added two more in the fourth quarter on runs of 3 and 6 yards. He also fired a 4-yard TD pass to tight end Tom Pancoast.
Penn State rolled up 299 yards of total offense in the first half and took a 31-0 lead at the break. The visitors finished with 534 yards to 303 for the Terps. The visitors held a 15-minute lead in time of possession and scored on all nine trips into the red zone _ eight touchdowns and Tyler Davis' 30-yard field goal.
The Lions reached into offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead's bag of tricks to score their first touchdown on the game's opening drive. With a first down at the Maryland 21, Stevens lined up next to McSorley in the backfield, took a handoff, faked a reverse to Barkley going the other way, and sped down the right sideline for the score.
A shanked punt by Maryland's Wade Lees put Penn State in business at the Terps 41 for its third possession, and it took only five plays to reach the end zone. McSorley threw four straight completions, including a 16-yard strike to DeAndre Thompkins that put the ball on the 5, and then bulled into the line for the touchdown.
The Terps gambled on a fourth-and-1 from their own 44 but linebacker Jason Cabinda stopped Jake Funk for no gain, giving the Lions possession. McSorley's 19-yard pass to Saeed Blacknall and two runs by Barkley moved the ball to the 2. On the second play of the second quarter, McSorley through a shovel pass to Gesicki, who went in for the score to make it 21-0.
Penn State capitalized on a fumble recovery by defensive tackle Robert Windsor at the Lions 48 to touch off another scoring drive. McSorley fired a dart that DaeSean Hamilton caught for a 32-yard gain, and McSorley and Gesicki hooked up for their second TD two plays later, with Gesicki making a diving catch in the end zone of a 9-yard pass.
Barkley's two third-quarter touchdowns came 2 minutes, 6 seconds apart. He capped a 73-yard, 10-play drive by leaping for the final yard on fourth-and-goal. Then after, Zech McPhearson recovered a fumble for Penn State on the ensuing kickoff, Barkley scored again from a yard out.
Stevens kept the scoring going with the help of a personal foul penalty against the Terps, and found Pancoast for the TD that boosted the advantage to 52-0. Henry Darmstadter got Maryland on the scoreboard with 1:01 left in the third, kicking a 42-yard field goal.
