COLLEGE PARK, Md. — After a rough first college start in the season-opener last week, Maryland (1-1) sophomore quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa rebounded in a big way Oct. 30 with five total touchdowns to lead the Terps to a 45-44 overtime victory against the Minnesota (0-2) Golden Gophers.

Homecoming weekend in College Park will be a sweet one this year thanks to Tagovailoa’s heroics, which started with two passing and one rushing touchdown collectively on Maryland’s first three drives and ended with a second rushing touchdown that gave the Terps a decisive lead in overtime.

The Alabama transfer who threw for under 100 yards and three interceptions against Northwestern last week finished Friday night’s matchup against Minnesota with 394 passing yards, three touchdowns, and just one interception. Tagovailoa also added 59 rushing yards and two scores on the ground to his totals.

“[Tagovailoa] bounced back from last week’s game and showed why we picked him to be our starter by playing at a really high level,” Terps head coach Mike Locksley said. “It’s great for him to be able to bounce back and do that here at home in The Shell and play at a really high level when we needed him to do it most.”

After jumping out to an early 21-7 lead over Minnesota, Maryland allowed 31 unanswered points and appeared on its way to another loss. But Terps rallied in the fourth quarter, scoring 17 unanswered of their own to send the game into overtime.

Maryland won the toss after regulation and elected to take the ball first. The Terps scored in four plays after Tagovailoa ran it in from 2 yards out. Minnesota also scored a touchdown on four plays on the ensuing drive after Seth Green crossed the plane, however, Golden Gopher kicker Brock Walker missed the extra point to help Maryland secure the one-point win.

“It was crazy,” Terps leading rusher Jake Funk said. “Our team has put in a lot of time and a lot of effort, and to win like that, in that kind of fashion, in overtime, on a Friday night, it’s exactly what our team needed.”

Like Tagovailoa, Funk played a large role in Maryland’s first win of the season. The senior rushed for a career-high 221 yards on 21 carries and scored the game-tying touchdown with under four minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Funk also finished the game with three receptions for 22 yards and a touchdown.

“I’ve always been a big Jake Funk fan,” Locksley said. “Here’s a guy who’s the all-time leading rusher in the state of Maryland, a local guy, right here from the crib. He’s healthy. His leadership. He brings it everyday in practice. And it’s great to have a guy like him here with a young team. He’s one of the few older guys we have in our program and he’s doing a great job with leadership. It’s great to see the contribution he made in the running game.

“He’s a three-down back for us. He’s a guy you want in the game on third down from a protection standpoint. He’s a guy that catches the ball well out of the backfield. And then obviously in the running game we watched him make some plays in the open field and get some yards when we needed them most…He’s smart, tough, and reliable and it’s great to see him make the type of contribution that he made today.”

Maryland’s 17-point fourth-quarter comeback was also aided by junior kicker Joe Petrino, who drilled a career-high 51-yard field goal in the fourth quarter as the Terps were charging.

“That’s what [Petrino] does,” Tagovailoa said. “Coach says we have the best kicker in the nation and we trust in him...That was a big time kick.”

Tagovailoa also had some kind words after the game for his receiving corps, which racked up 23 catches for 372 yards and two scores on Friday night. Led by junior Dontay Demus’ seven-reception, 101-yard, and one-score performance, Maryland’s pass-catchers carved up Minnesota’s secondary all night with the help of Tagovailoa’s accurate arm and ability to extend plays with his feet.

Redshirt sophomore Jeshaun Jones led the Terps with 103 receiving yards on three receptions. Most of his damage occurred on a 76-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter. Freshman wideout Rakim Jarrett hauled in six of his seven targets for 68 yards.

“Our receiving corps works really hard,” Tagovailoa said. “They’re a tight bunch and they did their thing. Like coach Locksley says, ‘We have the players. We have the tools.’ I just have to get them the ball and they’ll do the rest.”

The box score next to Minnesota running back Mohamed Ibrahim’s name read 21 carries for 130 yards and four touchdowns. That was at halftime.

Ibrahim, a Baltimore native, finished with 41 carries for 207 yards, but he did not find the end zone in the second half as Maryland’s defense stiffened up. Minnesota wide receiver Chris Autman-Bell had four receptions for 112 yards and a touchdown, but besides that the Terps mostly kept the Golden Gophers’ sparse passing game in check.

The first half wasn’t pretty at all for the Maryland defense. But the Terps allowed just 10 points in the second half and got stops when it mattered most.

“We knew this was going to be a fist fight for us,” Locksley said. “Minnesota doesn’t try to hide what they do. They want to run the football and they were able to do that earlier in the game and it was frustrating for us because I thought on the offensive side of the football we were playing really well and if we could get the ball back we’d be able to move the ball because of the way we were playing. But our defense kept banging away, kept fighting, kept playing hard. They rotated a bunch of guys in there and they got stops when we needed them most there late in the game.”

Junior linebacker Chance Campbell also continued to be a bright spot on the defensive side of the ball, leading the team in tackles for the second straight week after compiling 13 on Friday night.

“Last week [Campbell] was one of the few bright spots we had on defense and then this week he followed it up,” Locksley said. “He made plays especially when we needed him most late in the game.”

It was a much-improved performance for Maryland, which finished with 675 total yards and won as a nearly three-touchdown underdog. With Penn State awaiting next week, the Terps will be feeling confident and hope to build on the momentum.

“I think we showed a lot of grit, a lot of fight, and a lot of perseverance to come off of a loss like that and for our team to just continue to fight,” Tagovailoa said. “We knew Minnesota is a very good team and we knew it was going to be a fist fight...I think it just shows the type of team we have and hopefully we can build on this.”